Art direction for any content — reads text, PDF, Word, HTML, PPT, then proposes 2-3 creative directions with photography style, mood, and visual language. After selection, generates AI image prompts and visual briefs section-by-section. Use when the user shares content and needs visual direction, image sourcing, or creative direction for any material.
Art direction for any content — reads text, PDF, Word, HTML, PPT, then proposes 2-3 creative directions with photography style, mood, and visual language. After selection, generates AI image prompts and visual briefs section-by-section. Use when the user shares content and needs visual direction, image sourcing, or creative direction for any material.
Art Direct
Turn content into visual direction. Point this at anything — a deck, a document, an essay, a brief, a webpage — and get back a creative direction you can actually execute.
When to Use
User shares a file (any format) and needs visuals for it
Developing visual identity for content before building/designing
Translating written material into photography/illustration direction
Creating image prompts for AI generation tools
Art directing a presentation, document, report, or website
Reviewing existing visuals against content intent (critique mode)
Supported Inputs
Read content from whatever the user provides:
Format
How to read
.txt, .md
Read tool directly
.html
Read tool, strip tags to extract text + structure
.pdf
Read tool with pages parameter
.docx
Extract via python3 -c "import docx; ..." or textutil -convert txt on macOS
.pptx
Extract via python3 -c "from pptx import Presentation; ..."
.rtf
textutil -convert txt on macOS
URL
WebFetch tool
If a format doesn't extract cleanly, ask the user to paste the text.
Structure — What are the units? (slides, sections, chapters, paragraphs, pages)
Core themes — The 2-3 big ideas the content is actually about
Narrative arc — Does it build? Contrast? Layer? List?
Audience — Who receives this? What do they expect to see?
Tone — Authoritative? Inspirational? Intimate? Provocative? Technical?
Key moments — Which sections carry the most weight, demand the strongest visuals?
Existing visual language — If the content already has images, assess what's working and what isn't
Output a brief content summary before proceeding. Keep it tight — this is for alignment, not a book report.
Stage 2: Creative Direction Proposals
If house style template provided (--style <name>):
Validate content fits the style
Note any tensions and how to bridge them
Skip to Stage 3 with adapted style guide
If no house style:
Propose 2-3 distinct visual directions. Each must be genuinely different — not three shades of the same idea. For each:
DIRECTION: [Name — a short handle like "Archival Authority" or "Warm Machinery"]
MOOD
What it feels like: [emotional quality in 2-3 words]
Energy: [calm / dynamic / tense / contemplative / electric]
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE
Type: [documentary / editorial / conceptual / abstract / archival / illustrative]
Subjects: [what appears in the images]
Lighting: [quality of light]
Color treatment: [warm/cool shift, saturation, film stock reference]
Composition: [framing approach]
REFERENCE TOUCHSTONES
"Think [X] meets [Y]" — cite real publications, campaigns, photographers, or brands
WHAT THIS DIRECTION AVOIDS
[Specific clichés and visual tropes this direction rejects]
WHY THIS FITS THE CONTENT
[1-2 sentences connecting direction to content themes]
Present all directions. User picks one (or asks for a hybrid). Lock the choice.
Stage 3: Visual Style Guide
Once direction is selected, output the working style guide:
VISUAL STYLE GUIDE: [Content Title]
Direction: [Chosen direction]
PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE
─────────────────
Type: [Documentary / Editorial / Conceptual / Abstract / Archival]
Subjects: [What to feature — specific, not generic]
Composition: [Framing rules]
Lighting: [Light quality]
Color treatment: [Color approach, film stock if relevant]
MOOD & TONE
───────────
Primary emotion: [e.g., quiet confidence]
Supporting emotions: [e.g., warmth, precision]
Energy level: [Calm / Dynamic / Tense / Contemplative]
CONSISTENCY RULES
─────────────────
• [Shared quality all images must have]
• [Human subject guidelines]
• [Color palette anchors — hex codes]
• [Aspect ratio defaults]
CLICHÉ BLACKLIST
────────────────
• [Content-specific images to reject]
• [Generic tropes to avoid]
• [Overused metaphors for these themes]
AI GENERATION DEFAULTS
──────────────────────
Photography suffix: [standard prompt additions for photo-style generation]
Illustration suffix: [standard prompt additions for illustration-style generation]
Stage 4: Section-by-Section Execution
Work through the content in its natural units (slides, sections, chapters, key passages). For each:
Step 1: Interpret the section's job
What must the visual communicate? What's the emotional beat?
