Smiling Wolf. Print magazine in monochrome.
- Studio
- Mixed theme
- 5 colors
- 2 typefaces
Smiling Wolf uses an editorial Swiss-minimalist language: a warm off-white canvas (#f7f3f0) and near-black surfaces (#131713) alternate to create a strict two-tone rhythm, with no chromatic accent, no gradients, and no shadows anywhere. Typography carries the entire brand voice — a custom display serif/sans hybrid (Bagoss Standard) speaks at large sizes with tight negative tracking and near-unity line-heights, while a wide-tracked monospace (General Grotesque Mono) stamps every label, tag, and metadata line in uppercase 9-10px. All corners are 4px sharp. The result reads like a print magazine spread — high-contrast blocks, generous negative space, hairline dividers, and a refusal of decoration.

Smiling Wolf design system
Neutrals5
Hairline borders, dividers, link strokes — the structural outline color; appears 1340× as border, defining every panel edge
Primary text on light canvas, dark-section backgrounds, inverse-surface text — near-black with a barely-perceptible green undertone
Muted helper text, secondary metadata, label text — sits at AA on dark and fails on light, so it belongs in the dark sections and monospace stamps
Secondary borders, inactive dividers — a step lighter than Carbon for de-emphasized edges
Page canvas, card surfaces, dark-section text — warm off-white that keeps the page from feeling clinical
Try a pairing
Pick any two colors from the palette to check whether text stays readable on top.
Aa
Bone on Carbon
19.03 : 1 contrast
- Body textPasses AA 4.5
- Large textPasses AA 3
- StrictPasses AAA 7











