# Mid-Century Modern — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Mid-Century Modern**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 7 of 8 research dimensions.
> 13 sources 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:** Textured illustration, bright flat colour, organic shapes, confident negative space

**Recognise it by:** Illustration with visible printed texture — grain, overprint, screen — in bright flat colour, organic and rounded shapes rather than pure geometry, and negative space held open with evident confidence. The diagnostic pair is illustration plus warmth: the geometry is softened and hand-made, and the empty areas are compositional rather than leftover. Swiss Style is photographic and cool. Googie takes the same period's optimism and shouts it at a motorist; this is indoors and quiet.

**Family:** Retro & Period Revival
**Era:** mid-century
**Native medium:** print

**Scope:** The visual register of mid-century modern graphic illustration (c.1945 to 1970s), within a furniture-led period style: simplified forms, clean lines, no applied ornament. Print texture and warm palette are Aesthetary's reading.

## What it is arguing

Postwar optimism rendered domestic. Modernism's geometry is warmed by hand-made texture and organic form so that it belongs in a living room rather than in a manifesto, and confidence is shown by what is left empty.

## What it is not

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

- Googie
- Seventies Revival
- Brazilian Modernism — A named architectural school, not a climate
- Travel Poster

## 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): From our catalogue entry · Our reading · Documented · Source attached · Seen in the work.
- **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/mid-century-modern.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.

### From our catalogue entry

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

- **layout** — Composition: confident negative space.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **density** — "confident negative space" is an explicit density claim.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Density
- **imagery** — Imagery: textured illustration.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: organic shapes, print texture.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### Our reading

- **typography** — A humanist or geometric sans with warmth, plus period script for accent. Not a claim about the register — reasoned from the era's lithographic practice.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Typography
- **hierarchy** — Rank by isolation. The element with the most space around it leads. Follows directly from the claimed negative space.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **color** — Colour: bright flat colour, laid as unmodulated fields.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Color

## 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** — Alvin Lustig's book covers used abstracted iconography and simple typography and lettering.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers Alvin Lustig, 1940s-1950s.
- **Typography** — Type was eclectic rather than purely modernist: European sans serifs alongside recut gothics and slab serifs, and occasionally a formal script.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers Lustig.
- **Typography** — On Lustig's Noonday/Meridian covers, a flat colour background framed varied type treatments.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-3` · Covers Lustig Noonday/Meridian covers, 1953-1954.
- **Motion** — A university moving-image archive, drawing on Dan Bashara's study of midcentury modernism and UPA, describes UPA's work as an abstract, graphic sensibility: simplified shapes, bold colours unmodulated by rounding or shadow, and a forceful engagement with the flat surface of the frame.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-1` · Covers US studio animation, late 1940s-1950s; the archive paraphrases Dan Bashara..
- **Motion** — The motion technique was limited animation: fewer drawings per second (twelve, eight or six), redrawing only the parts that move.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-2` · Covers UPA and the 'modern cartoon'..
- **Motion** — In UPA's limited animation, movements are often repeated and recycled instead of drawn as an entirely unique progression.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-3` · Covers UPA..
- **Motion** — The archive ties the look to the pairing of limited animation with graphic abstraction, not to the technique alone.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-4`
- **Motion** — In the UPA work the archive discusses, wildly inventive sequences are often reduced to a kinetic flurry of strobing colours and simple shapes.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-5` · Covers UPA's The Jaywalker (1956) only..
- **Motion** — The modern cartoon style spread beyond one studio and beyond theatrical shorts into commercials and industrial and military training films.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-6` · Covers 1950s American animation..
- **Motion** — Mid-century modernist designers made films, e.g. the Eameses' Powers of Ten, built from an animated image, narration and a dashboard.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:motion-1` · Covers Eames films, 1968/1977.
- **Technique** — Charley Harper worked across drawings, gouaches, collages, screen prints, paintings and posters.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers Charley Harper.
- **Technique** — Graphic strand: book-cover designers worked by collage, photographic manipulation (reticulated negatives, photograms) and redrawing photostatted type specimens.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers Alvin Lustig, 1940s-1955.
- **Technique** — Furniture strand: molding plywood in compound curves, a wartime-derived process, made light, mass-producible seating whose curves replaced padding.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers Charles and Ray Eames, 1940s.
- **Form** — The American variant is described as somewhat more organic in form than the International Style.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2` · Covers architecture.
- **Form** — In the Eameses' molded plywood furniture, compound curves in three dimensions gave comfort without thick padding.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers furniture strand (Eames).

