# Hodios paste pack: Graphic design
Everything in Graphic design from Hodios, the open prompt library by Hermes IDE: 8 entries, catalog 2026.1002.2.
Every entry is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. Copy, change and share them freely, no attribution needed.
Browse and search the library at https://hermes-ide.com/prompts
## How to use
Find an entry below and copy the text inside its block into ChatGPT, claude.ai or any chat. Replace each [PLACEHOLDER] with your own material. Personas, rules and styles work best as custom instructions or project instructions.
## Contents
- Graphic design
- [Create an accessible colour palette](#create-color-palette) (prompt)
- [Critique a graphic design](#critique-graphic-design) (prompt)
- [Design social media post templates](#design-social-media-templates) (prompt)
- [Pair typefaces for a brand](#pair-typefaces) (prompt)
- [Plan an infographic](#design-infographic) (prompt)
- [Prepare artwork for print](#prepare-print-files) (prompt)
- [Specify a presentation template](#design-presentation-template) (prompt)
- [Write a creative brief for a designer](#write-design-brief) (prompt)
---
## Create an accessible colour palette
`create-color-palette` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/create-color-palette
Creates a brand colour palette with roles (primary, accents, neutrals, status), tonal scales and computed text-contrast results for every pairing. Use when building a brand or product colour system.
````markdown
Generated palettes often look good as swatches and fail in use: the brand colour cannot carry white text, there is no neutral scale for real interfaces, status colours clash with the brand, and contrast is claimed rather than computed. A usable palette gives every colour a job, provides enough tints and shades to build interfaces and layouts, and shows the contrast of each text pairing with real numbers.
Create a colour palette for this brand.
[BRAND_PERSONALITY]
If no base colours were given, choose them from the personality and explain the choice. If base colours were given, keep them exactly; adjust only the colours you add.
1. **Direction:** translate the personality into a colour direction (hue family, saturation, lightness, warm or cool neutrals) in 2 to 3 sentences, noting any colour conventions in the industry or audience to follow or avoid.
2. **Roles:** define primary, 1 to 2 accents, neutrals (slightly tinted towards the primary hue unless a pure grey is wanted), and status colours: success, warning, danger, info. Status colours must be distinguishable from the brand colours and from each other, and the brand colour must not double as a status colour (a red brand needs a danger red that reads differently, or a second cue).
3. **Scales:** build a 10-step tonal scale (50 to 900) for the primary and the neutral, and for each status colour the 3 steps an interface needs: a tinted background, a border or icon step, and a text step. Space steps evenly in perceived lightness: give the target OKLCH lightness for each step (for example 0.97 at 50 down to 0.25 at 900) with hue held steady and chroma reduced at the extremes, then the hex value. Hex values converted by hand are approximate; say so once and tell the user to regenerate the ramp in an OKLCH tool from the listed lightness, hue and chroma targets.
4. **Contrast:** compute the WCAG 2 contrast ratio for the 8 to 12 text pairings the usage rules actually recommend: body and secondary text on each background, text on the primary button, the link colour on the background, and each status text step on its tinted background. Use relative luminance from linearised sRGB (channel c/255; if at most 0.04045 divide by 12.92, else ((c + 0.055) / 1.055) ^ 2.4; L = 0.2126 R + 0.7152 G + 0.0722 B) and ratio = (L1 + 0.05) / (L2 + 0.05). Show both luminance values so the result can be checked, and truncate the ratio to two decimals. Mark each pass or fail against 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text and UI components.
5. **Fix failures** by choosing a darker or lighter step from the same scale, not by changing the hue. If the given brand colour itself fails as a button background with white text, keep it for large elements and accents and name the darker step to use behind text.
6. **Usage rules:** proportions (for example mostly neutrals, primary for actions and key moments, accents sparingly), which step to use for text, backgrounds, borders and hover, and what never to do (such as status red for decoration).
7. **Colour-vision check:** say where the palette relies on red versus green or other confusable pairs, and require a second cue (icon, label, pattern) there.
8. If the personality is too vague to pick a direction ("nice colours"), ask 2 to 3 questions about audience, feeling and competitors, then stop.
- Show computed ratios. If you cannot compute reliably, say so and mark the pair "to verify" instead of guessing.
- Never round a ratio up to a pass (4.47 is a fail).
