# Googie — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Googie**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 5 of 8 research dimensions.
> 9 sources attached. 5 claims graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Starburst motifs, boomerang shapes, upswept roofs, neon signs

**Recognise it by:** Upswept and cantilevered forms that lift away from the ground, boomerang and parabola shapes carried into structure as well as ornament, starburst motifs from atomic and Space Race imagery, and oblique script signage in neon set on an angled baseline. The diagnostic condition is advertising by form: the structure itself does the selling, and the sign is continuous with the building rather than attached to it. Mid-Century Modern uses related geometry at rest and domestically. Streamline Moderne curves horizontally to suggest speed; this lifts diagonally to suggest flight.

**Family:** Retro & Period Revival
**Era:** mid-century
**Native medium:** architecture, signage

**Scope:** Googie is car-culture American architecture, c. 1945 to early 1970s. Aesthetary translates its upswept forms, boomerangs, starbursts and neon signage onto flat surfaces; the oblique script lettering is our reading.

## What it is arguing

The building is an advertisement and must work at the speed of a passing car. Form is bent upward and outward to suggest motion and the near future, so that a coffee shop reads as optimism from two hundred feet away.

**It refuses:** Refuses stillness, modesty, and the modernist position that a building should not shout.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Mid-Century Modern
- Streamline Moderne

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): Graded by our research brief · No source attached · From our catalogue entry · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/googie.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **layout** — The diagonal lift is structural, not decorative.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Layout
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: boomerang, parabola, starburst, neon.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: not mapped
- **motion** — Sequenced neon, not easing.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Motion

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **typography** — Typography: script, signage role, oblique angle.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **register** — Named by a hostile critic. Douglas Haskell coined it in House & Home, February 1952, satirising the style, after John Lautner's 1949 Googie's coffee shop in Los Angeles. Nobody working in it chose the name.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Context (not a design area)
- **form** — Forms are symbolic of motion: upswept roofs, boomerangs, parabolas, diagrammatic atoms, soft parallelograms. The building performs travel it cannot make.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Form

