Globo Brand Design System Deep Dive
1. Brand Overview
Globo’s online presence is exactly what you expect from Brazil’s largest media group: dense, structured, and visually confident. The homepage is a living feed of news, entertainment, sports, and lifestyle — but the design system behind it keeps the chaos contained. They’re not chasing minimalism here. Instead, it’s a utilitarian, information-first design language with a strong corporate backbone.
The vibe is pragmatic. Colors are functional. Typography is engineered for speed and clarity. This isn’t a design built to impress Dribbble, it’s built to handle thousands of headlines, live updates, and multimedia elements without collapsing under visual overload.
There’s a clear sense of hierarchy: heavy, condensed headlines; tight spacing; controlled use of color for categorization. You’ll see red for breaking news (#c4170c), green for sports (#06aa48), orange for entertainment (#ff6700), and blue accents for interactive states (#005fcc). This color coding makes scanning easy — you don’t need to read the label to know the category.
Typography is custom — “Globotipo UI” — a bespoke family that carries the brand’s identity across headings, links, captions, and buttons. It’s paired with workhorse system fonts in the fallback stack to ensure performance and consistency.
Globo’s design philosophy here: Information density, modularity, and functional branding. Every design decision feels like it’s been tested against the reality of a busy newsroom. Borders, shadows, and spacing are subtle, supporting content rather than competing with it. Even the breakpoints are tuned to keep readability intact across devices — from sub‑320px mobile widths to wide desktop layouts beyond 1320px.
If you’re building for Globo, you’re building for resilience: the system has to gracefully handle the high‑volume, high‑velocity content flow that defines the brand. No fluff, no wasted pixels — just a disciplined visual language that holds the feed together.
2. Color System
2.1 Primary Colors
If there’s a “primary” in Globo’s palette, it’s #2f3134 (rgb(47, 49, 52)) — a deep neutral used in headers, navigation, and text. This color anchors the UI, acting as the base tone for most non‑interactive elements. It’s supplemented by #c4170c (red) for urgent or breaking news and #06aa48 (green) for sports. The #ff6700 orange signals entertainment/lifestyle content. #005fcc is the interactive blue for hover/focus states.
This works because it’s functional color coding — each accent immediately signals category. Competitors often rely on typography alone; Globo uses color as a second layer of meaning.
2.2 Complete Palette
| Color Name | Hex | Role | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Neutral | #2f3134 | Base text, header background | Header-section, hui-container, logo-desktop |
| Medium Neutral | #6e727a | Secondary text | General UI |
| White | #ffffff | Background, text on dark | Headers, containers, headlines |
| Black | #000000 | Pure text, icons | Misc elements |
| Grey | #808080 | Disabled states, dividers | General |
| Orange | #ff6700 | Category accent | Header-title (entertainment) |
| Light Grey | #ebedef | Backgrounds, borders | Franja-headline |
| Red | #c4170c | Category accent | Header-title (breaking news) |
| Green | #06aa48 | Category accent | Header-title (sports) |
| Blue | #005fcc | Interactive states | Hover/focus |
| Swiper Theme Blue | #007aff | Slider controls | CSS variable --swiper-theme-color |
2.3 Color Relationships
The palette balances strong dark neutrals with high‑saturation accents. Contrast is generally good: white text on #2f3134 passes WCAG AA easily; red, green, and orange accents over white backgrounds are vivid and accessible. The interactive blue (#005fcc) is saturated enough to stand out but not so bright it feels out of place.
Dark mode? Not explicitly implemented here — but the palette is already dark‑neutral heavy, so inversion would be trivial.
2.4 Usage Guide
- Good combos: White (#ffffff) text on deep neutral (#2f3134) for headers; #c4170c on white for urgency; #06aa48 on white for sports.
- Avoid: Red (#c4170c) on deep neutral (#2f3134) — low contrast for small text.
- Interactive: Use #005fcc for hover/focus; don’t mix with #007aff unless inside swiper controls.
- Category coding: Stick to red, green, orange for content classification — don’t invent new accent colors.
3. Typography
3.1 Font Families
Primary: Globotipo UI — custom typeface, brand‑specific.
