53 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
53 lines
2.5 KiB
Markdown
# mailchimp-freddie — Mailchimp (Freddie Era, c. 2018–2022)
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- **School**: Warm Humanist
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- **Vibe**: Hand-drawn marks, warm yellow, personality in microcopy
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- **Best for**: Small-business tools, creator products, community / education / approachable B2C
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- **Touchstone**: mailchimp.com pre-2023 redesigns (Wayback), Freddie illustration sets
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**Palette**
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- Ground: `#FFE01B` (Mailchimp yellow) for hero / brand moments, `#FFFFFF` for body
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- Ink: `#241C15` (warm near-black, never pure black)
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- Cream surface: `#FBEFE3`
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- Secondary: `#88837C`
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- Accent: a hot pop-pink `#FF4D74` or a warm coral, used very sparingly
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**Typography**
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- Display: a friendly grotesque — Helvetica Now Display, Söhne, Inter Tight at weight 700–800
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- Body: same family at 17–18px, weight 400, line-height 1.6
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- Decorative: occasional hand-drawn script or text-set-by-hand feel
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**Spacing**: 4 / 8 / 16 / 24 / 40 / 64 — generous but not airy
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**Radius**: 8 (small) / 16 (medium) / 24 (large pills). Buttons are pill-shaped.
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**Shadow**: soft and warm — `0 4px 12px rgba(36, 28, 21, 0.08)`
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**Motion**: bouncy welcomed. Spring physics on hover lifts, friendly easings.
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**Signature moves**
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- Freddie-style hand-drawn illustrations (winking mascot, line-drawn characters with personality) — never AI-generated, must be commissioned or use a single illustrator's hand
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- Yellow flood-fill section backgrounds breaking up the page
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- Pill-shaped buttons with a 2–3px black outline (Memphis-style)
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- Personality in microcopy ("Send better email" not "Optimize delivery metrics")
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- Asymmetric "tilted" illustration placement — never centered on a grid
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**Avoid**
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- Pure black anywhere (the recipe is warm-near-black)
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- Stock illustrations — the hand-drawn style is the differentiator
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- More than 3 colors visible at once (yellow + ink + one accent)
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- Cold corporate microcopy
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**AI prompt seed**
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> Hand-drawn illustration, single line-drawn character with warm color washes (yellow, coral), winking expression, on warm cream #FBEFE3 background, friendly approachable line style, deliberate imperfection, 4:5.
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**Don't use when**
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- Brand needs to feel premium / luxury — Mailchimp warmth reads as accessible / mass-market
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- Illustration can't be sourced from a real illustrator (recipe loses 50% impact)
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- Audience is enterprise-only and skeptical of "friendly"
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---
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> **Same school — Warm Humanist**: [`stripe-press`](./stripe-press.md) · [`headspace-meditation`](./headspace-meditation.md)
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> **Browse all 25 recipes**: [INDEX.md](./INDEX.md)
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