Design Shelf

Second Horizon — Design Shelf

Your one-stop reference for starting an app: the design systems worth building on, places to browse for direction, and every brand palette you own — with click-to-copy hex codes and a notepad that remembers.
Start here

Which one do I pick?

The 30-second decision, from your own research:

  • default Modern web app, full control: shadcn/ui (Next.js + Base UI + Tailwind) — the current startup default. Pair with Second Horizon pastel, your default palette.
  • docs Deepest documentation, fine with the Google look: Material Design 3.
  • dense Data-heavy internal tool, want every component now: Ant Design.
  • custom Own visual language, borrowed accessibility: Radix or Base UI primitives.
  • study Modeling a mature enterprise system: Carbon (IBM).
Code component libraries

Build the app

Real, coded components you drop into a product. All free and open source. Cards note what adopting each one actually takes — none of these are download-and-done.

Design-side

Figma kits

For mocking screens before code. Free tiers are real; the polish sits behind the paid versions (listed under Worth paying for).

Inspiration

Browse before you decide

Where to look at real products when you're picking a direction — patterns, flows, and landing pages, not stock mockups.

Color

Second Horizon pastel ★ your default

Your default palette for new apps — this page is rendered in it. Click any swatch to copy the hex; "Copy CSS" grabs the whole token block ready to paste into globals.css.

Light

Core
Pastels — categories, tags, chart series, avatars
Status — always color + label, never color alone

Dark

Core
Pastels
Status

Brand palettes

Pulled from the live code of each product, so these are the real shipped values.

Yours

Saved palettes

Found a palette you like? Paste the hex codes here and it lives in this page. Saved in this browser — nothing leaves your machine.

Working memory

Notes

Jot direction decisions while you browse — "new app: shadcn + SH pastel, steal Mobbin's onboarding". Autosaves as you type. Saved in this browser.

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