XDW Design System

The XDW wordmark is treated as the identity anchor across all surfaces. The official lockup is a glowing chrome-blue "XDW 26" — used at large scale on dark backgrounds. It is paired with the year (2026) and a single descriptor line. The lockup performs in three moods: glowing on near-black, clean on near-white, and inverted on the dark navy gradient.

Digital Tourism Think Tank is the parent organisation. The white landscape logo always co-brands social posts and event materials, locked top-right. Use it on dark surfaces only — for light surfaces, request the dark variant from DTTT.

The AI event the tourism industry has been waiting for

XDW2026

X. Design Week 2026 · Light Variant

A single signal hue carries the system. Blue (#33A5F7) does the heavy lifting for emphasis, glow and accents. Three shifts — hi, lo, dim — extend it across surfaces. Neutrals stay restrained: a near-black navy stage, slate body type, and two whites tuned for warmth (near-white) and contrast (pure white).

Gradients are not decoration here — they are how the system communicates emphasis, depth and motion. There are five reusable gradients and one rule line. Every other gradient should be derived from these.

Two families do all the work. Poppins for everything that needs presence — headings, eyebrows, navigation, badges, prices, day labels. Proxima Nova for body copy, paragraphs and supporting text. The contrast between Poppins' geometric warmth and Proxima Nova's quiet readability is what gives the brand its editorial confidence.

XDW uses Material Symbols Rounded at Filled weight as its icon system. Soft rounded corners pair naturally with Poppins' geometric warmth, and the filled, solid form holds presence on dark surfaces without needing additional weight. Default colour is signal blue (#33A5F7); on busy or photographic backgrounds use white. Never outline, never tint to off-brand hues.

Curated set across the categories XDW reaches for most. Use the icon name as the ligature value: <span class="mi">calendar_month</span>.

The system alternates between four surface types in section rhythm. Dark grain (with SVG noise overlay) gives weight and presence; near-white provides editorial breathing room; frosted glass holds floating elements like cards and the nav.

Three radii and four glow elevations cover the system. Elevation is built almost entirely from blue glow rather than dark drop shadow — this is what gives the dark surfaces their lit-from-within feeling.

Three button variants. The primary uses a glass-blue gradient with inner highlight and a soft outer glow. The outline keeps a 1.5px white border at 15% opacity and also picks up a subtle blur. Both have a 6px radius and Poppins 700 .92rem label.

The card system has three voices: outcome cards (light, blue top-rule, supporting), day cards (light + one inverted dark card to mark a step change), and the result/featured variant (tinted gradient, blue-lo title). On hover, every card lifts 3px and intensifies its blue glow.

Zone tiles are tall portrait cards (3:5) used for the four zones of the event. Each carries a 40px blue mark, a stacked Poppins 700 title that pushes the supporting line to the bottom, and a layered gradient background that lets imagery sit behind the content.

Ticket cards live on a dark surface. The featured card uses a soft blue gradient fill, a heavier glow, and a small badge nudged off the top edge. Prices are Poppins 800 2rem in --blue-hi.

Three small components carry status, association and category. All are Poppins 700, uppercase, with .1em+ tracking. Use sparingly — never more than one per card.

Three repeating marks tie the system together: the 40×2 blue zone-mark, the gradient hairline between sections, and the numbered step block (Poppins 800 2.2rem with a textured blue glow used in the pre-event flow).

Social posts run on the deeper navy (#213457 / #0c1730) rather than the website's near-black, with the XDW wordmark used at oversized scale as a watermark on the right edge of the canvas. Headlines sit at the lower-left, set in Poppins SemiBold with a key phrase pulled out in heavier weight + underline. Stats are oversized hairline numerals with a blue glow. The DTTT mark anchors the top-right; the XDW 26 lockup sits top-left with a subtle glow border.

Format A · Headline Stat4:5 · 1080×1350

XDW

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Format B · Question + Stat4:5 · 1080×1350

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31^%

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XDW writes like an event that respects its audience. Sentences are full and confident, never breathless or marketing-led. Subheads make a claim and let the body deliver evidence. Avoid hype words ("revolutionary", "cutting-edge"), avoid emoji, avoid icons-as-decoration.