Gradient

A gradual passage from one colour or tone to another. Used sparingly it suggests light; used freely it suggests indecision.

A gradient is colour in transit, one hue or tone passing into another. Used with intent it describes light: a sky, a falloff, a glow with a source. The site's own veils are gradients doing exactly that work, darkness easing so type can sit on an image.

Used without intent it is indecision made visible, two colours chosen because one could not be. Our gradients must answer a question: where is the light coming from, or what is being shaded? A gradient with no imagined source is decoration borrowing physics it has not earned.