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Design language comparison

Clerk vs Frame

Clerk runs a light-canvas system while Frame chose dark, and they pair different display families (geistNumbers vs Times New Roman). Beyond surface, motion divides them — Clerk is moderate, Frame is expressive.

Palette · side by side

Up to 8 dominant swatches each

Side A · light

Clerk

Full Page

#000000

foreground

#d9d9de

neutral

#131316

foreground

#ffffff

background

#747686

foreground

#5e5f6e

foreground

#2f3037

background

#9394a1

foreground

Side B · dark

Frame

Full Page

#fcfcfc

background

#eaeaff

background

#000000

foreground

#6199f6

accent

#0d0d18

background

#f5f5f8

background

Typography · side by side

Primary family + weight ladder + sample

Side A · light

Clerk

Full Page

Display
geistNumbers
Body
ui-sans-serif
Mono
soehneMono
Weights
400 · 500

Sample

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

1234567890 — Body sample renders in the captured family if your browser has it; otherwise system fallback signals the weight ladder.

Side B · dark

Frame

Full Page

Display
FrameGothic
Body
Times New Roman
Weights
400 · 500 · 600

Sample

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

1234567890 — Body sample renders in the captured family if your browser has it; otherwise system fallback signals the weight ladder.

Spacing scale · side by side

Base unit + first 8 scale values

Side A · light

Clerk

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1280 px
1px
4px
6px
8px
10px
12px
14px
16px

Side B · dark

Frame

Full Page

Base unit
4 px
Container max
1440 px
4px
6px
8px
10px
12px
16px
18px
20px

Motion vocabulary · side by side

Level + durations + easings

Side A · light

Clerk

Full Page

Level
moderate
Libraries
Framer Motion

Durations

150ms300ms450ms500ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.33, 1, 0.6…cubic-bezier(0.4, 0.36, 0…cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)

Side B · dark

Frame

Full Page

Level
expressive
Libraries

Durations

150ms220ms300ms

Easings

cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1)cubic-bezier(0.16, 1, 0.3…

Palette & spacing overlap

Their palettes share 6% of swatches at the dominant tier — a quiet signal both teams drew from the same neutral library before applying brand accents. Their spacing scales overlap by 75% (4, 6, 8, 10, 12 px shared) — a rhythm any agent can transfer between the two systems with minimal recalibration.

Shared swatches (1)

#000000

Curator verdict

Pick a side. Mixing Clerk's light-first canvas with Frame's expressive motion vocabulary produces visual whiplash. Adopt one system as your primary, study the other for individual technique transfers (e.g. Clerk's spacing, Frame's shadow).

Full Clerk brief →Full Frame brief →Back to gallery

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