- Do not describe colours with emotional claims as fact ("blue builds trust"); call them associations that vary by culture.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
## Direction
## Palette
| Role | Name | Hex | Use |
## Scales
Primary and neutral: | Step | OKLCH target (L, C, H) | Hex (approx.) | Typical use |
Status colours: | Status | Background | Border or icon | Text |
## Contrast
| Foreground | Background | L1 / L2 | Ratio | Normal text | Large text and UI |
## Usage rules
## Notes
Assumptions, colour-vision notes, and pairs still to verify.
````
---
## Critique a graphic design
`critique-graphic-design` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/critique-graphic-design
Gives structured, prioritised feedback on a poster, social graphic, slide or layout covering purpose, hierarchy, typography, colour, composition and production. Use before finalising a design.
````markdown
Useful design feedback is specific, tied to the purpose, and ordered: the one change that fixes the read from three metres away matters more than a kerning pair. Unhelpful feedback is taste ("I don't love the green"), vague ("make it pop"), or a rewrite of the designer's style. The critic's job is to say whether the piece communicates, to whom, in its real viewing context, and what would make it communicate better.
Critique this design.
[DESIGN]
1. State the purpose, the audience and the viewing context (distance, time spent, screen or print). If not given, infer them and say so.
2. **Read test:** describe the order in which the eye moves through the piece, and whether the one thing the viewer must take away is read first. For posters, judge the read at a distance; for feeds, at thumbnail size in under two seconds.
3. Review, noting only what matters:
- **Hierarchy:** a clear entry point, contrast of size, weight and colour between levels, and how many competing focal points there are.
- **Typography:** typeface fit and number of families, size steps, line length and leading, alignment and rag, tracking, widows and orphans, and legibility at the viewing size.
- **Colour:** contrast between text and background (judge large-text and small-text legibility separately), harmony, brand fit, and meaning carried by colour alone.
- **Composition:** grid, alignment, balance, white space, edges and margins, image cropping, and the path the eye takes.
- **Imagery and copy:** do image and words reinforce each other, and is the copy as short as it can be?
4. For each point, give the observation, why it matters for the purpose, and a concrete change. Prioritise as **must fix** (hurts the message), **should fix** (weakens it) or **consider** (refinement).
5. **Production checks** for the medium: print (bleed, safe margins, resolution of at least 300 ppi at final size, CMYK or spot colours, minimum type size, rich black) or screen (platform safe zones and crops, text legibility on mobile, file size and format).
6. Describe the next version in a few lines: what changes, and what stays.
- Separate taste from function. Label anything that is taste as "taste" and never mark it must fix.
- Respect the designer's style; suggest changes within it unless the style itself works against the purpose.
- When working from a description, mark judgements that depend on details you cannot see. Do not state exact contrast ratios unless you have exact colours.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
## Verdict
2 sentences: does it work for its purpose, and the single most important change.
## What works
Up to 4 bullets, specific.
## Feedback
| Priority | Area | Observation | Why it matters | Change |
## Production checks
Checklist for the medium, each marked ok, issue or unknown.
## Next version
````
---
## Design social media post templates
`design-social-media-templates` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/design-social-media-templates
Designs a set of social post templates with formats per platform, a grid, type, colour, image treatment and rules for variety. Use when a brand or creator wants a consistent but flexible feed.
````markdown
Social templates usually fail in one of two ways: a single template reused until the feed looks like wallpaper and every post blurs together, or no system at all, so every post looks like a different brand. Platform interfaces also cover parts of the image (usernames, captions, buttons), and text placed there is hidden. A good template set is a small kit of layouts tied to content types, built on one grid with safe zones per format, with rules that create variety on purpose so the feed is recognisable at a glance without being repetitive.
Design a social media template set.
[BRAND]
Use only the brand values given; mark missing ones [TBD]. If there is no brand information, ask for it and stop.
1. **System principles.** Three to five rules, for example "one idea per post", "text on images is a headline, not a paragraph", "brand colour frames the post; the photo is the hero".
2. **Formats.** For each platform in use (or a sensible core set if none were given: a 4:5 portrait feed post, a 1:1 square, a 9:16 vertical story or short-video cover, and a 16:9 or 1.91:1 landscape link image), give the aspect ratio and a common pixel size. Platform specifications change: tell the user to confirm current sizes in each platform's help pages before production.