### Our reading

- **hierarchy** — Rank by height and angle — the element lifted highest and tilted most leads, regardless of size.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Typography** — At Johnie's (1956) the name was spread in large free-form script lettering across the roof edge, outlined in neon tubing set within channel letters.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers Johnie's / Romeo's Times Square, 1956 (single-building primary evidence).
- **Typography** — Neon made flowing cursive script signage especially popular in the mid-20th century.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers mid-century neon signage generally, not Googie specifically.
- **Typography** — Las Vegas signage of the period adopted 'space-age fonts'.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-3` · Covers Las Vegas.
- **Typography** — No opened source attests an angled or oblique baseline; the only slant documented is a slanting grid of bulbs filling the letters of one sign.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-4`
- **Imagery** — Googie's pictorial vocabulary is drawn from the Space Age and atomic science: boomerangs, flying saucers, diagrammatic atoms, parabolas, starbursts, orbit rings and rocket imagery, used as symbols of motion and the future.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-1` · Covers Neon Museum passage (S6) describes 1950s Las Vegas signage, which it links to Googie; not every Googie building.
- **Imagery** — The images are abstracted and schematic: the starburst is a radiating pattern of spokes from a centre, and one description says 'If it looks like a bird, this must be a geometric bird.'.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-2`
- **Imagery** — Figurative characters and cartoon imagery also appear: Johnie's featured a 'Fat Boy' character and tiles with a 'Romeo' caricature, and Las Vegas signs used animated icons, so imagery is not limited to abstract Space Age symbols.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-3` · Covers single-building evidence (Johnie's) plus Las Vegas sign practice generally.
- **Imagery** — The Johnie's nomination lists 'modern imagery of clean lines reflecting restaurant functions without historical references' among the building's features.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-4` · Covers one building's character-defining features as written by Alan Hess.
- **Surface** — Googie used new building technologies (neon, large plate glass, stainless steel, plastic, illuminated plastic paneling); in California Googie coffee shops such as Johnie's these were contrasted with natural stone.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers stone/technology contrast is stated for Johnie's (S2); materials list is general (S5, S1).
- **Surface** — At Johnie's, features were designed to be as noticeable by night as by day, and uplighting picked out the natural stone texture.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers Armet & Davis coffee shops.
- **Surface** — Metal panels impressed with an 'egg-crate' texture and terrazzo floors with coloured chips are documented Googie surface treatments.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-3` · Covers Johnie's Coffee Shop, 1956.
- **Surface** — Alan Hess described the 1953 McDonald's prototype as 'bright, shiny, bold colors', and a Smithsonian writer calls Googie a style of plastic, steel and neon.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-4` · Covers interview quotation in a magazine.
- **Surface** — The essay's indexed materials are neon, steel, glass and gunite.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-surface-1` · Covers Metadata of the essay's linked entries.
- **Interface** — The subject is buildings and signs of c. 1945 to the early 1970s; no opened source describes screen or interactive furniture, so interface is not specified by the subject. The nearest documented analogue, layered glowing outlines around sign letters, is a sign technique and is recorded here only as a lead.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1` · Covers outline passage is Las Vegas neon generally.
- **Motion** — Googie-era signs flashed and moved: a bulb grid 'flashed in a scintillating pattern' and a pole sign carried an animated serpentine arrow.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1` · Covers Johnie's.
- **Motion** — Animated neon signs used multiple transformers and timed circuits for flashing, blinking or sequential effects; the Stardust sign in Las Vegas was massive and animated.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Las Vegas.
- **Motion** — Googie's dynamic forms and animated neon signs were meant to catch the eye of passing motorists and work as architectural advertisements.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-1`
- **Motif** — Googie neon signage was typically decorated with boomerang or starburst motifs.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motif-1` · Covers Signage.
- **Technique** — Neon tubing was bent into letters and flowing scripts; at Johnie's it was set within channel letters.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1`
- **Technique** — Sign animation was produced with incandescent bulbs wired in sequence and neon on multiple transformers and timed circuits.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers Las Vegas vintage sign practice (Neon Museum); Johnie's also used flashing bulb grids.
- **Technique** — Googie used cantilevered structures and new building technologies such as large plate glass; at Johnie's the roof is a large asymmetrical butterfly form with wide cantilevered eaves.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3`
- **Technique** — Pressed metal with an 'egg-crate' impression was used as a modern technology to stiffen flat metal planes.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-4` · Covers Johnie's.
- **Form** — Googie buildings are marked by sweeping canopies, folded eaves and tapering pylons, with freedom of form and mixed, contrasting materials.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-1`
- **Form** — Automobile styling was translated into building form: tailfins became wedge roofs or V-shaped canopies, headlights became parabolas or boomerangs.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-2`
- **Form** — Googie mixes intersecting angles and curves rather than keeping to rectilinear geometry.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-3`

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified
- **Color** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Googie: boomerang panels and starbursts, neon script names, the lead element lifted and tilted, signs that light in sequence rather than ease, and a palette that is ours to choose.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/googie.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| cream | `#F6EEDD` | — | The page ground below the sky. | Web translation |
| navy | `#16323E` | — | The dusk sky: hero, sign bands, the dark panel. | Web translation |
| slate | `#22303A` | 11.7:1 | Body text and outlines. | Web translation |
| coral | `#B8412F` | 4.7:1 | Buttons, links, script headings (the deep coral, for text). | Web translation |
| teal | `#1D6F69` | 5.2:1 | Upswept headings and a second panel colour (deep teal for text). | Web translation |
| neon | `#F2C230` | — | Lit things only: the starburst, the arrow, the current page. On navy, 8:1. | Web translation |

Other accents the record supports:

- Bright sign coral: `#E8604C`
- Bright sign teal: `#2FA8A0`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:freedom-color` → Colour is a declared freedom: the record fixes no palette.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-4` → The 1953 McDonald's prototype was described as bright, shiny, bold colours.
- **Web translation** — Keep one dark sky colour for the lit things to glow against. _Why:_ Features were designed to be as noticeable by night as by day. (`claim:kcc:surface-2`, `claim:kcc:w2-motion-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify hues. _Instead:_ This coral, teal, yellow and navy are this page's choice; any bold set works if you say it is yours.

