Le Creuset design specConsumer

A heritage kitchen catalogue that reads like a well-set cookbook, and the rare commerce site whose page ground is genuinely WARM — a paper #f4f2ef with white cards floating on top, the inverse of the usual white-page/grey-card arrangement. Headlines run in Lyon, an old-style serif, at a single weight 400 with tracking left NORMAL even at 48/56, so restraint comes from weight rather than tracking, while Suisse Int’l carries body at 16/24 and sets every button and eyebrow at 12px UPPERCASE opened to a wide +2px. The signature device is how colour is handled: every enamel colourway is drawn as a TWO-STOP VERTICAL GRADIENT on a 50% circle rather than a flat chip — Flame #ea4436 to #70151b, Marseille #1172ba to #053d68, Nectar #f97c00 to #d43414, Meringue #eae8e4 to #d8d0c2 — so each swatch reads as glaze depth rather than as a colour value, and these never escape the product to become page surfaces. Chromatic UI is limited to Flame red #d63e31 and orange #ed6e00. Structure is unusual too: the dominant hairline is an ALPHA black, rgba(0,0,0,.25) at over a thousand uses, with a 0.5px sub-pixel tier beneath it, and shadows stay soft and rare. Buttons are 48px at 8px radius, and the h1 is deliberately smaller than the h2 — the h1 is a strapline while the h2 carries the display role. Motion is a steady 0.3s ease-in-out over a directional slideIn and growDown entrance kit, backed by eighteen prefers-reduced-motion blocks, among the most thorough captured.

⚠ site only

Browse Le Creuset in the interactive gallery

Captured from the live site's computed styles into a prompt-ready DESIGN.md you can paste into Cursor, v0, Lovable, Bolt or Claude Code. Below is a summary of each captured surface.

Marketing site

Source: lecreuset.com.au/en_AU (live DOM, computed styles), 2026-07-27 (desktop 1512px). Salesforce Commerce Cloud. lecreuset.com geo-redirects to the regional store. Coverage: homepage. OneTrust consent chrome (#onetrust-*, cookieBannerSlideIn) excluded as third-party — note its buttons do inherit the real .btn recipe, which is why the 8px/48px/+2px values are trustworthy. No brand :root colour tokens (Commerce Cloud) — palette read from the colour census. Bootstrap defaults (progress-bar-stripes) and Font Awesome (fa-spin) excluded. Reality check: hint ("heritage colour-led, warm product photography") is accurate, and the "colour-led" resolves into a specific, unusual device — every enamel colourway is rendered as a two-stop vertical GRADIENT rather than a flat swatch, simulating the depth of a glazed surface. Two things it misses: the canvas is a genuinely WARM paper #f4f2ef (nothing on the page is pure white as a ground), and the display face is the Lyon SERIF at weight 400 with tracking left NORMAL even at 48px — restraint by weight, not by tracking.

Visual Theme & Atmosphere

A heritage kitchen catalogue that reads like a well-set cookbook: warm paper ground, a literary serif for every headline, and colour delivered almost entirely through the product itself. The chrome is quiet — black ink on #f4f2ef, an alpha-black hairline doing nearly all the structural work — while the enamel colourways supply the brand's signature saturation, each drawn as a vertical gradient from a lighter rim to a deeper base so the swatch reads as glaze rather than as a flat colour chip. Controls are soft-cornered (8px) and set in a small uppercase Swiss sans at a wide +2px track, which is the one modern note against the serif. Feels: warm, heritage, appetising, quietly premium.

Color Palette & Roles

Text & ink

TokenHexRole / usage
ink#000000Primary text + headings (3064×)
ink-soft#0f0f0fBody / UI text (1569×)
ink-slate#212529Bootstrap-inherited body text
ink-warm#4c4c4eSecondary text, overlay fills
muted#808080Tertiary text
ink-50rgba(0,0,0,.5)Muted overlay text (177×)
white#ffffffText on dark bands / imagery

Surfaces & borders

TokenHexRole / usage
canvas#f4f2efWarm paper page ground (64×)
card#ffffffCards and panels (180×)
surface#f9f9f9Inset panel tint
surface-2#f4f4f4Alt tint / carousel fade
ink-fill#000000Primary button + dark bands (36×)
borderrgba(0,0,0,.25)Dominant hairline — alpha, not a hex (1086×)
border-softrgba(0,0,0,.15)Secondary hairline (123×)
border-hair0.5px rgba(0,0,0,.25)Sub-pixel divider (16×)
scrimrgba(0,0,0,.8)Image scrim
grey#ddddddDisabled fill

Accent & product colour

TokenHexRole / usage
flame-red#d63e31Signature accent — sale flags, badges (24×)
flame-orange#ed6e00Secondary brand orange, links (23×)
pale-blue#cddcf2Informational band

Enamel colourway gradients (the signature device — each swatch is a 2-stop vertical gradient, not a flat fill):

ColourwayGradient
Flamelinear-gradient(#ea4436 0%, #70151b 100%)
Meringuelinear-gradient(#eae8e4 0%, #d8d0c2 100%)
Marseillelinear-gradient(#1172ba 0%, #053d68 100%)
Licoricelinear-gradient(#3a3a3d 0%, #22222b 100%)
Nectarlinear-gradient(#f97c00 0%, #d43414 100%)
Shell Pinklinear-gradient(#ebe4e3 0%, #d2bdbd 100%)
Whitelinear-gradient(#ffffff 0%, #ffffff 100%)

Rule: chrome stays black on warm paper; #d63e31/#ed6e00 are the only chromatic UI values. Colourway gradients belong to product swatches and never become surfaces.

Typography Rules

RoleFamilySize/LineWeightTrackingCase
Section (h2)lyon48 / 56400normalnone
Sub (h3)lyon32 / 40400normalnone
Display (h1)lyon30 / 30400normalnone
Product linklyon16400+0.5pxnone
Body / navswiss16 / 24400normalnone
Small bodyswiss13 / 19.5700normalnone
Button / eyebrowswiss12400+2pxUPPERCASE

Two patterns: the serif runs at a single weight 400 with normal tracking even at 48px (restraint by weight, not tracking), and the sans inverts that at small sizes — 12px UPPERCASE opened to +2px. Note the <h1> is smaller (30px) than the <h2> (48px): the h1 is a strapline, the h2 carries the visual display role.

Also documented in the full DESIGN.md: Component Stylings, Layout Principles, Depth & Elevation, Motion, Backgrounds, Effects & WebGL, Do's and Don'ts, Responsive Behavior, Agent Prompt Guide.