3. **Grid and safe zones.** A shared grid with margins, and safe zones per format where the interface overlays content (for example the top and bottom of vertical stories, and the centre crop of a portrait post shown as a square in profile grids). Keep text and logos inside them.
4. **Typography.** Fonts with fallbacks available in the production tool, a type scale for headline, subhead, body and caption on a phone screen, maximum words per slide or post, and line length.
5. **Colour.** Background and accent roles from the brand colours, the number of background colours to rotate, text-on-background combinations that pass 4.5:1 contrast, and how photos and colour blocks combine.
6. **Image treatment.** Photography and illustration style, cropping, overlays or duotones if used, how to handle user-generated or partner content, and what never to do (heavy filters, stretched logos, low-resolution images).
7. **Templates.** One template per content type, typically 6 to 10 in total: purpose, format(s), layout description zone by zone, fixed elements (logo position, frame, handle) and flexible elements (image, headline, colour). Include a carousel structure (hook slide, content slides with progress cues, closing slide with a call to action) and a story or vertical template.
8. **Variety rules.** How to rotate templates, colours and image types across a week or a 9-post grid so the feed stays varied; rules such as "never three text-only posts in a row"; and how to break the template for big moments.
9. **Accessibility.** Alt text for every image post, captions on video, sufficient text size and contrast, no meaning by colour alone, and limited text baked into images (put the message in the caption too).
10. **Production notes.** How to build the templates in the tool named (locked brand elements, editable fields, colour and font styles, naming), file export settings, and a pre-post checklist.
- Do not invent brand colours, fonts or logos. Exact platform sizes are given as common values to confirm.
- Fit the template count to the posting frequency and team; a solo creator posting twice a week needs fewer templates than a brand team posting daily.
- Do not copy another brand's templates or trade dress.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. Formats as a table: | Platform | Placement | Ratio | Common size (confirm) | Safe-zone notes |. Templates as a table: | # | Template | Content type | Format | Layout | Fixed | Flexible |. End with the pre-post checklist as `- [ ]` items.
````
---
## Pair typefaces for a brand
`pair-typefaces` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/pair-typefaces
Suggests typeface pairings with rationale, roles, weights, a starter type scale, fallbacks and licensing notes. Use when choosing fonts for a brand, site or publication.
````markdown
Font-pairing advice is usually a list of famous names with "classic and modern" as the reason. A pairing works when the two faces have a clear job each, differ enough to be distinguishable but share proportions or structure so they sit together, and hold up in the real medium: small sizes on screens, long reading in print, the languages the brand writes in, and the licence the budget allows.
Suggest typeface pairings for this brand, for web.
[BRAND_PERSONALITY]
1. Turn the personality into 3 to 4 typographic traits (for example "warm, humanist, high legibility at small sizes, slightly editorial"), and say which ones are must-haves.
2. Propose 3 to 4 pairings. At least one should be free to use under an open licence, and at least one should be a different structural idea (for example serif plus sans, then sans plus mono, or a superfamily with matching serif and sans). For each pairing give:
- the faces and their roles (display or headings, body, UI or captions, optional mono or numerals);
- why they pair: contrast in classification or weight, and shared traits such as x-height, proportions, stroke contrast or construction;
- the weights and styles actually needed (keep it to the fewest files that cover the roles), and whether a variable version exists;
- legibility notes for web: small-size rendering and hinting on screens, or text colour and paper for print; tabular figures if numbers matter;
- language and script coverage relevant to the brief;
- licensing: open licence (such as the SIL Open Font License), subscription service, or commercial foundry licence, and what each covers (desktop, web, app embedding, page views).
3. Recommend one pairing and say why it fits best.
4. Give a starter type scale for the recommended pairing: 5 to 7 steps from caption to display, with sizes, line heights and the face and weight for each. For web, use rem values and a ratio; for print, use points.
5. Give fallbacks: a system font stack for web, or substitutes if the licence is out of budget.
- Recommend only real, currently available typefaces. If you are not certain a face exists under that exact name, or of its licence terms or language coverage, say "verify" rather than guessing.
- Licensing terms vary by foundry and change. Always tell the user to confirm the licence for their use (web, app, print run, logo) with the foundry or distributor.
- Do not pick fonts on novelty. Legibility at the real sizes comes first.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
## Brief
The traits, with must-haves marked.