Step 2: Apply the Five-Lens Framework
Generate options through five lenses:
Lens
What it shows
When to use
Literal
The thing itself, shot with intention
Content is already specific
Human
People experiencing or doing it
Need emotional connection
Environmental
Setting, atmosphere, texture
Setting mood, transitions
Metaphorical
Concrete visual analogy
Making abstract tangible
Oblique
Abstract, unexpected angle
Provoking thought, standing out
Step 3: Output the Visual Brief
For the recommended lens (guided by the style guide's lens preferences), output:
SECTION: "[Section title or key line]"
VISUAL JOB: [What this image must do]
LENS: [Which lens and why]
CONCEPT
[2-3 sentence description of the exact image — specific enough
that a photographer could shoot it or a designer could find it]
AI GENERATION PROMPTS
─────────────────────
MIDJOURNEY:
[Full prompt with style suffixes, --ar, --v, --style flags]
DALL-E / GPT IMAGE:
[Natural language prompt optimized for DALL-E]
GEMINI:
[Prompt formatted for Gemini image generation]
IDEOGRAM:
[Prompt formatted for Ideogram, especially for any text-in-image needs]
SOURCING GUIDANCE
─────────────────
If searching (not generating):
Search: [2-3 specific, refined search queries]
Where: [Specific sources — see Source Guide below]
Avoid: [What will come up that you should skip]
ALTERNATIVES
────────────
[1-2 other lens options briefly described, in case the primary doesn't land]
Step 4: For content with many sections
Don't generate all sections unprompted. Output:
The first 2-3 sections as examples
A summary table of all remaining sections with recommended lens and one-line concept
Ask which sections to develop fully
The Five-Lens Framework (Detail)
For any concept, five ways to see it:
Lens
"Digital transformation"
"Supply chain resilience"
Literal
Server room corridor, blinking LEDs
Cargo ship cutting through rough seas
Human
Developer's face lit by dual monitors at 2am
Dockworker's hands checking manifest in rain
Environmental
Empty office at dawn, single laptop glowing
Fog lifting off container yard at sunrise
Metaphorical
Old film projector casting light on blank wall
Spider web holding dew drops — tension + beauty
Oblique
Child's hand drawing a robot
Dominos frozen mid-fall, one glowing
The oblique lens is the hardest and the most valuable. It's the image that makes someone stop and think. Use it for hero images and opening sections.
Source Guide
Do not default to stock photo sites. Stock search produces generic results regardless of how specific your terms are. Instead:
Primary: AI Generation
The best match for precise creative vision. Generate exactly what the concept describes.
Midjourney — Best for photographic realism and cinematic quality
DALL-E / GPT Image — Best for conceptual and illustrative work
Gemini — Good for diagrams, text-in-image, data visualization
Ideogram — Best when image includes readable text or typography
Secondary: Editorial & Archival Sources
When you need real photography (historical, documentary, journalistic):
Library of Congress — US historical archives, public domain
NASA Image Gallery — Space, earth science, technology
Wikimedia Commons — Public domain, historical
British Museum / Smithsonian — Historical objects and documents
Internet Archive — Historical documents, publications, ephemera
Google Arts & Culture — Museum collections, artworks
Tertiary: Curated Stock (when you must)
Unsplash — Best for environmental/atmospheric shots, not people
Pexels — Acceptable for textures, backgrounds, abstract
Avoid for: People, business scenarios, technology in use, anything conceptual
For Specific Needs
Need
Best source
Historical technology
Smithsonian, Computer History Museum, Science Museum UK
Architecture
ArchDaily, Dezeen photography
Scientific
Nature journal imagery, NOAA, ESA/Hubble
Cultural
British Library, NYPL Digital Collections
Texture/material
Generate via AI — more control
Anti-Cliché Guide
Universal Blacklist
These images are invisible — viewers have seen them thousands of times:
Handshakes (any kind)
Lightbulb = idea
Puzzle pieces connecting
Person on mountain summit
Hands holding globe
Diverse team pointing at whiteboard
Plant sprouting = growth
Rocket = launch/speed
Chess = strategy
Maze = complexity
Road diverging in forest = choice
Iceberg = hidden depth
Bridge = connection
The Reframing Technique
When you catch yourself reaching for a cliché:
Name the cliché — "I'm about to search for a lightbulb"
Ask: What does this concept feel like? — Not look like. Feel like.
