Paul BakausandClaude Fable 5
af8b814c99
Overlap audit after the new-work split. brand.md slims to family depth that exists nowhere else (aesthetic-lane tests, named-reference discipline, brand layout moves and permissions); everything it duplicated against new-work.md and the core (font procedure, reject list, color strategy, imagery, scale/leading) is deleted, killing the two-copies-drift hazard. product.md keeps its Operate depth nearly intact (it was not duplicated) and gains a scope note covering Read surfaces. craft.md becomes pure orchestration: gates, foundation, shape handoff, image-gen flow, engineering bar, iterate, present; its duplicated design guidance (imagery rules, visual-craft bullets, mandatory reference reads) is replaced by pointers to SKILL.md's craft floor and new-work.md. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
3.7 KiB
Brand family depth (Persuade and Experience surfaces)
When design IS the product: brand sites, landing pages, campaign pages, portfolios, long-form content, about pages. The essentials live in SKILL.md (modes, craft floor) and, for new identity work, in new-work.md; this file is extended depth for substantial brand work. Rules stated in those files are not repeated here.
The register spans every genre. A tech brand, a luxury hotel, a restaurant, a band's album page, an agency portfolio. They share a stance (communicate, not transact) and diverge wildly in aesthetic. Don't collapse them into one look.
The aesthetic-lane test
Before committing to moves, name the lane. A type-foundry specimen page is one lane; minimal-cool tech is another; acid-maximalism is another. Don't drift into editorial-magazine aesthetics on a brief that isn't editorial; a hiking brand with italic drop caps has the wrong register within the register.
Then the inverse test: in one sentence, describe what you're about to build the way a competitor would describe theirs. If that sentence fits the modal landing page in the category, restart.
Reflex-reject aesthetic lanes
Currently saturated aesthetic families that have flooded brand surfaces. If a brief lands in one of these lanes without a register reason that requires it (a literal magazine, a literal terminal), it's the second-order training reflex: the trap one tier deeper than a reflex font pick. Look further.
- Editorial-typographic. Display serif (often italic) + small mono labels + ruled separators + monochromatic restraint. The fingerprint: three rule-separated columns, an italic serif headline, lowercase track-spaced metadata, no imagery.
(Entries land and leave this list as families saturate and fade.)
The reflex-reject lists apply to new design choices. When the existing brand has already committed to a font or a lane as part of its identity, identity-preservation wins.
Color
- Name a real reference before picking a strategy; unnamed ambition becomes beige.
- Palette IS voice. A calm brand and a restless brand should not share palette mechanics.
- Don't converge across projects. Each brand surface differentiates from the last.
- When a cultural-symbol palette is the obvious pull, reach past it. Let the cultural reading come from typography, imagery, and copy, not the palette.
Layout
- Asymmetric compositions are one option. Break the grid intentionally for emphasis.
- Fluid spacing with
clamp()that breathes on larger viewports. - For image-led briefs (hotels, restaurants, magazines, photography), full-bleed hero imagery with overlaid menu and centered headline is a canonical move; let the photograph be the design.
Brand permissions
Brand can afford things product can't. Take them.
- Ambitious first-load motion. Reveals and typographic choreography that earn their place; one orchestrated page-load beats scattered micro-interactions, and some brands skip entrance motion entirely, which is also a voice.
- Single-purpose viewports. One dominant idea per fold, long scroll, deliberate pacing.
- Art direction per section. Different sections can have different visual worlds if the narrative demands it. Consistency of voice beats consistency of treatment.