Fallbacks: Inter, system‑ui, Avenir Next, Helvetica Neue, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, Segoe UI, Arial, etc.
Sources: No Google Fonts, no Adobe Fonts — likely self‑hosted.
3.2 Type Scale
| Element | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 56px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 32px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 24px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 20px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 20px | 500 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 20px | 600 | 1.50 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 20px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 18px | 600 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 18px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 18px | 400 | 1.33 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 18px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 16px | 400 | — |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 16px | 400 | — |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 16px | 700 | 1.50 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 16px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 16px | 500 | 1.20 |
| Heading-1 | Times | 16px | 400 | — |
| Link | Times | 16px | 400 | — |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 15px | 400 | 1.50 |
| Heading-1 | Globotipo UI | 15px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Link | Times | 14px | 700 | — |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 400 | 1.20 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 14px | 400 | 1.20 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 600 | 1.50 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 700 | — |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 400 | 1.20 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 14px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Link | Globotipo UI | 14px | 600 | 1.20 |
| Button | opensans | 14px | 700 | 1.00 |
| Button | Arial | 13.3333px | 400 | — |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 12px | 400 | 1.20 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 12px | 400 | 1.20 (uppercase) |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 12px | 600 | 1.20 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 12px | 700 | 1.20 |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 12px | 700 | 1.20 (uppercase) |
| Caption | opensans | 12px | 400 | — |
| Link | opensans | 12px | 400 | — |
| Button | Arial | 9px | 400 | 1.78 |
3.3 Hierarchy
They rely on weight and size for hierarchy, not color. Headlines are bold and tight. Smaller headings still carry weight (600–700) to keep them visible. Body/caption text is lighter (400) but still compact — line heights rarely exceed 1.50. This keeps the vertical rhythm tight, which suits a news feed layout.
4. Spacing & Layout
4.1 Spacing Scale
Base grid: 8px — confirmed by common values (8px, 16px, 24px, etc.).
They use half‑steps (7.5px, 14.5px) occasionally, which is unusual but likely for pixel‑perfect alignment with icons or typography.
Common values:
| px | rem | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.06 | 33 |
| 2 | 0.13 | 27 |
| 3 | 0.19 | 15 |
| 4 | 0.25 | 93 |
| 7.5 | 0.47 | 24 |
| 8 | 0.50 | 70 |
| 10 | 0.63 | 42 |
| 12 | 0.75 | 102 |
| 14 | 0.88 | 9 |
| 14.5 | 0.91 | 8 |
| 15 | 0.94 | 37 |
| 16 | 1.00 | 67 |
| 20 | 1.25 | 183 |
| 24 | 1.50 | 21 |
| 30 | 1.88 | 11 |
| 31.5 | 1.97 | 20 |
| 32 | 2.00 | 47 |
| 36 | 2.25 | 6 |
| 52 | 3.25 | 21 |
| 60 | 3.75 | 32 |
4.2 Layout
Breakpoints from 320px up to 1320px — they’re covering every device class, including odd intermediate widths (359px, 415px, 732px). Suggests fine‑tuned responsive adjustments rather than broad “mobile/tablet/desktop” buckets.
5. Visual Elements
Border Radius
They have a defined radius scale:
- 0px — sharp edges (some nav, tables)
- 3px — small rounding
- 4px — buttons, small cards
- 5px — inputs
- 6px — buttons/images
- 8px — badges, cards, images
- 12px — inputs, images, lists, links
- 20px — some pill-like elements
- 50% — round avatars
Shadows
Mostly subtle:
- inset shadows for dividers (
rgba(206, 209, 215, 0.4) 0px 2px 2px 0px inset) - soft drop shadows (
rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 10px 3px) - light surface shadows (
rgb(235, 237, 239) 0px 0px 20px 0px)
No heavy depth — just enough to separate surfaces.
Borders
Thin, neutral borders for section separation. Heavy reliance on bottom borders (0px 0px 1px solid #2f3134) in lists and headers.
6. Components
6.1 Buttons
Cookie consent button:
Default: bg #0069de, white text, 8px 16px padding, 4px radius, bold (700), 14px size. Hover: var(--theme-hover).
