--- name: design-guide description: Use when a brand needs a one-page visual identity board / "content identity system" — a single landscape image that lays out the logo, tagline, visual DNA, character crew, prop system, color swatches, typography, voice, and a strip of sample content slides. Triggers on "make a brand board", "design guide", "identity system image", "brand style sheet", "one-pager of my brand". Reads brand.md and outputs a detailed image-generation prompt (model-agnostic). Part of the arca-marketing-video kit. --- # Design Guide (Brand Identity Board) You produce ONE detailed image-generation prompt that renders a brand's whole visual identity as a single landscape board — the same artifact as `../_arca-marketing-assets/assets/design-guide.png`, but rebuilt for the user's brand. This board is a reference sheet: it shows, at a glance, how the brand looks, sounds, and shows up in content. It is also the strongest single visual to feed back into the other kit skills for consistency. ## Brand profile (read first) Read `../_arca-marketing-assets/brand.md` first and pull EVERYTHING from it: name + name-usage rules, positioning one-liner, tone, visual world (metaphors + motifs), recurring objects, characters/persona, the exact color palette + hex values, typography, and the hook/CTA examples. The board is just the brand profile laid out visually — do not invent a different identity. If the brand has not run `brand-builder` yet, do that first (this board is only as good as the profile). The brand logo is `../_arca-marketing-assets/assets/logo.png` — reference it as the real logo; never invent or distort a mark. This skill outputs a PROMPT (model-agnostic — paste into Nano Banana / GPT-Image / Imagen / Midjourney / Wyren imageAI). It does not render by itself. --- You are a brand designer laying out a professional, studio-quality "content identity system" one-pager. The board must feel like a real studio's brand sheet for THIS brand: clear and well-organized (so it's usable as a reference), but rendered in the brand's OWN art direction AND emotional register — the medium/finish, typography, character style, and mood (calm/premium, loud/energetic, playful, raw, luxe, …) all come from `brand.md` + what the brand actually is. It should NOT be a cluttered AI collage, and it should NOT default to a clean editorial template — "organized and restrained editorial" is Arca's look, not a kit requirement. This board becomes the canonical style artifact the other kit skills anchor to, so its look must BE the brand's look; if every brand's board comes out looking like a calm editorial sheet, this rule is being ignored. If the brand's art direction is photographic, flat-vector, 3D, collage, hand-drawn, maximalist, or anything else, render the whole board (panels + sample slides) in THAT — don't default to editorial illustration. ## INTAKE — confirm first Before writing the prompt, confirm (one short message, skip if already clear from brand.md): 1. The brand profile is filled in (`brand.md` retargeted to this brand). If it is still the example brand, say so and offer to run `brand-builder`. 2. The logo is available / what it looks like (so the prompt describes it, since most image models cannot ingest the file directly — describe the mark, or tell the user to composite their real logo into the logo panel afterward). 3. Aspect / use: default is a **4:3 landscape board, ~1448 × 1086 px** (matches the reference). Offer 16:9 if they want a slide/cover. ## BOARD STRUCTURE (the panels) Lay the board out as a tidy grid of labeled panels, each with a small numbered tab (01, 02, …) in the top-left. Pull every value from `brand.md`. Default panel set (drop any the brand profile leaves blank): - **Hero block** — the logo + brand name large, the brand tagline/positioning one-liner beneath, and a 1–2 sentence "what we do" blurb. A single signature hero illustration from the brand's visual world sits beside it. - **01 · VISUAL DNA** — 4–6 small swatches of the brand's primary visual metaphors / motifs (e.g. the route line, the wave divider, a tactical card, the highlight marker). Tiny labels under each. - **02 · THE CREW** — the character crew: the main persona + supporting role illustrations in the brand's character style, each with a name + 1-line role. (Omit if the brand uses no characters.) - **03 · RECURRING ITEMS / PROP SYSTEM** — a clean flat-lay of the brand's recurring objects (mug, notebook, laptop, route map, etc.), each large enough to read. - **04 · COLOR PALETTE** — vertical swatches of the exact palette with hex codes and role labels (background / accent / highlight / body text). Use the real hex values from `brand.md`. - **05 · TYPOGRAPHY SYSTEM** — the headline + body type treatment shown as a specimen ("BUILD SYSTEMS. SHIP OUTCOMES." style), with the highlight-color emphasis demonstrated on one word. - **06 · VOICE / COPY** — 3–4 short voice rules or example lines (lead with the founder pain, reframe the bottleneck, give a tactical next step), drawn from the brand's tone + hooks. - **07+ · CONTENT IN ACTION** — a bottom strip of 4–5 miniature sample content slides showing the brand applied: a hook slide, a founder-pain slide, a simple framework/loop, a before/after, and a CTA / case-study card. These are small but legible, and they make the board feel like a working system, not just swatches. ## STYLE RULES (bake into the prompt) - Cohesive and well-organized, rendered in the brand's own art direction and mood (the medium/finish from `brand.md` — premium/editorial is only Arca's pick) — like a real studio's brand sheet for THIS brand, not a generic editorial template. Keep panels legible and clearly divided with consistent numbered tabs; the amount of whitespace and the overall density follow the brand's style (a bold/maximalist brand's board can be denser and louder). - Use the brand's exact palette and the role mapping from `brand.md`. The accent anchors; the highlight is used sparingly on key words; the background is the brand background, not plain white unless the brand is white-led. - Characters and illustrations in the brand's defined character style from `brand.md` (Arca's is mature editorial; another brand may be photographic, flat-vector, 3D, or hand-drawn — follow the profile, don't default to editorial). - Typography matches the brand's type direction from `brand.md`. Spell every label and hex code correctly. - Keep total text legible at panel size — short labels, no fake microcopy, no gibberish UI. - Do NOT: cram more than the panel set, use neon/sci-fi/holographic AI clichés, distort the logo, fill every edge with decoration, or let any one panel dominate. ## OUTPUT FORMAT Output, in order: 1. **BOARD CONCEPT** — one line on the overall look (palette mood + layout rhythm). 2. **PANEL MAP** — the panel list above, each filled with this brand's specific content pulled from `brand.md` (the actual tagline, the actual hex codes + roles, the actual persona names, the actual sample-slide headlines). This is the spec a human or model follows. 3. **IMAGE-GENERATION PROMPT** — one complete, self-contained prompt (several paragraphs) that a model can render directly. It must: - State the format up front (single landscape brand-identity board, ~1448 × 1086, 4:3). - Walk the panels in reading order with their exact content and labels. - Specify the exact hex palette + role mapping, the typography feel, and the character style. - End with the anti-clutter / do-not list (no neon AI clichés, no distorted logo, correct spelling, legible labels, restrained highlight use, organized and legible layout — in the brand's own style, not forced into an editorial template). 4. **LOGO NOTE** — remind the user that most image models cannot ingest `logo.png`; either describe the mark precisely in the prompt or composite the real logo into the hero panel after rendering. 5. **NEXT STEPS** — once rendered, save it over `../_arca-marketing-assets/assets/design-guide.png` so the other skills reference the new board, and use it as a style reference when generating carousels/storyboards. ## QUALITY BAR (self-check before output) - Does every panel's content come from `brand.md` (real tagline, real hex, real persona) — nothing generic? - Are the four color roles shown with correct hex codes? - Would this read as a real studio brand sheet, not an AI collage? - Is the highlight color used sparingly (one or two emphasis moments), matching the brand's restraint? - Did you remind the user about compositing the real logo?