### Typography

Family: a round sans for text, with a free-form script for names. Stack: `"GabaritoX", "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Setting | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| script | clamp(48px, 7vw, 84px) | 700 | 1 | not specified | not specified | — | Caveat, rotated -6deg from the left baseline (-10deg for the lead) | Names and section headings only. |
| statement | clamp(26px, 3.6vw, 42px) | 900 | 1.1 | not specified | not specified | — | rotated -2deg | The one sentence that should be read from the road. |
| body | 18px | 400 | 1.6 | not specified | not specified | 70ch | — | Sentences, set level. |
| label | 13px | 800 | 1.4 | uppercase | 0.08em | — | — | Small labels and kinds of claim. |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Script, in a signage role, at an oblique angle.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → At Johnie's the name ran in large free-form script across the roof edge, outlined in neon set in channel letters.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Neon made flowing cursive script signage especially popular.
- **Web translation** — Tilt script names off the baseline; keep sentences level. _Why:_ The oblique angle is our reading (no source attests an angled baseline); body text stays level for reading. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:kcc:typography-4`, `claim:declared-freedom`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a text face. _Instead:_ Las Vegas signs adopted "space-age fonts", but no face is named; the sans here is ours.

### Grid and layout

The sources specify no column grid. The layout is lift: panels sit on a cream ground, the lead one raised and tilted, and one roofline cuts across on a diagonal.

Tokens: lift `translateY(-18px) rotate(-2deg)` · heading-tilt `-6deg` · lead-tilt `-10deg`

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:layout-3` → The diagonal lift is structural, not decorative.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by height and angle: the element lifted highest and tilted most leads, regardless of size.
- **Web translation** — Lift and tilt one item per row; leave the rest level. _Why:_ If everything tilts, nothing leads. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Cut large sections apart with one diagonal roofline. _Why:_ Upswept roofs and wide cantilevered eaves. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `claim:kcc:technique-3`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify column counts or gutters. _Instead:_ Use whatever grid holds the content; express the style through lift, not through the grid.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius-panel `60px 10px 160px 10px / 40px 10px 60px 10px` · radius-plate `28px 6px 28px 6px` · radius-field `18px 4px 18px 4px` · outline `3px`

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Form, motif, surface and technique: boomerang, parabola, starburst, neon.
- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:gg-r2` → Forms are symbolic of motion: upswept roofs, boomerangs, parabolas, diagrammatic atoms, soft parallelograms.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-form-3` → Intersecting angles and curves are mixed rather than kept rectilinear.
- **Web translation** — Give every panel one long swept corner and a thick outline. _Why:_ Boomerangs carried into structure; the outline stands in for the sign's edge. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:kcc:w2-form-1`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-1` → Space Age and atomic symbols: boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms, parabolas, starbursts, orbit rings, rockets.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-2` → The images are abstracted and schematic: a starburst is spokes radiating from a centre.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-3` → Figurative characters and cartoon imagery also appear.
- **Web translation** — Draw symbols as flat geometric marks in neon line or solid colour. _Why:_ Abstracted and schematic; "a geometric bird". (`claim:kcc:imagery-2`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Whether a page needs imagery at all is a declared freedom. _Instead:_ Use the symbols sparingly; a page with only type and panels is still in the language.

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A small sign plate with one swept boomerang corner, filled coral, that goes dark navy when you reach it.

