— studio atheric / liquid chrome № 1

we engineer weightless software.

interfaces and systems for clients who care about the difference. two to three at a time. that is the point.

2–3 commissions / yr
∞ iterations
№ 1 edition · mmxxvi
claim a commission →
— liquid chrome № 1 / colophon

how the chrome is made.

No mesh. No texture. No photograph. The blob is a signed-distance field — four metaballs fused with a smooth minimum — raymarched in real time, seventy-two steps per pixel, on your GPU.

Its surface is a thin-film approximation: a spectral ramp keyed to the viewing angle — gold on the faces that meet you, magenta and blue as it curves, violet where it turns away. The bright edge is a fresnel bloom, pushed past the rest so it glows into the dark.

One fragment shader — a dozen kilobytes of math — redrawn fresh sixty times a second. It holds perfectly still when you ask it to.

  • sdf · smooth-union metaballs
  • 72-step raymarch
  • thin-film iridescence
  • fresnel rim bloom
  • 60 fps · dpr-clamped
  • reduced-motion aware
built by hand, in helsinki liquid chrome edition · mmxxvi
— studio atheric
helsinki, fi
est. 2026 hel —:—:—
liquid chrome
№ 1 · ongoing

— the chrome is the machine

this is the drawing.

the molten thing above is the machine — liquid chrome, alive on your gpu. below it the metal cools, and what remains is the studio, measured: a small practice in helsinki that engineers interfaces and systems, drawn to scale.

— index № 01 / the studio

a small studio, a small system.

we engineer interfaces and systems — code, type, motion and copy, built in the right order, never decorated after. two to three commissions a year. that is the point.

x01 what
premium digital work. identities, websites, editorial systems — for clients who care about the difference.
x02 look
editorial, on paper. bone stock, near-black ink, one hot signal-orange accent. hairlines, not shadows.
x03 voice
quiet, declarative. lowercase, first-person plural, one italic-serif breath per line. no emoji, ever.
x04 type
three families. archivo for display, instrument serif for the breaks, jetbrains mono for labels.
x05 mark
a body in orbit. a hairline ring, structural ticks, and one glowing orange punctum.
x06 motion
slow, eased, weighted. long ease-outs. no bounces, no springs, no parallax. the system is calm.
— index № 02 / how we work

three movements, one object.

  1. movement i

    sculpt

    we listen first, then shape the object in code, type, motion and copy — built in the right order, never decorated after.

  2. movement ii

    forge

    we pour the system. tokens, surfaces, glass and grain. it runs in the browser the day it is born, not in a deck.

  3. movement iii

    polish

    we refuse to ship until it feels still. the hum. a surface you are willing to come back to, twice.

— index № 03 / the cabinet

selected specimens.

specimen № 01interface

marais

mmxxv
specimen № 02type foundry

cipher

mmxxv
specimen № 03quarterly

under the code

mmxxiv
specimen № 04liquid glass

aeon

mmxxvi

different objects, one bench — breadth is the evidence, not the pitch.

— index № 04 / voice

quiet, on purpose.

a surface should feel like a room you are willing to come back to, twice.

+ do

  • lowercase headlines — capitals are for mono labels and proper nouns.
  • one italic-serif word per heading — the breath.
  • em-dashes as punctuation; roman numerals for editions.
  • first-person plural — “we sculpt”, “we listen”.

— do not

  • title case or shouting capitals.
  • exclamation marks. ever.
  • “solutions”, “leverage”, “scale”, “world-class”.
  • emoji of any kind — typographic glyphs only.
— let's begin

a small thing, and finish it well.

write to us

quiet, on purpose. no retainers, on principle.