Near-black background (#0A0A0A) with zero color undertone. Neutral. Clean. This matters because the coral-orange accent needs a blank canvas to glow against. Any tint in the background would compete with the warmth. Pure dark lets the fire be the fire. The surface steps up subtly to #141414, just enough to separate layers without breaking the darkness.

Inter for headings and body. One font, unified. At weight 600 with the tightest letter-spacing in the system (-0.03em), the headings feel engineered. Not generic. Engineered. There's a density and confidence in those compressed characters that comes from squeezing the tracking down past where most designers would stop. It says "this was considered."

In a system where the accent color is doing the emotional work, the typography needs to be a workhorse. Inter at different weights creates clean hierarchy without competing with the coral fire. An 18px base font size with 1.75 line height means body text has room to breathe, which is essential on near-black backgrounds where your eyes need more space between lines. The font disappears. The content and the warmth take over.

Warm ambient shadows with a faint coral ring at the edge. The primary shadow drops 8px at 32px spread in pure black with a subtle 1px accent ring at 6% opacity. Cards float above the dark canvas with real depth, but the shadows are warm-tinted. The large shadow (25px at 60px spread) creates dramatic elevation for modals and overlays. Subtle surface noise gives the dark backgrounds a tactile quality instead of flat void. Lift hover effects bring cards toward you on interaction, and the smooth motion speed means transitions feel confident, not rushed. Elements don't just sit on the page. They glow from underneath, like coals.