Headline desktop button:
Default: bg #006767, text #2f3134, 8px 16px padding, 8px radius. Hover: rgba(0,49,255,0.1) background.
CTA (post):
Transparent bg, text #2f3134, padding top 16px. Hover: same rgba(0,49,255,0.1) bg.
Previsão drop button:
White bg, black text, no padding, sharp corners.
6.2 Links
Eight variants, each with default color and hover to #001f99 + underline. Colors match category accents.
6.3 Forms
Text inputs:
Variant 1: bg #f5f6f7, text #2f3134, 12px radius, no border. Focus: border-color #0077ff.
Variant 2: bg #eeeeee, text #333333, 5px radius, padded (0px 44px 0px 16px).
7. Design Tokens (CSS custom properties)
:root {
/* Colors */
--color-neutral-dark: #2f3134;
--color-neutral-medium: #6e727a;
--color-white: #ffffff;
--color-black: #000000;
--color-grey: #808080;
--color-orange: #ff6700;
--color-grey-light: #ebedef;
--color-red: #c4170c;
--color-green: #06aa48;
--color-blue-interactive: #005fcc;
--color-swiper-theme: #007aff;
/* Typography */
--font-primary: "Globotipo UI", Inter, -apple-system, system-ui, Avenir Next, Avenir, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, Segoe UI, Arial;
--font-alt: "Times";
--font-secondary: "opensans", helvetica, arial;
/* Spacing */
--space-1: 1px;
--space-2: 2px;
--space-3: 3px;
--space-4: 4px;
--space-7-5: 7.5px;
--space-8: 8px;
--space-10: 10px;
--space-12: 12px;
--space-14: 14px;
--space-14-5: 14.5px;
--space-15: 15px;
--space-16: 16px;
--space-20: 20px;
--space-24: 24px;
--space-30: 30px;
--space-31-5: 31.5px;
--space-32: 32px;
--space-36: 36px;
--space-52: 52px;
--space-60: 60px;
/* Radius */
--radius-0: 0px;
--radius-3: 3px;
--radius-4: 4px;
--radius-5: 5px;
--radius-6: 6px;
--radius-8: 8px;
--radius-12: 12px;
--radius-20: 20px;
--radius-round: 50%;
/* Shadows */
--shadow-inset-light: rgba(206, 209, 215, 0.4) 0px 2px 2px 0px inset;
--shadow-drop-soft: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 10px 3px;
--shadow-surface-light: rgb(235, 237, 239) 0px 0px 20px 0px;
}8. AI Coding Assistant Prompt
# Globo Design System Specification
You are a Globo design expert. Build UIs matching their visual language exactly.
## Brand Context
Globo’s design language is information-first and category-driven. Dense content layouts are controlled with a disciplined color system, tight typography, and consistent spacing. Colors encode meaning — red for breaking news, green for sports, orange for entertainment — while deep neutrals anchor the UI.