Ask: What moment captures this for a real person? — Specificity kills cliché
Generate that instead
Example: "Innovation"
Cliché: Lightbulb, circuit board, rocket
Feels like: The moment before you know if it works
Real moment: Engineer's hand hovering over a switch, not yet thrown
That's the image
Critique Mode
When pointed at content that already has images (existing deck, webpage, document):
Step 1: Ingest & View Everything
Read all content. View every image. Do the work before speaking.
Step 2: Overall Visual Language Summary
Open with a top-level assessment of the visual language across the entire piece. Cover:
What register are the images in? (archival, editorial, stock, mixed — name it)
Is there a unified visual language? If not, how many competing registers are present?
What's the gap between content intent and visual execution? The content is trying to say X; the images are saying Y.
What's working and what isn't — broad strokes, not image-by-image yet
Keep this to a short, direct paragraph or two. This is the headline diagnosis.
Step 3: Section-by-Section Summary
For each section/slide/chapter, give a high-level summary — not an image-by-image table. For each section:
SECTION: [Title or key line]
CONTENT INTENT: [What this section is trying to communicate]
VISUAL EXECUTION: [What the images are actually doing — 1-2 sentences]
VERDICT: [Working / Partially working / Not working — and why in one line]
STRONGEST IMAGE: [Which one and why, if any]
WEAKEST IMAGE: [Which one and why — name the specific problem]
Only go image-by-image if the user asks to drill into a specific section.
Step 4: Recommendations
End with specific, opinionated recommendations — not open-ended observations. The format:
RECOMMENDED DIRECTION
─────────────────────
Register: [The specific visual register I recommend — e.g., "archival-documentary
with warm color treatment" not just "pick a register"]
Why: [1-2 sentences connecting this to the content's actual themes and audience]
Reference: [Think X meets Y — cite real touchstones]
WHAT TO KEEP
────────────
• [Specific images that already work, and why they're the standard]
WHAT TO REMOVE IMMEDIATELY
──────────────────────────
• [Images that actively damage the piece — stock, wrong brand, wrong tone]
WHAT TO REPLACE
───────────────
• [Images that are weak/generic — with one-line replacement concepts]
CONSISTENCY RULE
────────────────
[The single unifying quality all images should share — stated as a rule
that can be applied as a yes/no test to any candidate image]
Be specific. Be opinionated. Don't say "commit to one register" — say "I recommend archival-documentary with warm tungsten color treatment, because this content is about heritage and the images need to feel like they were pulled from a real company archive. Think Bell Labs photography meets Kinfolk's material warmth."
Then ask: "Does this direction feel right? If so, I'll generate replacement briefs with AI prompts for every image that needs to change."
Step 5: Replacement Briefs (after user confirms)
Once the user agrees to the recommended direction, generate replacement visual briefs for every image flagged for removal or replacement. Use the full Stage 4 section-by-section format:
Lock the recommended direction as the working style guide
For each image to replace, output the full visual brief with:
Concept (specific enough to shoot or generate)
AI generation prompts (Midjourney, DALL-E, Gemini, Ideogram)
Sourcing guidance (where to find real alternatives if not generating)
One alternative lens option
For sections that need additional images (currently too few), recommend how many and provide briefs
Output format: Generate all replacement briefs at once, numbered to match the original image positions. Export to a text file on the user's Desktop for easy reference and handoff.
Step 6: Handoff
After replacement briefs are generated, offer next steps:
"Generate now" — Generate images via fal.ai (Flux 2 Pro) directly from the briefs
"Export briefs" — Save all prompts and guidance to a file for use in Midjourney/DALL-E/external tools
"Rebuild the deck" — Feed the style guide and replacement images into keynote-slides-skill to produce a revised version
"Save as house style" — Lock the recommended direction as a reusable YAML template for future work with this brand
Image Generation via fal.ai
When the user selects "Generate now", generate images using Flux 2 Pro via the fal.ai API.
Requirements:$FAL_API_KEY environment variable must be set.
