Anti-Polish / Raw Aesthetic
Also called: Raw aesthetic, Zine UI, DIY / xerox style, Anti-design
A photocopied zine: grainy recycled paper, masking tape, marker scribbles, rubber stamps and cut-out scraps placed slightly off-grid.
Design keywords
Say these words to ask for this style.
Anti-polish rejects the smooth, gradient-perfect product look in favour of something visibly hand-made. Pages sit on grainy recycled paper with a photocopier vignette; content lives on paper scraps held down by translucent masking tape, nudged a few pixels off the grid. Headlines are in fat marker, body text is typewriter, and key words get red marker underlines, circles and rubber-stamp labels. Images look xeroxed — halftone dots, harsh black and white. It signals authenticity and personality over corporate sheen.
Best for
- Independent studios, artists and musicians
- Indie magazines, newsletters and podcasts
- Craft food, coffee and small-batch brands
- Community projects, workshops and events
Avoid for
- Banks, insurers and healthcare portals
- Enterprise SaaS and data-dense dashboards
- Luxury brands that sell perfection
✓ Do
- Use a real grain texture (SVG noise at 25–40%) on the page and paper cards
- Tilt content scraps ±0.7° and nudge them ≤8px; tape strips -8°…+5°; only the hero scrap cluster goes to ±2°
- Reserve red marker for one scribble per section (underline, circle or arrow); the nav ellipse counts with the hero, and in steps or stats only the first value is circled
- Keep body copy in a readable typewriter or plain hand at 16px+
✕ Don't
- No smooth gradients, glass, glows or smooth 3D (the vignette and halftone are gradient-built print textures)
- Don’t set paragraphs in the marker display font
- Don’t make every element taped and rotated — leave calm scraps
- Don’t use bright brand colours; stay with toner black, paper, kraft, highlighter yellow and red
Not to be confused with
On mobile
Keep the paper grain on the screen background only (not on every card) to save paint cost. Cards become taped paper scraps with ±0.5° tilt; the tab bar is a torn paper strip with the active tab circled in red marker. Keep form fields straight and clearly outlined.
Prompt builder
Paste into Claude, Cursor, v0, Lovable or any coding agent to recreate this style.