Editorial mode (the system's default) sets type hot and motion slow — exactly right for marketing surfaces, decks, and the preview garden. Product mode pins type smaller, motion faster, and rules tighter — the same brand identity at a lower volume. Same colors, same fonts, same primitives. One voice, two registers.
How you appear in shared spaces.
Why a second register, not a second design system. Editorial mode and product mode share every primitive: the buttons, the strike, the masthead, the rail, the eight themes, signal red as the gap. What differs is intensity. The display token drops from clamp(44px, 5.4vw, ...) to clamp(26px, 3vw, 32px). The slow-duration token drops from 1100ms to 400ms. Product surfaces get a register that fits read-then-act loops; editorial surfaces keep the volume that fits a marketing page. The two-color contract (--color / --backgroundColor) holds across both — no new accent token. The brand is cause→effect, black→white. Adding more colors is what makes systems generic.