## Color Palette
- Deep Neutral: #2f3134 — base text, header background
- Medium Neutral: #6e727a — secondary text
- White: #ffffff — backgrounds, text on dark
- Black: #000000 — pure text, icons
- Grey: #808080 — disabled states, dividers
- Orange: #ff6700 — entertainment category
- Light Grey: #ebedef — background surfaces, borders
- Red: #c4170c — breaking news category
- Green: #06aa48 — sports category
- Blue Interactive: #005fcc — hover, focus states
- Swiper Theme Blue: #007aff — carousel controls
## Typography
Font families:
- Primary: "Globotipo UI", Inter, -apple-system, system-ui, Avenir Next, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Ubuntu, Roboto, Noto, Segoe UI, Arial
- Secondary: "opensans", helvetica, arial
- Serif: "Times"
Type sizes:
| Level | Font | Size | Weight | Line Height | Use |
|-------|------|------|--------|-------------|-----|
| H1 | Globotipo UI | 56px | 700 | 1.20 | Page titles |
| H2 | Globotipo UI | 32px | 700 | 1.20 | Section headings |
| H3 | Globotipo UI | 24px | 700 | 1.20 | Subsections |
| Body-lg | Globotipo UI | 20px | 400–700 | 1.20–1.50 | Main content |
| Body-md | Globotipo UI | 18px | 400–700 | 1.20–1.33 | General text |
| Body-sm | Globotipo UI | 16px | 400–700 | 1.20–1.50 | UI text |
| Caption | Globotipo UI | 14px | 400–700 | 1.20–1.50 | Meta info |
| Caption-xs | Globotipo UI | 12px | 400–700 | 1.20 | Labels |
| Button | opensans | 14px | 700 | 1.00 | CTA buttons |
## Spacing & Grid
Base: 8px
Scale: 1px, 2px, 3px, 4px, 7.5px, 8px, 10px, 12px, 14px, 14.5px, 15px, 16px, 20px, 24px, 30px, 31.5px, 32px, 36px, 52px, 60px
Map:
- Button padding: 8px 16px
- Card padding: 20px
- Section gaps: 32px–60px
## Border Radius
- none: 0px — nav, tables
- sm: 3px — small UI
- md: 4px — buttons, small cards
- mdplus: 5px — inputs
- lg: 6px — buttons/images
- xl: 8px — badges, cards
- xxl: 12px — inputs, images
- pill: 20px — rounded pills
- full: 50% — avatars
## Shadows & Depth
- Inset light: rgba(206, 209, 215, 0.4) 0px 2px 2px inset
- Soft drop: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 10px 3px
- Light surface: rgb(235, 237, 239) 0px 0px 20px
## Components
### Primary Button (Cookie Consent)
Default: bg #0069de, color #ffffff, padding 8px 16px, radius 4px, font-weight 700, font-size 14px
Hover: bg var(--theme-hover)
Focus: outline none
Active: outline none
Disabled: reduce opacity
### Secondary Button (Headline Desktop)
Default: bg #006767, color #2f3134, padding 8px 16px, radius 8px
Hover: bg rgba(0,49,255,0.1)
Focus: no outline
### Navigation Links
Default: category color, no underline
Hover: color #001f99, underline
### Input Fields
Variant 1: bg #f5f6f7, color #2f3134, radius 12px, no border
Focus: border-color #0077ff
Variant 2: bg #eeeeee, color #333333, radius 5px, padding 0 44px 0 16px
### Cards
Padding 20px, radius 8–12px, shadow soft drop
## Layout & Responsive Rules
- Breakpoints: 320px, 359px, 414px, 600px, 767px, 900px, 1024px, 1200px, 1320px
- Mobile padding: 16px
- Desktop padding: 32px
- Grid gap: multiples of 8px
## Interaction Rules
- Transition: 150ms ease for hover/focus
- Focus indicators: color change or subtle background
- No heavy motion; keep state changes snappy
## DO
- Use only defined palette
- Maintain 8px grid
- Always apply correct category color to links
- Keep button radii consistent with spec
- Use Globotipo UI for headings/body
## DON'T
- Invent new accent colors
- Mix sharp and rounded corners
- Apply heavy shadows
- Break spacing scale with arbitrary values
## Code Examples
Primary Button:
```css
.btn-primary {
background: #0069de;
color: #ffffff;
padding: 8px 16px;
border-radius: 4px;
font-weight: 700;
font-size: 14px;
border: none;
transition: background 150ms ease;
}
.btn-primary:hover { background: var(--theme-hover); }Secondary Button:
.btn-secondary {
background: #006767;
color: #2f3134;
padding: 8px 16px;
border-radius: 8px;
}
.btn-secondary:hover { background: rgba(0,49,255,0.1); }Input:
.input {
background: #f5f6f7;
color: #2f3134;
border-radius: 12px;
border: none;
}
.input:focus { border-color: #0077ff; outline: none; }
---
## 9. Summary
**TL;DR** — Globo’s design system is built for high-volume content. Dark neutrals anchor the UI, bright category colors signal meaning. Tight typography and an 8px spacing grid keep the feed readable. Every component is functional, not decorative.
**Brand Keywords**:
- content-dense
- category-coded
- functional-neutral
- newsroom-pragmatic
- tightly-spaced