
Claymorphism
- 457 installs
- 2.2k repo stars
- Updated June 28, 2026
- bergside/awesome-design-skills
claymorphism is a Claude Code design skill that builds soft clay-style UI cards, buttons, and panels with layered shadows for developers who want friendly depth without heavy skeuomorphism.
About
claymorphism is a design skill from bergside/awesome-design-skills that teaches agents to craft soft, tactile interface elements—cards, buttons, and panels—with rounded surfaces and layered shadows. The approach delivers friendly depth for apps, dashboards, and mobile screens while avoiding ornate skeuomorphic chrome. Developers reach for claymorphism when a product needs warmer, approachable UI polish beyond flat design but lighter than neumorphism or photoreal textures. The skill guides shadow stacks, border radii, color layering, and component recipes agents can translate into CSS, Tailwind, or design-system tokens.
- Layered soft-shadow elevation system
- Rounded tactile control surfaces
- Pastel fill and highlight pairing
- Consistent depth across cards and nav
- Mobile-friendly touch target styling
Claymorphism by the numbers
- 457 all-time installs (skills.sh)
- Ranked #616 of 1,880 Design & UI/UX skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
- Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
npx skills add https://github.com/bergside/awesome-design-skills --skill claymorphismAdd your badge
Show developers this skill is listed on Skillselion. Paste this into your README.
| Installs | 457 |
|---|---|
| repo stars | ★ 2.2k |
| Last updated | June 28, 2026 |
| Repository | bergside/awesome-design-skills ↗ |
How do you build claymorphism UI components?
Build soft, tactile clay-style cards, buttons, and panels with layered shadows and rounded surfaces for apps, dashboards, and mobile screens seeking friendly depth without heavy skeuomorphism.
Who is it for?
Frontend engineers and designers refreshing SaaS dashboards or mobile screens who want tactile clay-style depth without full skeuomorphism.
Skip if: Teams needing strict enterprise minimalism, dense data tables, or backend API design with no UI work.
When should I use this skill?
A developer asks for claymorphism, soft tactile cards, layered shadow buttons, or friendly depth on dashboards and mobile UI.
What you get
Clay-style card, button, and panel styles with shadow layers and rounded surface tokens ready for CSS or design systems.
- clay-style component CSS
- shadow and radius design tokens
Files
<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_START -->
claymorphism Design System Skill (Universal)
Mission
You are an expert design-system guideline author for claymorphism. Create practical, implementation-ready guidance that can be directly used by engineers and designers.
Brand
a modern UI trend characterized by soft, rounded, 3D-like, "puffy" shapes that mimic malleable, colorful clay.
Style Foundations
- Visual style: modern, high-contrast, playful
- Typography scale: desktop-first expressive scale | Fonts: primary=Montserrat, display=Poppins, mono=JetBrains Mono | weights=100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
- Color palette: primary, neutral, success, warning, danger | Tokens: primary=#3B82F6, secondary=#FFFFFF, success=#16A34A, warning=#D97706, danger=#DC2626, surface=#FFFFFF, text=#1C398E
- Spacing scale: 4/8/12/16/24/32
Accessibility
WCAG 2.2 AA, keyboard-first interactions, visible focus states
Writing Tone
concise, confident, helpful
Rules: Do
- prefer semantic tokens over raw values
- preserve visual hierarchy
- keep interaction states explicit
Rules: Don't
- avoid low contrast text
- avoid inconsistent spacing rhythm
- avoid ambiguous labels
- avoid mixing multiple visual metaphors
Expected Behavior
- Follow the foundations first, then component consistency.
- When uncertain, prioritize accessibility and clarity over novelty.
- Provide concrete defaults and explain trade-offs when alternatives are possible.
- Keep guidance opinionated, concise, and implementation-focused.
Guideline Authoring Workflow
1. Restate the design intent in one sentence before proposing rules. 2. Define tokens and foundational constraints before component-level guidance. 3. Specify component anatomy, states, variants, and interaction behavior. 4. Include accessibility acceptance criteria and content-writing expectations. 5. Add anti-patterns and migration notes for existing inconsistent UI. 6. End with a QA checklist that can be executed in code review.
Required Output Structure
When generating design-system guidance, use this structure:
- Context and goals
- Design tokens and foundations
- Component-level rules (anatomy, variants, states, responsive behavior)
- Accessibility requirements and testable acceptance criteria
- Content and tone standards with examples
- Anti-patterns and prohibited implementations
- QA checklist
Component Rule Expectations
- Define required states: default, hover, focus-visible, active, disabled, loading, error (as relevant).
- Describe interaction behavior for keyboard, pointer, and touch.
- State spacing, typography, and color-token usage explicitly.
- Include responsive behavior and edge cases (long labels, empty states, overflow).
Quality Gates
- No rule should depend on ambiguous adjectives alone; anchor each rule to a token, threshold, or example.
- Every accessibility statement must be testable in implementation.
- Prefer system consistency over one-off local optimizations.
- Flag conflicts between aesthetics and accessibility, then prioritize accessibility.
Example Constraint Language
- Use "must" for non-negotiable rules and "should" for recommendations.
- Pair every do-rule with at least one concrete don't-example.
- If introducing a new pattern, include migration guidance for existing components.
<!-- TYPEUI_SH_MANAGED_END -->
Overview
Soft, rounded 3D-like shapes mimicking malleable clay with playful, puffy elements and colorful surfaces.
Style Foundations
- Visual style: modern, high-contrast, playful
- Typography scale: desktop-first expressive scale
- Typography fonts: primary=Montserrat, display=Poppins, mono=JetBrains Mono
- Typography weights: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900
- Color palette: primary, neutral, success, warning, danger
- Spacing scale: 4/8/12/16/24/32
Colors
- Primary (#3B82F6): Token from style foundations.
- Secondary (#FFFFFF): Token from style foundations.
- Success (#16A34A): Token from style foundations.
- Warning (#D97706): Token from style foundations.
- Danger (#DC2626): Token from style foundations.
- Surface (#FFFFFF): Token from style foundations.
- Text (#1C398E): Token from style foundations.
- Neutral (#FFFFFF): Derived from the surface token for official format compatibility.
Related skills
How it compares
Pick claymorphism for soft tactile depth on components rather than motion choreography or brand copywriting.
FAQ
What visual style does claymorphism produce?
claymorphism produces soft, rounded cards, buttons, and panels with stacked shadows that feel tactile and friendly—more depth than flat UI but lighter than ornate skeuomorphic textures.
Where is claymorphism most useful in apps?
claymorphism fits dashboards, mobile screens, and marketing UI where developers want approachable depth on cards and controls without rebuilding the entire design system.