Heart Code is where my design sensibility and my engineering actually merge. I’m not just designing the thing — I’m designing the engine that builds the thing, so that updates to the system mean a Python or Node script runs once and 40 spreads update consistently. The vocabulary is mine. The fonts are picked by hand. The build pipeline lives on this droplet. The output has shipped 25 times in 2025-2026 and counting.
Heart Code
My aesthetic operating system. Color as data, not decoration. Published as an open kit at github.com/MUSESHIFT/heartcode-site-kit.
The System
11 rainbow accents
Named colors, not hex-code afterthoughts. Each has a body zone, a temperature, a weather analog.
17 candy-card fabrics
Background textures that set mood before any type appears.
23 wrong-feeling pairs
Color combinations the design world tells you to avoid. Heart Code says: that friction IS the signal.
11 fonts
Pixelify Sans · VT323 · Silkscreen · Press Start 2P · Upheaval TT · Alagard · KiwiSoda · Pixellari · rainyhearts · VCR OSD Mono · Space Mono. Mix per letter.
6 border gradients
Frames set temperature even when empty.
5 corruption modes
Controlled degradation states — for when the system should LOOK like it’s breaking.
Details
At a glance.
Client
MuseShift
Role
Designer and engineer
Scope
Design system as an engine
Deliverables
Fabrics, pairings, fonts, borders, corruption modes
Build Engine
Iterated through 7 versions of the build pipeline — from raw signal JSON through layout composition to printable PDF via LibreOffice headless on the droplet. Decks built programmatically, no hand-pushing-pixels for the 40th spread.
Latest: v25. Available on request.
Where It Shows Up
On this site
The per-letter ransom on every title. The color palette. The font mixing. The never-minimalism.
On my body-map
Hobonichi weekly planner cards, 6-state stickers, weather-coded spreads.
In CINDER
CINDER’s color generator names new colors in Heart Code voice and writes them to her lexicon.
As a zine
25+ build iterations. Each a PDF. Each a snapshot of the system at that moment.
Color Is Data
Heart Code color names aren’t metaphors. VOLTAGE at intensity 4 IS a specific somatic state. SLICKVEIL IS what being stuck feels like. The system lets me log, display, and eventually RETURN TO states through the pattern of colors alone.