--- name: skill-moodboard type: skill description: >- Assemble a curated mixed-media moodboard that presents one visual direction as a designed artefact, in the register of a contemporary studio reveal. Use this whenever Pixel needs to show what a direction looks and feels like before it is systematised — a per-territory board inside a design-exploration round, a brand reveal for a venture or client, or a board to align on a direction. Sits between exploration (which generates territories) and skill-brand-system (which systematises the chosen one), and produces neither: a board is evidence of a direction, never the system and never the decision. Reads convention-aesthetic and the venture's convention-brand instance. Owned by Pixel; surfaced by APP-573. --- # moodboard The artefact that sits between a territory and a system. `skill-design-exploration` generates directions, `skill-brand-system` systematises the chosen one, `skill-visual-production` makes assets against a system that already exists — none of them assembles the curated mixed-media board that *shows* a direction before it is settled. This skill does that, in the register Aled has asked for: the contemporary studio reveal, the board a studio posts when it launches a brand. The point of a board is compression. It argues a direction in one surface, faster and less arguably than a document, which is why it is the artefact that gets a direction agreed. A board that reads as a grid of pictures has failed; a board that reads as a brand has worked. ## Trigger A visual direction needs to be shown rather than described: * **Inside an exploration round** — one board per territory, so `skill-design-exploration`'s directions are presented side by side as boards rather than prose. * **Standalone** — a brand reveal, a client alignment board, a "here is where this venture is heading" surface, with no exploration round underway. Not for: producing on-system assets once a direction is settled (that is `skill-visual-production`), or defining the tokens and components behind it (`skill-brand-system`). ## Behaviour 1. **Read the direction.** The territory's premise from `skill-design-exploration` where there is one, or the venture's `convention-brand` instance where the brand exists and the board is a reveal. Inherit `convention-aesthetic` — the board is subject to the taste canon like any other surface, including *the tool-default look*. 2. **Fix the palette first, and fix it to one.** One strict palette per board, taken from the venture's `convention-brand` instance, or from the territory's premise in an exploration round. A board carrying two palettes is two boards. 3. **Choose the tiles** against the anatomy below — 5–9, mixed deliberately by type, one dominant. 4. **Compose** the masonry: mixed sizes on a grid, one dominant tile anchoring the board. 5. **Present** with the direction's name and its one-line premise. Where boards are alternatives, present them side by side; the recommendation is `skill-design-exploration`'s to make, not this skill's. 6. **Hand off.** A chosen direction goes to `skill-brand-system` to be systematised. The board is evidence for the choice; it never becomes the system by default. ## The anatomy Harvested from the six reference boards Aled supplied (2026-07-16, APP-573). Every one of them shares this shape, which is why it is written as a recipe rather than a set of options. * **5–9 tiles, masonry, mixed sizes, one dominant.** The dominant tile is the direction's single strongest expression and it anchors the eye. Equal-sized tiles produce a contact sheet, not a board — the same equal-weight failure `convention-deck` names for slides. * **One strict palette per board.** The palette is the direction. Boards in the reference set are legible as *the acid-yellow-and-black one*, *the deep-green one* — that recognisability is the test. * **Tile types mixed deliberately.** A board reads as a brand only when it shows the brand doing different jobs. Draw from: * **Logo lockup** on flat colour — the mark, given air. * **Type or stat specimen** — a headline, a figure, a claim set in the brand's face at size. * **In-situ mockup** — tee, lanyard, phone, packaging, signage. The direction meeting an object. * **UI screen** — where the venture has a product surface. * **Art-direction photography** — texture, or a crop-tight portrait. The world the brand lives in. * **Motion still** — a frame implying movement, where motion is part of the direction. * **Palette strip** — the colours stated plainly, once. * **Copy lives in the tiles, not around them.** Voice-carrying lines are set *inside* tiles as artefacts of the brand ("Over 92%…", "Real shoppers. Real results."), never as captions annotating the board. A captioned board is a presentation about a direction; an uncaptioned one is the direction. ## Outputs Figma is the default surface (Pixel's, and where a board can be read and commented on). A coded HTML board or an exported image set is equally valid where that is how it will be seen — pick by how the board will be used. The deliverable is the board plus its one-line premise, not a file type. ## Reads `convention-aesthetic` (the taste baseline, the anti-patterns, and the reference corpus), the venture's `convention-brand` instance where one exists, the territory premise from `skill-design-exploration` where the board is part of a round, `standard-design-system` where the direction is heading for systematisation. ## Guardrails * **A board shows a direction; it never settles one.** The choice is Aled's, the recommendation is exploration's, the system is `skill-brand-system`'s. A board that quietly becomes the brand has skipped both gates. * **One palette, one direction, one board.** Hedging two directions onto one board is the failure that makes boards feel generic — it is the equal-weight run in another medium. * **Never fall back to a tool default.** Where the palette is not briefed and the venture's `convention-brand` instance has none, ask (`convention-aesthetic`, *the tool-default look*). An unbriefed board is where that default is most likely to walk in unnoticed. * **Reference imagery is captured, not just used.** Where Aled supplies reference boards, file them to the Figma reference library per `convention-aesthetic`'s taste-capture loop, so the corpus grows rather than the references evaporating after the run. * **Mockups are honest.** An in-situ tile shows the direction on a plausible object; it does not invent a product the venture does not have or imply a launch that has not happened. * On finish, where Aled's verdict on the board reveals a taste signal — a rejection with a reason, a "more like this", a reference pulled in — 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.