# Visual direction

Ground the aesthetic in the subject before choosing colors, type or effects. This reference covers web, audiovisual and fixed graphics; the medium changes expression, not the method.

## One sentence of intent

Write one sentence: *This should feel like **[specific world, material or cultural reference]** because **[reason tied to audience and objective]**.* If it could be reused for five unrelated clients, it is not specific enough.

## Known direction: clarify, do not reinvent

When the idea is already defined, clarify invariants, inspect the real references and materials, and refine within them. Connect specific characteristics of a reference to proposed decisions rather than copying a recognizable composition. Preserve the approved direction; reopen only what the user authorized to change.

## Open direction: two or three real options

When the idea is open, proactively produce two or three genuinely **distinct** concepts specific to the subject, and recommend one with concrete tradeoffs. Each option states:

- central visual idea tied to the subject;
- palette, typography and composition;
- imagery, illustration or material treatment;
- motion/camera language, including intentional stillness;
- one defining moment or sequence, if the concept benefits from one;
- minimum candidate method and its main tradeoff.

Do not offer cosmetic palette variants of the same template, and do not delegate all the creativity to the user: each option must defend why it fits.

## Make one thing characteristic

For web, the first viewport foregrounds the most characteristic thing in the subject's world. For video, define one signature shot, transition or motion idea a viewer could recall. Spend visual boldness there; keep supporting areas disciplined.

## Typography and structure are visual material

Typography carries personality, not just copy: one family or two with clearly different roles, deliberate width, weight, tracking, line-height, case, alignment and line length. Structure (borders, dividers, numbering, cards, grids) should encode hierarchy, sequence, grouping, state or affordance, not decorate empty space.

## Avoid generated defaults

Unless the brief calls for them, be suspicious of warm cream plus serif plus terracotta, near-black plus one acid accent, newspaper layouts on unrelated subjects, identical rounded cards, decorative gradient blobs, tracked all-caps eyebrows, monospace-for-technical, arrows on every link, glassmorphism as a substitute for concept, and effect-driven 3D. All of these can be correct; the problem is using them as defaults when the subject does not ask for them.

## Motion is attention management

Non-user-triggered motion should be selective; one orchestrated sequence often reads as more authored than many independent effects. Good reasons to animate: explain a relationship, preserve spatial continuity, show cause and effect, direct attention, reveal hierarchy, represent progress or state, create rhythm, or make a moment land. Do not ban motion, and do not animate because a library makes it easy.

## Two passes

**Pass 1 — Direction**: palette, type, composition/layout, shape/material, imagery, motion/camera and one signature moment. **Pass 2 — Genericity critique**: could this plan be pasted into another project unchanged; is a trope used because it is easy for a machine to generate; what is genuinely specific; is the signature moment doing the work; what should be removed. Revise before implementation if it still reads as a template. Name the few defaults this direction deliberately excludes, so production does not drift back to them.

## Copy and references

Use real or specific placeholder content; generic marketing phrases make a strong layout feel generic. For video, on-screen copy must be readable at the intended pace, and spoken narration should not redundantly compete with on-screen text unless that repetition is intentional.

When references help, explain the chain: **source/context → specific characteristic → proposed translation → reason it serves this subject**. A reference can be an artifact, publication, material, tradition, place or interface. Borrow a principle, not a recognizable composition. There is no required number of references; inspiration does not grant reuse rights.

For each reference, separate what to **keep** (a controllable quality such as structure, rhythm, density or tone), what to **change** to fit this subject, and what **not to copy** (logos, claims, prices, proprietary UI, copy, a recognizable composition). "Do the same style" means borrowing controllable qualities, not cloning. A measurable constraint ("one warm accent, no purple glow") steers better than an adjective ("premium"). Where real numbers are missing, leave a visible neutral marker rather than inventing a statistic.

## Redesign boundary

Before proposing a redesign, distinguish **preserve / reinterpret / unresolved** for brand, content, information structure, key interactions, assets and technical constraints. A request for a more premium result does not authorize replacing the brand or changing behavior; an explicit overhaul is not constrained to cosmetics. See [design record](design-record.md) for where this boundary lives.