- Anatomy: swept radius on two opposite corners; coral-deep fill, white label; label in the sans at weight 700
- Tokens: radius `28px 6px 28px 6px` · background `#B8412F` · text `#FFFDF6` · hover `#16323E` · height `48px`
- State, default: Coral-deep plate, white label (5.4:1).
- State, hover: Plate turns navy; label cream. The swap is a step, not a fade.
- State, focus: 3px coral-deep outline, 3px off.
- State, active: Plate tilts back two degrees, as if lifted.
- State, disabled: Cream plate, dashed slate border, slate label.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: State changes are instant steps, so nothing depends on watching a transition.
- **Web translation** — Cut the plate with one long swept corner and its opposite. _Why:_ Boomerang and parabola shapes are the documented forms; a swept corner is the smallest boomerang a control can carry. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:kcc:w2-form-2`)
- **Web translation** — Change state in one step, never with easing. _Why:_ Sign motion was sequenced neon, switched on circuits, not eased. (`token_rule:motion-14`, `claim:kcc:technique-2`)
- **Web translation** — Fill the plate in a colour of the page's own palette. _Why:_ The palette is a declared freedom; this one is the page's. (`claim:freedom-color`)

#### Card

A boomerang panel: a thick slate outline with one sweeping corner, and the card that matters lifted and tilted off the row.

- Anatomy: 3px slate outline; radius 60px 10px 160px 10px / 40px 10px 60px 10px; script title, sans body; the lead card translated up and rotated -2deg
- Tokens: border `3px solid #22303A` · radius `60px 10px 160px 10px / 40px 10px 60px 10px` · background `#FFFDF6` · lift `translateY(-18px) rotate(-2deg)`
- State, default: White panel, slate outline.
- State, hover: The outline turns coral-deep.
- State, focus: 3px coral-deep outline.
- Accessibility: The whole card is one link.
- Accessibility: The tilt is at most two degrees, so body text stays level enough to read.
- **Web translation** — Give panels a sweeping boomerang corner rather than an even radius. _Why:_ Boomerang shapes carried into structure as well as ornament. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:kcc:w2-form-1`)
- **Web translation** — Lift and tilt the card that leads; leave the others level. _Why:_ Rank by height and angle: the element lifted highest and tilted most leads. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`, `token_rule:layout-3`)

#### Input

A white field with the panel's thick outline and a small swept corner, its label set above in small capitals.

- Anatomy: 3px slate outline; radius 18px 4px 18px 4px; label above in the sans, uppercase; error line below in coral-deep
- Tokens: border `3px solid #22303A` · radius `18px 4px 18px 4px` · height `48px` · background `#FFFDF6`
- State, default: Slate outline.
- State, focus: Outline turns coral-deep, plus a 3px outline.
- State, error: Coral-deep outline; message begins "Error:".
- State, disabled: Dashed outline on cream.
- Accessibility: The label is real text above the field.
- Accessibility: Errors are words, not only colour.
- **Web translation** — Rule the field with the panels' thick outline and a small swept corner. _Why:_ One boomerang vocabulary on every surface. (`token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Not specified by the source** — No source describes an input convention of the period. _Instead:_ Keep the field plain and legible, and do not dress it as a sign.

#### Navigation

A pylon sign read from the road: links on a navy band, the current page lit in yellow neon with a chasing arrow before it.

