Arctic Frost
anthropic-arctic-frost
Meets AAsample data, not production records
TRIO THEMES
Every theme the library holds, on two Podium screens.
A theme is the full set of color, type, spacing, shape, depth, motion and layout settings that dress an app.
We show two of the screens we use to run our business, the Inbox and the Pipeline map, in every theme in the library. The Inbox is where messages that need a decision wait, each tagged with what it is, before any of them is opened. The Pipeline map shows the five steps every build goes through, from taking in the request, through design and code, to testing and shipping.
The same Podium screens appear on the home page under "What runs today".
Each card below is a picture of Podium, the app we use to run our business, with sample data, taken at desktop width and scaled down for this page. The library holds 36 themes, grouped by family. Sunset Boulevard, Velvet Stage and Brutalist Concrete are the three on this site; the larger pictures further down keep Podium's own three: Warm Paper, Night Console and Engineering Calm.
Screenshots on this page use Podium sample data; they are not production records.
New Themes
October 5th, 2026, eleven new themes, found three ways: read from two award-winning sites; read from four other sites whose theme held up (names withheld); and five drawn by the factory.
What the Contrast Labels Mean
Every card carries a contrast label. Contrast is how strongly text stands out from what is behind it. We measure each pairing of text and background in a theme ourselves, rather than take the theme's word for it, against the web's accessibility guidelines (WCAG):
- Meets AA: all text stands out from its background by at least 4.5 to 1, the level accessibility rules usually ask for.
- Meets AAA: the strictest level. Text stands out by at least 7 to 1, the outline that shows where you are when you use a keyboard is at least 3 pixels thick, everything you tap is at least 44 pixels across, and decorative motion is off.
- Below AA: at least one pairing falls short; the label shows the worst one.
Today: No theme in the library falls below AA, and the library refuses any new theme that would.
Anthropic Themes
Style Catalog
Open Design References
Studio
Three More Screens, Three Themes
Inbox
Plan
Recent Jobs
How a Trio Is Chosen
Every app we ship comes with three themes, a Trio, and the people using it can switch between them. The three should feel different from each other, not just in color, so we compare seven things: type, spacing, shapes, depth, motion, layout and icons. We will not save a Trio where all three themes are the same on any of the seven, and we aim for all three to differ on at least five.
The three on this site, Sunset Boulevard, Velvet Stage and Brutalist Concrete, differ on all seven.
For a new app, the factory makes the first suggestion. It ranks all 36 themes by your industry, the mood you want, how much you want on each screen and the accessibility level you need, and puts three forward. That is a starting point, not a decision. You can:
- pick all three yourself from the themes on this page;
- tell us none of them fit and point us to a public website you like: the factory reads its colors, type, spacing and shapes and draws a new theme from it (six of the eleven newest themes started that way);
- or describe the vibe in a few words, like "Renaissance fair", "disco" or "cowboy", and let the factory draw something new (the other five did).
Today: You choose with me, and I make sure your three are different enough before saving them for your project. The factory's own suggestion only puts forward three that are different enough, with one that meets AAA. I measure every new theme for contrast, whether it comes from a website or a few words, and I look at it on real app screens before it joins the library.
Tomorrow: You will make these choices yourself, and the three you pick will go straight into every screen the factory builds for your app.
Running: the three-theme switch at the top of this page uses the same engine as the switch every app we ship must have.