## Pairings
For each: a heading with the pairing, then a table | Role | Typeface | Weights | Notes |, followed by the reason it pairs, the medium notes, coverage and licence.
## Recommendation
## Type scale
| Step | Use | Face and weight | Size | Line height |
## Licensing and delivery
Licences to confirm, fallbacks, and for web, how to load the fonts (self-hosting, subsetting, `font-display`).
````
---
## Plan an infographic
`design-infographic` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/design-infographic
Plans an infographic around one message, with the information hierarchy, chart and icon choices, a layout in zones, the copy and source notes. Use when turning data or a story into a single graphic.
````markdown
Most infographics are a vertical stack of unrelated facts, icons and big numbers with no point, and often a misleading chart: a truncated axis, a 3D pie, icons scaled by height so the area exaggerates the difference, or numbers with no source. A good infographic makes one point that a reader gets in five seconds, then supports it with a few pieces of evidence arranged in a clear order, and is honest about where every number comes from.
Plan an infographic for this format: portrait social post, 1080x1350 px.
[DATA_OR_STORY]
1. **The message.** Write the one sentence the reader should remember, as a headline with a verb ("Cycling to work has doubled in our city since 2015"). Give two alternatives with different angles and recommend one for the audience. If the data does not support a clear message, say so and suggest what is missing.
2. **Data check.** List every figure you will use with its source, date and unit. Flag figures with no source, mixed time periods or definitions, percentages without a base, and comparisons that are not like for like. Do not use any figure that was not supplied.
3. **Hierarchy.** Three levels: the headline and the hero visual (the one chart or figure that proves the message), 2 to 4 supporting points, and details (footnotes, method, sources). Cut anything that does not support the message and list what was cut.
4. **Visual choices.** For each data point, choose the form and explain it: a single big number with context for one figure; a bar chart for comparisons (axis starting at zero); a line for change over time; a stacked bar or waffle chart for parts of a whole (pie charts only for two or three parts); a map only when geography matters; a flow or timeline for processes; an icon array for counts of people. Avoid 3D, area-scaled pictograms and dual axes. Choose icons only where they aid recognition, in one consistent style.
5. **Layout.** Describe the layout zone by zone in reading order for the format: the headline zone, hero visual, supporting points, and footer with sources and logo. Say how the eye moves through it, the grid, approximate proportions of each zone, and how the design adapts if it must also appear as a square crop or a slide.
6. **Copy.** Write every piece of text: headline, subheading, chart titles that state the finding, labels and annotations, supporting points of no more than 15 words each, footnotes and the source line. Keep the total word count low for the format.
7. **Style notes.** Colour use (a neutral base, one highlight colour for the key data, colours that stay distinguishable for colour-blind readers), type hierarchy with sizes relative to the format, and minimum text size readable on a phone if published on social media.
8. **Accessibility.** Alt text (a short description of the message and key figures) and a longer text equivalent for the web, contrast, and not relying on colour alone.
- Never invent, round in a misleading way or extrapolate figures. If a key number is missing, write [figure needed] and say where it might be found.
- Charts must not distort: bars start at zero, consistent scales across compared charts, areas proportional to values.
- Keep claims within what the data shows; correlation is not presented as causation.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. The data check as a table: | Figure | Value | Source | Date | Issue |. The layout as a numbered list of zones from top to bottom. The copy as a list keyed to the zones.
````
---
## Prepare artwork for print
`prepare-print-files` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/prepare-print-files
Prepares artwork for print with bleed, margins, resolution, colour mode, fonts, paper and finishes, and gives a preflight checklist for the printer. Use before sending any design to a printer.
````markdown
Print problems cost money and are discovered only when the boxes arrive: white slivers at the edge because there was no bleed, text trimmed off because it sat too close to the edge, blurry photos copied from the web, bright screen blues that print dull, a rich black that smudges in small text, missing fonts replaced by defaults, or a fold that cuts through a headline. Every printer has its own requirements, so a reliable process starts from their spec sheet and checks the file against it before sending.
Prepare this artwork for print.
[PRINT_ITEM]
1. **Specification.** Summarise the job: finished (trim) size, document size including bleed, pages or panels, colours (CMYK, spot colours, or both), quantity, and the likely printing method (digital for short runs, offset for longer runs, large-format for posters and signs). If no printer specs were given, say you are using common defaults and mark each with "(confirm with printer)".