- Anatomy: navy band with one upswept end; links in the sans, cream; current link yellow with a glow and an arrow
- Tokens: background `#16323E` · text `#F6EEDD` · current `#F2C230` · glow `drop-shadow(0 0 4px #F2C230)`
- State, default: Cream links on navy (11.7:1).
- State, hover: The link lights yellow, in one step.
- State, focus: 3px yellow outline.
- State, current: Yellow with a glow, an arrow before it, aria-current="page".
- Accessibility: aria-current marks the page, not the glow alone.
- Accessibility: The glow is decoration; the yellow on navy is 8:1 without it.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page by lighting it, like a sign letter switched on. _Why:_ Neon signs caught the eye of passing motorists; lighting is the documented emphasis. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-1`, `claim:kcc:technique-1`)
- **Web translation** — Lift one end of the band. _Why:_ The diagonal lift is structural. (`token_rule:layout-3`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: cycle 2.4s, step 0.3s, blink 3.5s
- Easing: all `steps(1)`
- Transforms: None for signs: they switch on and off. Opacity only.
- Entrance: None.
- Hover: Instant step to the lit colour.
- Reduced motion: Every sign holds fully lit.
- **Web translation** — Sequenced neon, not easing: motion is native to this register. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **Web translation** — Animation came from bulbs wired in sequence and neon on timed circuits: flashing, blinking, sequential. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:technique-2`)
- **Web translation** — A bulb grid flashed in a scintillating pattern; a pole sign carried an animated serpentine arrow. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motion-1`)
- **Web translation** — Light elements one after another with steps(1), 0.3s apart; never ease. _Why:_ Timed circuits switch; they do not fade. (`token_rule:motion-14`, `claim:kcc:technique-2`)
- **Web translation** — Under reduced motion, hold every sign fully lit. _Why:_ The lit state is the sign's designed still. (`token_rule:motion-14`)

### Deliberately not added

- **Specific hues** (color): Palette is a declared freedom; the sources say bright and bold, not which colours.
- **A text face, and an angled baseline** (typography): Script signage is documented; no source attests an oblique baseline, so the tilt is ours.
- **Columns and gutters** (gridLayout): The subject is buildings and signs.
- **Any interface convention** (components): No opened source describes screen furniture. All four components are translations.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Density | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Imagery | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Specified | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified · Graded by our research brief | follows the recorded claim | yes |

Unresearched: Imagery. Where a rule appears for one of these it is Aesthetary's implementation recommendation, not a property of the language, and its Evidence line above says so.

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Interface

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

17 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 9 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 1 with no recorded position. 3 further research dimensions produced no rule (Colour, Density, Imagery). This rubric is silent on them. 1 context rule is listed apart: known about this Aesthetic, not something to check finished work against. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: Upswept and cantilevered forms that lift away from the ground, boomerang and parabola shapes carried into structure as well as ornament, starburst motifs from atomic and Space Race imagery, and oblique script signage in neon set on an angled baseline. The diagnostic condition is advertising by form: the structure itself does the selling, and the sign is continuous with the building rather than attached to it. Mid-Century Modern uses related geometry at rest and domestically. Streamline Moderne curves horizontally to suggest speed; this lifts diagonally to suggest flight.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this? The diagonal lift is structural, not decorative.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this? Form / motif / surface / technique: boomerang, parabola, starburst, neon.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Does your work hold this?  Sequenced neon, not easing.
  - _If it fails:_ The result is not this Aesthetic. This is a requirement of the language, not a preference.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Typography: script, signage role, oblique angle.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank by height and angle — the element lifted highest and tilted most leads, regardless of size.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Forms are symbolic of motion: upswept roofs, boomerangs, parabolas, diagrammatic atoms, soft parallelograms. The building performs travel it cannot make.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No horizontal repose.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No modest scale.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No grid-aligned baselines.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No muted palette.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No static signage.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Mid-Century Modern: advertising versus domestic repose. Shared geometry, opposite posture. Against Streamline Moderne: diagonal lift versus horizontal speed line. Anti-signature: flatten the diagonal and it becomes Mid-Century Modern. Make the curves horizontal and it becomes Streamline Moderne.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: flattening the lift.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: static neon..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Mid-Century Modern? That language is: Illustrated and warm where Swiss is photographic and cool
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Mid-Century Modern than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

### Context — known about this Aesthetic, not a check

Where the Aesthetic comes from, what it is called, how it sits among its neighbours. Use it to understand the work; do not score finished work against it.

- Named by a hostile critic. Douglas Haskell coined it in House & Home, February 1952, satirising the style, after John Lautner's 1949 Googie's coffee shop in Los Angeles. Nobody working in it chose the name. _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached)_

**Not covered at all:** Colour: Not specified by the source; Density: Not specified by the source; Imagery: Specified. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `googie` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/googie.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/googie.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._