/awwwards — Elite Creative Direction Skill for Claude Code

A Claude Code custom skill that transforms your frontend/UI work to Awwwards Site of the Day level (8.0+ score).

What it does

When invoked (manually with /awwwards or auto-detected on frontend work), Claude Code operates as a Senior Creative Director with expertise in:

• Typography — Fluid clamp() scales, trending font pairings, kinetic text animation
• Color Systems — Perceptually uniform palettes, dark mode, gradient recipes
• Layouts — Bento grids, broken grids, varied section rhythm, hero patterns
• Motion Design — GSAP patterns, scroll reveals, page transitions, cursor effects
• CSS Techniques — Scroll-driven animations, container queries, :has(), View Transitions
• WebGL / 3D — Three.js, React Three Fiber, shaders, particles, performance budgets
• Studio Philosophies — Awwwards judging criteria, industry-specific design languages, 2025-26 trends

Install

git clone git@github.com:tponscr-debug/claude-skill-awwwards.git ~/.claude/skills/awwwards

That's it. Claude Code auto-discovers skills in ~/.claude/skills/.

Recommended CLAUDE.md addition

Add this to your ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md (or project .claude/CLAUDE.md) to ensure Claude always uses the skill for frontend work:

- Design Standard — Use the `/awwwards` skill: For ANY frontend/UI work, invoke the `/awwwards` skill which contains the complete creative direction framework, design decision process, and links to 7 reference files covering typography, color, layout, motion, CSS techniques, WebGL, and studio philosophies. Key principles:
  - ALWAYS define art direction BEFORE writing code (emotion, archetype, industry context)
  - Typography is 90% of design — use fluid `clamp()` scales, max 2 font families, tight tracking on display
  - Never pure black/white — use oklch() or carefully chosen near-black/near-white values
  - Motion must tell a story — every animation answers "what happened?" or "where should I look?"
  - Vary section rhythm — alternate contained/full-bleed, vary spacing, break the template look
  - Performance IS design — target <3s load, 60fps, animate only `transform` and `opacity`
  - A generic, template-looking UI is a failure. The user must feel the product is one-of-a-kind on first load.

Usage

Manual

Type /awwwards in Claude Code to activate creative direction mode.

Automatic

The skill auto-triggers on frontend design, UI/UX work, styling, and CSS tasks (via the description field in SKILL.md frontmatter).

In conversation

Ask Claude to design or redesign any UI — it will consult the reference files, define art direction (emotion, archetype, typography, color, motion), then build.

File structure

~/.claude/skills/awwwards/
├── SKILL.md                         # Main prompt (auto-loaded by Claude Code)
└── references/
    ├── typography.md                # Fonts, pairings, fluid type, text animation
    ├── color-systems.md             # Palettes by archetype, oklch, gradients, dark mode
    ├── layouts-ux.md                # Grids, heroes, cards, micro-interactions, spacing
    ├── motion-design.md             # GSAP, Lenis, page transitions, cursors, loaders
    ├── css-techniques.md            # Scroll-driven animations, container queries, :has()
    ├── webgl-3d.md                  # Three.js, R3F, shaders, particles, performance
    └── studios-philosophy.md        # Awwwards criteria, elite studios, industry design

License

MIT — Use it, fork it, make beautiful things.