Reverse Engineered - GF Smith

Have you ever seen a brand and thought, ‘I wish I could create something like that’? Us too! That’s why we’re peeling back the layers of our favorite brands to uncover what makes them stand out and using Dropmark to turn them into creative inspiration fuel.

Few brands treat paper like a playground the way GF Smith does. Their website isn’t just a catalog of stock, it’s an experience that celebrates color, texture, and movement in a way that feels both meticulously refined and emotionally expressive. Using Dropmark, we reverse-engineered the design language behind the new GF Smith digital presence to understand how it all comes together, built by Templo.

Here’s how it all comes together:

The Logo
The GF Smith logo is a blocky, almost calligrammatic stack of letters that reads like a name and stands like a stamp. Designed from their custom typeface, GF Smith Homie, the logo transforms a traditional wordmark into a compact emblem that serves as both a logo and a personified identity. It reflects GF Smith’s belief that typography itself is a visual material.

Typography
The primary typeface used throughout the site resembles a modern grotesque with warm details, striking a balance between utility and character. While the logo leans hard into sculptural form, the body and UI text offer a clear, modular rhythm that makes browsing seamless.

UI Decisions
Animated text-based buttons that gently animate on hover.
Mouse hover effects on paper textures that subtly react with lighting—a mix of light and dark shadow movements that mimic how real paper shifts in light.
Scroll-triggered transitions, especially on their color card pages, where cards slide into view from the side as you scroll.
Sticky navigation bars that maintain minimal presence while keeping key links accessible.

Motion + Texture
This is where the brand really sings. The site is filled with quiet, precise motion:
Paper swatches that hover and tilt like they’re being lifted from a desk.
Gradual fades and slides instead of quick transitions, keeping the rhythm meditative.
Shadow animations that add dimensionality to otherwise flat UI components.

Color
Naturally, color takes center stage. GF Smith offers hundreds of papers, but their site doesn’t overwhelm. Instead, each scroll or swipe introduces a new hue with confidence and clarity. Cards slide in with deliberate timing, and color becomes a storytelling tool rather than a background element.

Final Thoughts
GF Smith’s digital identity extends its paper philosophy into the browser. It honors materiality through code, layering typographic integrity with intentional movement. For designers and developers, it’s a masterclass in translating brand essence into interactive environments.

Build your breakdown
We used Dropmark to collect references and dissect how each design choice supports GF Smith and the playful nature of paper. You can view our full mood board here.

Want to try it yourself? Find a brand you admire, start a collection, and break down what’s working—from type choices to layout systems. Reverse engineering is a great way to sharpen your eye, and Dropmark makes it simple to stay organized while you do it.

By breaking down brands into their key elements, we can return to these inspirational collections for future projects (It also doubles as a creative exercise if you feel stuck). This spin on inspiration hunting takes the pressure off a blank page. It allows you to explore what makes designs resonate with you, rather than forcing gold from your pen when the ink feels dry.

We hope you enjoyed this edition of Reverse Engineered. If this type of project inspires you, we hope you make your own! Take a look at our collection to explore further, or get started on your own! Let us know if you’ve got a suggestion for who we should reverse engineer next!