Brand exploration · not production

Stack company cards — design variations

Seven treatments for the ~80 company cards in the AI Stack explorer. Each row uses the same four specimens: a colorful logo (Microsoft), a mark on white (Weaviate, NL flag), a black glyph (Notion), and the monogram fallback (AMD), so every variation is stress-tested against real content.

How to use: hover the cards, pick a winner by number, and I'll wire it into the explorer.

01

Current (baseline)

What ships today: flat card, small logo tile top-left, flag top-right, footer with country. Shown for reference.

🇺🇸
Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
USUnited States
🇳🇱
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NLNetherlands
🇺🇸
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
USUnited States
A🇺🇸
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
USUnited States
02

Strata band

Your split suggestion, grounded in the core-sample metaphor: the top band carries faint sediment lines (thin horizontal strata), the logo sits centered on a floating white tile, the flag becomes a glass chip. Quiet, cohesive, scales to 80 cards without shouting.

🇺🇸
Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
USUnited States
🇳🇱
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NLNetherlands
🇺🇸
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
USUnited States
🇺🇸A
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
USUnited States
03

Overlap seam

Split card where the logo tile straddles the seam between the tinted band (a soft ember-to-magenta corner wash) and the info area. The overlap gives depth without extra height; the tile tips slightly on hover.

🇺🇸
Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
USUnited States
🇳🇱
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NLNetherlands
🇺🇸
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
USUnited States
🇺🇸A
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
USUnited States
04

Ghost watermark

The company's own mark, oversized and ghosted, fills the band's corner while the crisp tile anchors bottom-left. Most dynamic of the light options; the watermark wakes up on hover. Monograms become a giant ghost letter.

Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
US🇺🇸United States
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NL🇳🇱Netherlands
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
US🇺🇸United States
AA
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
US🇺🇸United States
05

Specimen plate (dark band)

The band goes dark (the Eclipse gradient from the brand family) with a mono catalog label and an ember hairline at the seam, echoing the chokepoints panel. Highest contrast and most "collector's item", but 80 dark bands is a heavier page; consider it for hero layers only.

US · SPEC 01🇺🇸
Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
USUnited States
NL · SPEC 02🇳🇱
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NLNetherlands
US · SPEC 03🇺🇸
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
USUnited States
US · SPEC 04🇺🇸A
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
USUnited States
06

Chromatic ghost

The ghost watermark, keyed to each brand: the band backdrop is tinted with the dominant color sampled live from the logo (scored toward saturated hues), the seam and the footer dot carry the full-strength color. Multi-color marks (Microsoft) resolve to their strongest hue; monograms fall back to brand indigo.

Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
US🇺🇸United States
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NL🇳🇱Netherlands
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
US🇺🇸United States
AA
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
US🇺🇸United States
07

Solid plate

No ghost, no tint: the band is the dominant logo color itself, full strength, with the white tile floating on it and a soft top highlight for depth. Every card becomes a brand swatch; the loudest and most app-store-like of the set. Monograms fall back to brand indigo.

🇺🇸
Microsoft Copilot
AI across Office, Windows & GitHub
USUnited States
🇳🇱
Weaviate
Open-source vector search
NLNetherlands
🇺🇸
Notion AI
AI inside docs & workspaces
USUnited States
🇺🇸A
AMD
Credible #2 · MI450 first to 2nm · OpenAI 6GW deal
USUnited States