A design system inspired by Ebru, the ancient Turkish art of floating pigments on thickened water and drawing them into swirling, meditative patterns before gently pressing paper to the surface.
The palette draws from traditional Ebru pigments: natural earth tones and jewel colors that the artist drops onto the water's surface using horsehair brushes tipped with ox gall. Each hue expands in concentric rings before being drawn into patterns with a comb or stylus.
Typography echoes the elegance of Ottoman calligraphy: Playfair Display for grand display text, Cormorant for refined headings and UI text, and Lora for comfortable reading at body sizes. Together they evoke the flowing brushwork of the Ebru master.
A consistent spacing scale based on 4px increments provides rhythm and breathing room. Like the careful spacing between pigment drops on the water surface, each interval is deliberate.
Form elements are warm and inviting, with cream backgrounds and jewel-toned focus rings. Inputs feel like laying paper on the trough surface — receptive and ready to receive.
Cards use clean white backgrounds with marbled accents — colored strips, jewel-toned borders, or full marbled backgrounds that recall the finished Ebru paper.
The most fundamental pattern: pigments are simply sprinkled onto the water surface and left to form their natural, organic arrangement without any combing or manipulation.
After applying battal, the artist draws a comb back and forth through the pigment, creating elegant parallel waves reminiscent of ocean currents or wind-swept fields.
Traditional Ebru uses earth pigments ground by hand: lapis lazuli for blue, cinnabar for red, malachite for green, and ochre for gold. Each has its own weight and spread rate.
This card uses a full marbled background created with layered radial gradients, simulating the rich interplay of pigments floating on the water surface. Use for featured or hero content.
The water in the trough is thickened with kitre (tragacanth gum), a natural extract that creates the viscous surface tension needed to hold floating pigments in their delicate patterns.
Ebru has been practiced since the Ottoman period and was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014, honoring centuries of Turkish artistic tradition.
Alert messages use translucent washes of jewel tones, like pigment expanding in the water before being combed into shape.
Traditional Ebru encompasses a family of named patterns, each created through specific sequences of dropping pigment and drawing with tools. These CSS interpretations use layered gradients to evoke the essential character of each technique.
The foundational pattern. Pigments are sprinkled freely from horsehair brushes, forming organic circles and irregular shapes that settle naturally on the water surface.
After battal is applied, a wide-toothed comb is drawn back and forth across the surface, stretching the pigment droplets into flowing parallel waves.
Concentric spiral patterns created by twisting a stylus through layered pigment drops, forming tight, nest-like whorls that resemble the songs of the bulbul bird made visible.
Named after the legendary Hatip Mehmed Efendi, this technique creates stylized floral motifs by manipulating individual pigment drops into petal shapes with a fine awl.
The tekne (trough) is the marbling artist's workspace — a shallow rectangular basin traditionally made of wood, filled with sized water. This component recreates the trough as a container element, with a dark wooden rim framing the colorful water surface within.
Within the trough, the sized water becomes a living canvas. The surface tension created by tragacanth gum holds each drop of pigment in suspension, allowing the artist to manipulate colors into patterns that would be impossible on any solid surface. This is the magic of Ebru: painting on water itself.
Ebru demands a meditative state of mind. The artist must be fully present, reading the water's surface tension, sensing how each drop will spread. There is no undoing a mark once made. Each piece is unique, unrepeatable — a collaboration between human intention and the water's own nature.
Each pigment drop lands on the water and expands outward in concentric rings, its spread controlled by the ox gall surfactant. These interactive drop components capture that moment of expansion — organic shapes with spreading ring borders and light-catching surface tension.
The principles guiding this design system are drawn from the philosophy and practice of Ebru itself.
Every element should feel fluid, as though it grew naturally rather than being forced into shape. Avoid rigid geometries. Let borders breathe, let colors bleed softly, let whitespace flow around content.
Rich, saturated colors grounded on warm cream. Each hue should feel precious and intentional, like a pigment chosen by the master for exactly this composition. Use gradients to suggest depth.
Transitions are slow and deliberate. Hover effects reveal rather than surprise. The experience should feel contemplative, mirroring the patience required of the Ebru artist at the trough.
Honor the source tradition. Ebru is a UNESCO-recognized intangible cultural heritage of Turkey. The design should convey reverence for the art, its history, and the masters who have preserved it.