Warm sand. Deep redwood. A serif that means it.
Preg uses a small, deliberate palette of warm browns, mossy greens, and cool blues — never the soft pinks and pastel teals that pregnancy apps usually default to. The visual language is closer to a careful nursing journal than to a baby-themed product. That choice was made on day one and never reconsidered.
The palette
Typography
Georgia serif in the app itself, Fraunces (a close cousin) on this site. Used for headings, prompts, journal entries, and quotes. Italics are reserved for emphasis and for the AI Daily Brief's signature line.
System sans in the app (San Francisco on iOS, Roboto on Android), Inter on this site. Used for everything that isn't a heading or a journal entry.
| Token | Size | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| display | 32–44 pt | Hero, big headings |
| title | 22 pt | Screen titles |
| headline | 17 pt, semibold | Card titles, section heads |
| body | 16 pt | Paragraph copy |
| caption | 13 pt | Metadata, timestamps |
| micro | 11 pt | Labels, tags |
Cards and shadows
The app is built on cards. Cream behind, paper-white on top, a soft shadow, a thin warm line at the edge. The whole visual language is a stack of small papers on a warm desk. The shadows are warm too — they take a small amount of redwood in them, not pure black. It sounds like a minor decision and it makes the entire app feel less digital.
A pregnancy check-in card
Today's prompt, with mood, symptoms, and a free-write field. This is the basic shape of most cards in the app.
The amber treatment
Reserved for Labor mode and for moments that genuinely warrant attention. Used sparingly elsewhere, never decoratively.
The forest treatment
Quieter than amber, deeper than ocean. The postpartum mode's signature, because the postpartum mode is the smallest, quietest part of the app.
The thinking
The first round of mockups for Preg was, embarrassingly, soft pink and seafoam. I had been looking at too many other pregnancy apps. Megan looked at the screens and asked me, in the kindest possible way, whether I had built something for a different person.
I started over. I asked her what a pregnancy app should feel like, and she said it should feel like reading a careful, well-printed book — not like scrolling through a feed. So I looked at the books she was reading, and the journals I kept at work, and the field guides I have on my shelf, and I built the palette out of that. Warm sand. Deep redwood. Mossy green. A serif that means it. White cards, warm shadows, and an amber accent for the moments that earn it.
Every visual decision in Preg passes the would-this-be-out-of-place-in-a-good-book test. Not every decision passed on the first try. The ones that didn't, Megan caught.