Editorial · ~4K tokens

Looks Smart, Isn't (NYT)

Reads like a broadsheet that's been printing for a century: stark white paper, warm near-black ink, sharp corners, zero shadow.

Editorial & Mediadarkmaximalserious

Looks Smart, Isn't (NYT) — AI-built sample

what your AI builds

Reference · your version

Left: the reference.
Right: what your AI builds.

Same prompt. Same model. With this pack attached, the output stays in the aesthetic instead of drifting toward the default.

What’s in this pack

Everything you need to drop in and build.

Each Magpie pack ships as a self-contained folder. Drop it in your project, paste the README into your AI tool, prompt your site as normal.

STYLE.md
The complete design system as AI-readable instructions. Tokens, type, motion, voice. Tool-agnostic.
Reference screenshots
The source pages we studied, captured at 2x. Use them as moodboard or paste into vision-capable tools.
Tool drop-ins
Pre-written instructions for Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, v0, Bolt, Replit, Windsurf, Continue, Codex.

looks-smart-isnt/STYLE.md

preview

01# Looks Smart, Isn't (NYT)02> Inspired by NYT (https://www.nytimes.com)0304## Voice05- Tone: dark, maximal, serious06- Personality: Reads like a broadsheet that's been printing for a century: stark white paper, warm near-black ink, sharp corners, zero shadow.0708## Tokens09### Colour10- background: #FFFFFF11- surface:    #F7F7F712- ink:        #12121213- accent:     #32689114- muted:      #5A5A5A1516### Type17- display: Fraunces, Georgia18- body:    Inter19- mono:    JetBrains Mono2021### Spacing22- base unit: 4px23- section: 96 / 160 / 22424- container max: 1320px2526## Motion—— Get the pack to see the rest ——