FerroxLabs presentation-design
Mode skill. Default-enabled on the Brand specialist.
When to use
Use when the deliverable is the visual side of a deck, hero block, or landing page: cover slide, section dividers, template grid, hero composition, type hierarchy, image treatment. Run after the visual system is locked in TEAM_MEMORY.md. If not locked, run visual-system first.
This mode is visual only. Slide narrative, speaker notes, deck story arc, and headline copy go to the presentation-content and copy specialists. You set the stage; they fill it.
Trigger phrases: "Design the cover slide." / "What should our hero look like?" / "Build a slide template." / "How should this section divider look?"
Procedure
1. Pull the anchors. Open TEAM_MEMORY.md. Confirm: onlyness statement, dominant attribute, two type voices, ownable hue, layout density, motif rule. If any of the six is missing, escalate before designing.
2. Decide the composition rule for the surface.
- Cover / hero. One idea on the page. The strongest expression of the dominant attribute. Quiet attribute = mostly negative space. Loud attribute = the cover risks being too much and is fine.
- Section divider. Same composition as the cover, scaled down. One element changes (color block, oversized numeral, treated photograph) so the reader registers the shift in half a second.
- Content slide. Inverse rule: the attribute lives in the system, not the slide. The slide gets out of the way of the information.
3. Set the type hierarchy.
- Hero headline. Display face, largest size in the deck, set tight. One line if possible. If two, the second is significantly smaller.
- Section label / eyebrow. Body or mono, small caps, tracked open, very small. Functional, not decorative.
- Body line. Body face, regular weight, set for the longest realistic line length.
- Three sizes max per slide. Four always means one is decorative and should be cut.
4. Set the spatial rule.
- Grid. Column count (12 for landings, 6 for decks) and a single baseline unit (8px default). Every block snaps; every vertical space is a multiple.
- Anchor margin. One generous edge margin held across every slide. Inconsistency reads as sloppiness.
- Density check. If the slide pushes against the attribute (spacious attribute but crammed slide), cut content before adjusting type size.
5. Image treatment.
- One treatment, one source. Full-bleed photography, treated duotone, grayscale, illustrated, or blocked. Mixing stock, brand, and illustration is the fastest way to break the system.
- The "never" list. Re-read the system's image-never rule. If a candidate image violates it, replace it. No negotiation.
6. Audit before shipping. Walk through with the name covered. If a teammate can't place a single slide as belonging to this brand, the design is failing. Recognizability is the test.
Decision rules
- Cover does the work the deck title can't. Weak cover + strong content reads as amateur. Strong cover + adequate content reads as a brand.
- A landing hero is a cover slide that has to convert. Same composition logic plus one primary CTA and one objection-defusing subline (Copy writes).
- Data slides use the body face only. Display type in charts reads as theater. Data wants quiet type.
- Section dividers earn their place. Eight dividers in twenty slides is a navigation problem dressed as a design problem.
- Animation is a brand choice, not a feature. Pick one transition (or none) and hold it.
Anti-patterns
- Designing every slide as a hero. The deck has no rhythm and burns out by slide four.
- Centered text everywhere. Pick left-aligned (most surfaces) or centered (cover and dividers only), and hold it.
- Logo on every slide. The brand lives in the system. Footer mark on cover and close is usually enough.
- Two transitions, three icon styles, four shades of the primary. Each adds entropy and costs recognizability.
- Treating slide and landing design as separate problems. A deck and a landing page that don't look related is two brands.
- Letting deck content drive design. Push content back to Copy with a slot constraint instead of warping the layout.
Before / after
Brief: "Cover for an investor deck. Onlyness: only daily planner that forces creatives to schedule the messy middle. Attribute: unflinchingly honest. System: slab display, mono captions, rust on off-white, dense, marked-up date grids only."
Before (default-deck move): centered logotype, centered gray-sans subtitle, soft drop shadow, stock photo of a smiling team behind a frosted overlay.
After: off-white field. Slab headline left-aligned at the top third, tight tracking, near-black: "Week 3 is where the project dies." Mono caption bottom-left: Daily planner, 12-month edition. One rust mark — a struck-through date cell — anchored bottom-right. No stock photo, no logotype on the cover. Reads as the brand at a glance with the title covered.