The mechanic
Depth is the only hierarchy you need.
Three panes, three depths. The focused one surfaces and catches the light; the rest sink and dim. No border, no colour-weight, no shadow trick does this — only how deep a surface sits in the water.
Lane 1
Dissolved into the water until you bring it up.
Lane 3 — Lap swim
Lifted, brightest, catching the caustic light.
Lane 6
Settled below, waiting its turn to surface.
The divider
A waterline, not a rule.
The page is divided by a shimmering meniscus instead of a grey line. Anything carried across it lands shifted — bent at the surface, the way a straw looks broken where it meets the water. The bend is the divider doing its job.
Crossing the line
Above water reads one value; below, refraction-shifted.
The light
Three accents, spent like sun on water.
A turquoise water-light leads; a warm coral glint and a clear amber sun-spark land only on the brightest edges. Against a deep daylit-teal ground, every accent reads as caught light, never as a flat fill.
Water-light
#1FE6D6 · the primary glow
Coral glint
#FF6E5C · a warm specular catch
Sun-spark
#FFC247 · the brightest crest
The set
A language, its palette, its art style.
Lido ships as one coherent set — depth-based panes, the waterline divider, the refraction-shift, and a caustic light-net, paired with a refractive optical-light art style that treats any subject as if lit and bent through pool water.
Lido
Depth, waterline, refraction-shift, caustic net.
Lido — Daylit Pool
Turquoise, coral, amber on deep teal.
Caustic refraction
Light bent through glass and water.