Iconography Lab

Iconography Lab

Use this skill when you need a clean identity kit for a creator, celebrity, or founder whose audience responds to specific visual and verbal codes.

Default product shape: a compact macOS MenuBarExtra utility with a source-aware popover for reference intake, code mapping, and identity export and an optional settings/history window.

Quick Start

1. Confirm the subject, target audience, and source window.
2. Gather only public or user-authorized material into a working set.
3. Produce a identity-kit with the default sections below.
4. If the user wants a richer product concept, keep it menu bar first and native to SwiftUI.

Accepted Inputs

• photo sets, thumbnails, posters, livestream stills, or public press images
• captions, slogans, catchphrases, recurring titles, and community nicknames
• notes about props, wardrobe pieces, gestures, framing, or signature moods
• existing brand decks when the user wants continuity rather than reinvention

Output Artifact

Primary artifact: identity-kit

Default sections:

• Palette and contrast direction
• Props, wardrobe anchors, and object cues
• Silhouette, pose, and framing signatures
• Verbal codes such as catchphrases, tone, and naming patterns
• Do and do not guidance for future content or merch

Workflow

Gather Sources

• Collect the references that the audience already recognizes, not just the team's favorite visuals.
• Separate transient campaign styling from durable identity cues.
• Note where a verbal code or prop appears consistently across formats.

Distill Signal

• Cluster cues into color, prop, silhouette, motion, and phrase systems.
• Identify what is unmistakable versus what is merely common to the category.
• Call out where imitation would drift into infringement or impersonation.

Build The Artifact

• Export an identity kit with reusable visual and verbal codes.
• Show how each code can scale across thumbnails, events, community posts, and merch.
• End with a short restraint note so the identity stays specific instead of overdesigned.

Mac Product Shape

• Prefer MenuBarExtra with these primary actions:
  • Collect References
  • Map Codes
  • Build Kit
  • Export Guide
• Keep the popover between 320 pt and 380 pt wide with grouped sections, clear source status, and a strong export action.
• Use a lightweight settings or history window only for source rules, saved exports, or weighting controls.

Safety Boundaries

• Work only from public or user-authorized material.
• Do not assist with stalking, covert profiling, rumor laundering, harassment, or minors-focused manipulation.
• Do not encourage deceptive impersonation, likeness misuse, or copying another artist's protected visual asset too closely.

Example Prompts

• Use $iconography-lab to turn these performance photos and captions into an identity kit with palette, prop system, and catchphrase guidance.
• Use $iconography-lab to map this founder's visual and verbal codes so our next product launch looks recognizable without becoming generic tech-branding.

Resources

• references/product-spec.md: product surface, SwiftUI layout, artifact template, icon direction, and first-run behavior.