2. **Document setup.** Bleed (commonly 3 mm or 0.125 inch on each edge, more for some products such as packaging or bound covers); safe area or quiet zone (commonly 3 to 5 mm inside the trim, more near folds and bindings); for folded items, the panel widths (inside panels of a roll or letter fold are slightly narrower so they tuck in) and fold lines on a separate non-printing layer; for saddle-stitched booklets, page counts in multiples of four and allowance for creep; dielines for packaging or special shapes on their own spot layer set to overprint, as the printer specifies.
3. **Images and colour.** Image resolution of about 300 ppi at final printed size (less for large posters viewed from a distance, as the printer advises), never upscaled from screen images; colour mode CMYK using the printer's colour profile, with conversion from RGB done once and checked for colour shifts (bright blues, greens and oranges often dull); total ink coverage within the printer's limit; black text as 100 per cent black only, and rich black only for large solid areas; spot colours named exactly as the printer and swatch book require; transparency and effects flattened or preserved according to the export standard.
4. **Type and lines.** Fonts embedded or, if the printer requires, converted to outlines in a copy of the file (keep the editable original); minimum text sizes (small text, reversed text and thin serifs need extra care, especially on uncoated paper); minimum line weight (often around 0.25 pt); no text in the bleed or safe area except intentional background elements.
5. **Paper and finish.** Recommend paper weight and type for the item (coated or uncoated, matt or gloss), noting that uncoated paper absorbs ink and makes colours duller and darker; finishes such as lamination, spot UV, foil or embossing and how each must be supplied (usually a separate spot-colour layer or file, 100 per cent of a named spot colour); scoring for folds on heavier stock.
6. **Export settings.** A print-ready PDF using a standard the printer accepts (PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4 are common), with bleed and crop marks as requested, the correct output intent, no compression that reduces image quality, and one file per item or as the printer requests. Note the equivalent settings for the design tool named, if any.
7. **Preflight checklist.** A yes-or-no checklist to run before sending, covering every point above plus spelling, phone numbers, URLs and QR codes tested, and the final quantity and size.
8. **Questions for the printer.** What to confirm before ordering, and the proof to request (a digital proof at minimum, a hard proof for colour-critical work).
- Printer requirements override general defaults. Never present a default as the printer's requirement.
- Do not promise exact colour matches between screen and print; explain that a physical proof is the only reliable check.
- Keep advice specific to the item and the tool named; skip settings that do not apply.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. The specification as a table: | Setting | Value | Source (printer / default - confirm) |. The preflight checklist as `- [ ]` items grouped by section.
````
---
## Specify a presentation template
`design-presentation-template` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/design-presentation-template
Specifies a branded presentation template with master layouts, type scale, colour use, chart styles, image rules and do and don't examples. Use when brand or comms teams build a slide template.
````markdown
Company slide templates usually contain a beautiful title slide and an empty content slide, so every presenter improvises: 14-point text, six colours in a pie chart, logos pasted on every slide, stretched photos and fonts that fall back to defaults on someone else's laptop. A template that works is built for the people who will actually fill it, under time pressure, in their tool: a small set of layouts that cover real content, styles that make the right choice the easy one, and rules short enough to remember.
Specify a presentation template.
[BRAND]
Use only the brand values given. If colour values or fonts are missing, mark them [TBD] and continue; if there is no brand information at all, ask for it and stop.
1. **Template principles.** Three to five rules for presenters (for example "one message per slide, stated in the title", "the brand shows through colour and type, not logos on every slide").
2. **Format and grid.** 16:9 by default (say if a use case needs 4:3 or a portrait format for documents), margins, a column grid, safe areas for projection, and where the title, body, footer, slide number and source line sit.
3. **Master layouts.** Specify 10 to 14 layouts that cover the use cases, for example: title, agenda, section divider, title and body, two columns, big statement or number, chart with takeaway title, table, image with caption, full-bleed image with text, quote, team or people, comparison, and closing. For each: purpose, placeholders and their positions on the grid, and when to use it. Add document-style layouts if decks are sent rather than presented.
4. **Typography.** Font families with fallbacks that are installed or embeddable in the tool named, so decks do not break on other computers; a type scale in points for titles, subtitles, body, captions and footnotes with line spacing; minimum sizes for presented slides (body text no smaller than about 18 points) and for read-only documents; title style as an action title stating the takeaway.
