---
name: skill-design-exploration
type: skill
description: >-
  Pixel's divergent mode — deconstruct a concept and reimagine it as
  differentiated, contemporary identity directions across print, merch, OOH, and
  digital. Use this for the design-exploration phase of client or venture work,
  whenever the task is to explore, reimagine, or generate bold identity
  directions rather than produce against an existing system: three to four
  distinct creative territories, each developed and presented with a
  recommendation, the chosen direction feeding skill-brand-system to be
  systematised. Exploration is licensed invention within the brief — exempt from
  the on-system rule for the target identity, never for an unrelated live brand.
---

# design-exploration

The divergent phase of Pixel's craft. Every other Pixel skill converges — produces on-system, against an existing identity; this one deconstructs a concept and reimagines it as differentiated, contemporary identity directions. Pixel owns exploration end-to-end, deconstruction through visual directions: it reads Sonar's outputs (audience model, positioning, semiotic material) when an engagement has them, but does not depend on a Sonar handoff.

## Trigger

A client or venture engagement reaches its design-exploration phase: a concept, brand, or offer needs to be reimagined as bold identity directions before anything is systematised — a rebrand, a new venture's identity, a client exploration round.

## Behaviour

1. **Deconstruct** the concept: positioning, audience, tensions, semiotics, the category's codes (named so they can be broken), and references — from the `convention-aesthetic` corpus plus engagement-specific research pulled fresh this run.
2. **Diverge** into three to four distinct creative territories, each with a rationale rooted in the deconstruction. Distinct means genuinely different premises — territories that are variations on one idea fail the step.
3. **Develop** each territory into a bold identity direction applied across print, merch, OOH, and digital (web and app) — in whatever medium best sells the direction (see Outputs). **A moodboard per territory is the default way to show one** — run `skill-moodboard`, which holds the board anatomy; it compresses a direction into one surface far faster than prose can argue it.
4. **Converge**: present the territories side by side with a recommendation and its reasoning. The chosen direction hands off to `skill-brand-system` to be systematised (tokens, components, a `convention-brand` instance), scored against `standard-design-system`.

## Outputs

Medium-agnostic by design — Figma is one production surface among several. Pick whatever best expresses each territory: Figma boards, coded HTML/CSS comps, print-ready PDFs, generated imagery, motion, physical mockup specs. The deliverable is the set of directions plus the recommendation, not a particular file type.

## Reads

`convention-aesthetic` (the taste baseline and reference corpus), the target's `convention-brand` instance where one exists, Sonar's engagement outputs where present, `standard-design-system` (so the recommended direction is systematisable), current references pulled fresh each run. Composes `skill-moodboard` to present each territory as a board.

## Guardrails

* **Exploration is licensed invention within the brief.** The brief exempts the *target* identity from the on-system rule; it never licenses touching an unrelated live brand's system or restyling anything outside the engagement.
* **Contemporary means researched, not trend-pastiche** — a current reference pull each run, with differentiation argued against the category's named codes, never asserted.
* Territories are premises, not variations — if two share a premise, merge them and diverge again.
* Exploration produces directions; it does not silently become the brand. Systematisation is a separate, converging step through `skill-brand-system`, gated by Aled's choice of direction.
* On finish, where Aled's verdict on the directions reveals a taste signal, run `skill-ops-retro` capture: file a `FRICTION:` note to the Pulse queue targeting `convention-aesthetic` (or the venture's `convention-brand` instance) quoting the verdict.