The late-90s moment when machines got friendly. Soft, rounded "blobject" shells in see-through candy plastic: Bondi blue, tangerine, grape, lime, atomic purple. Light passes through the resin and comes out coloured; you can see the circuit board, the screws and the battery inside, like a fish tank. It's the optimism of the turn of the millennium, when technology wanted to be touched, understood and played with, and it reached all the way down to the lunchbox, the gel pen, the Tamagotchi on a backpack and the clear neon phone on a teenager's bedside table.
Touchstones
Where the vibe comes from. Click a picture to see it large; pick one or two and say what you took.
iMac G3 (1998), Bondi Blue, then the 1999 fruit colours (Blueberry, Grape, Tangerine, Lime, Strawberry)
the blobject that started the boom. Take the frosted, half-see-through shell, the gumdrop curve and the way the colour glows where the light hits it.
Light through coloured plastic Translucency is the subject: colour glows where light passes through, deepens
where the plastic is thick, and casts tinted light on the surface beneath.
2
You can see inside Circuit boards, screws, springs, batteries and glitter are visible through the shell, and
they're part of the charm.
3
Soft, blobby forms Rounded, organic, pebble-and-gumdrop shapes; nothing sharp.
4
Candy colour optimism Bright, fruity tints against white, ice-clear and frosted plastic; friendly, playful,
hopeful.
Dials
Pick a position on each on purpose, and try a different one next time. Set them in the brief builder.
Clarity
Frosted and milky (iMac G3)Crystal clear, every part visible (Funtastic, clear phones)
Colour
One fruit tint at a timeA full candy spectrum side by side
Who it's for
Grown-up tech (computers, phones, CD players)Kids' stuff (Tamagotchi, gel pens, Polly Pocket, lunchboxes)
Fill
Empty shell, just the internalsGlitter, liquid, floating sparkles
Light
Daylight on a deskDark room, backlit, lights glowing through the plastic
Desk of 1999 an iMac, a clear phone, a CD player and a Tamagotchi on a white desk in morning light; the whole
game played on and between them.
Lunchbox the kids' side: gel pens, a clear backpack, jelly sandals, a Lite-Brite glowing in a dark bedroom.
Inside the shell the playfield is the inside of a translucent gadget, with chips as buildings and light
coming in through coloured walls.
Glitter wand everything floating in tinted liquid, with sparkles that drift and settle.
Night light a dark room where every object is a backlit plastic glow, coloured light pooling on the floor.
Traps
Opaque, matte plastic; if light doesn't pass through, the vibe is gone.
Hard-edged, boxy industrial shapes.
Chrome and cyber-goth silver; that's a different side of Y2K.
Generic glassmorphism UI (blurred frosted panels) standing in for real tinted plastic with things inside.
Muddy or dark-only colour; it should feel bright and hopeful.
Palette
Click a swatch to copy its hex. Variants list only the roles they change; the rest keep the starting colour.
Starting palette
the style's own palette
ink on background 13.4:1 AAink on surface 11.7:1 AA
Funtastic clear
suggested: crystal-clear jewel tints, every part visible (N64 Funtastic, Game Boy Color)
ink on background 15.4:1 AAink on surface 17.3:1 AA
Backlit night
suggested: a dark bedroom, plastic glowing from inside (clear phones, Lite-Brite)
ink on background 16.5:1 AAink on surface 14.1:1 AA
Frutiger Aero
suggested: the glossier mid-2000s successor: sky, water and glass
ink on background 10.8:1 AAink on surface 11.8:1 AA
tokens.json holds a fruit-colour palette after the iMac G3's tints, with variants for the Funtastic clear range, a backlit night room and Frutiger Aero, plus a Microgramma-style display face and a rounded VAG-style body face, both common on late-90s electronics and toys (Google Fonts stand-ins). These are suggestions.
Type
The samples are editable: type your own words to try the faces.