5. **Colour.** The theme colour slots of the tool (background, text, accents) mapped to brand colours, roles and proportions, which combinations are allowed for text, and a chart palette order of 4 to 6 colours plus a highlight colour and a neutral for "everything else".
6. **Charts and tables.** Default chart styles (no 3D, no shadows, light or no gridlines, direct labels instead of legends where possible, one highlighted series), when to use bar, line, stacked and scatter, table styles (alignment of numbers, row shading, header style), and the source line format.
7. **Images and icons.** Photography and illustration style, cropping and placement rules, never stretching or adding effects, image resolution, icon style and sizes, and logo usage (title and closing slides only, unless a rule says otherwise).
8. **Accessibility.** Contrast of text on every background (4.5:1 for body text), reading order set in each layout, alt text for meaningful images, no meaning by colour alone, slide titles unique so navigation works, and captions or notes for embedded video.
9. **Do and don't.** Eight pairs, each describing a concrete slide example.
10. **Build notes.** How to build the template in the tool named: master and layout setup, theme colours and fonts, placeholder types, locked elements, file naming and where the template lives, and a short presenter quick-start of five bullets.
- Do not invent colour codes, fonts or logo versions.
- Keep the layout set small: every layout must map to a real use case, and say which.
- Tool features differ; only recommend features available in the named tool, and say when something needs a workaround.
- Separate what you verified from what you inferred. Mark inferences as such.
- When you do not know, say "I don't know" once and state what would settle it.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings. Master layouts as a table:
| # | Layout | Purpose | Placeholders and positions | Use case |
Type scale as a table: | Style | Font | Size (pt) | Line spacing | Use |
Do and don't as a two-column table.
````
---
## Write a creative brief for a designer
`write-design-brief` · prompt · Graphic design · https://hermes-ide.com/prompts/write-design-brief
Writes a one-page creative brief with objective, audience, single key message, deliverables, mandatories, constraints, references and success criteria. Use before commissioning design work.
````markdown
Most bad design work starts with a bad brief: "make it modern and eye-catching", five things to say with equal weight, no sizes, no deadline for feedback, and an approver who appears at the final round with new opinions. A good brief is short, makes the hard choices up front (one objective, one key message, one primary audience), lists exactly what files are needed, and says how the work will be judged.
Write a creative brief for this project.
[PROJECT]
If no deadline was given, write "TBD" for it and list it in Open questions.
1. **Background:** the situation in 2 to 4 sentences: why this work, why now.
2. **Objective:** one sentence describing what the design must make the audience think, feel or do, measurable where possible ("increase workshop sign-ups from the flyer QR code"). If the input has several objectives, rank them and make the first one primary.
3. **Audience:** the primary audience, what they already believe, and the context in which they will see the work (walking past a poster, scrolling a feed, reading a 40-page report).
4. **Key message:** the single most important thing to communicate, in one sentence, plus up to three supporting points in priority order.
5. **Tone:** 3 adjectives with a "not" for each ("confident, not arrogant").
6. **Deliverables:** a table of every file needed: item, format, dimensions or size, colour space (CMYK or RGB), quantity, and where it will be used. Include source files if they are needed.
7. **Mandatories:** what must appear (logo, legal lines, URL, QR code, accessibility requirements) and brand rules that apply.
8. **Constraints:** budget, print or platform specifications (bleed, safe zones, file size limits), languages, and anything off-limits.
9. **References:** what references or competitors to look at, and what to take from each, or the gap the designer should fill if none were given.
10. **Success criteria:** how the work will be judged at review, matching the objective.
11. **Timeline and approvals:** milestones (concepts, revisions, final), number of revision rounds, who gives feedback and who approves.
12. Where the input is missing something important, write "TBD" in that field instead of inventing it, and add a question.
- Fit the brief on about one page. Cut anything that does not help the designer make a decision.
- Do not prescribe the design solution (layouts, colours, imagery) unless it is a brand rule. Describe the problem and the constraints.
- Do not invent budgets, dates, specifications or brand rules.
- Lead with the answer. Add reasoning only where it changes what the reader will do.
- No preamble, no restating the request and no closing summary on a short answer.
Markdown with the contract's sections as `##` headings, in order. Deliverables as a table. Open questions last, as a numbered list for the person commissioning the work.
````