## 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
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Motif** — Ruled out
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified
- **Interface** — 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 Mid-Century Modern: paper with its grain, bright flat inks that overprint, organic cut shapes, a warm sans with one script word, the most isolated element leading, and motion as limited animation.

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/mid-century-modern.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#F3EAD7` | — | The ground, with a printed grain. | Web translation |
| ink | `#2B2622` | 12.5:1 | Text, hairlines, drawn line. | Web translation |
| ochre | `#D19A3A` | — | Flat ink for shapes; never text. | Web translation |
| teal | `#2E7F7A` | — | Flat ink for shapes; never text. | Web translation |
| mustard | `#E2B33C` | — | Flat ink and button ground. | Web translation |
| rust | `#B5562B` | — | Flat ink for shapes. | Web translation |
| teal-deep | `#256A66` | 5.3:1 | Labels and small text in colour; the flat field behind type. | Web translation |
| rust-deep | `#9C4520` | 5.3:1 | Links on hover, focus, kinds of claim. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:color-5` → Colour: bright flat colour, laid as unmodulated fields.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-3` → On Lustig's Noonday and Meridian covers, a flat colour background framed varied type.
- **Web translation** — Overprint where two inks meet (mix-blend-mode: multiply), rather than stacking them opaque. _Why:_ Print texture is our catalogue entry's reading; two flat inks on one sheet darken where they cross. (`claim:surface-8.surface`, `claim:dcc:color-5`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not say which hues lead. _Instead:_ Ochre, teal, mustard and rust are this page's choice (a declared freedom); say which hues you chose and why.

### Typography

Family: a geometric sans with warmth, and one period script for an accent. Stack: `"Josefin MC", "Futura", "Century Gothic", sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Setting | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | clamp(46px, 7vw, 92px) | 700 | 0.95 | not specified | -0.01em | — | — | The name. |
| heading | clamp(34px, 5vw, 56px) | 700 | 1.05 | not specified | not specified | — | — | Section headings. |
| body | 19px | 400 | 1.65 | not specified | not specified | 520px | — | Sentences, in a narrow isolated column. |
| label | 13px | 700 | 1.4 | uppercase | 0.24em | — | — | Small labels, in teal-deep. |
| script | 0.72em of the name | 400 | 1 | not specified | not specified | — | Yellowtail, one word only | A single accent word. |

- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:typography-4` → A humanist or geometric sans with warmth, plus period script for accent.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Type was eclectic: European sans serifs alongside recut gothics and slab serifs, occasionally a formal script.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → Covers used abstracted iconography with simple typography and lettering.
- **Web translation** — Use the script for one word at a time, never for a sentence. _Why:_ Script is documented as occasional; the sans carries the page. (`claim:kcc:typography-2`, `token_rule:typography-4`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a face to use. _Instead:_ Typography is a declared freedom; Josefin Sans and Yellowtail are this page's choices.

### Grid and layout

The sources specify no column grid. The page is ranked by isolation: narrow columns pulled alternately left and right, with the open paper between them left empty on purpose.

Tokens: measure `520px` · section-gap `clamp(90px, 14vw, 180px)`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Composition: confident negative space.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:density-6` → Confident negative space is an explicit density claim.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by isolation: the element with the most space around it leads.
- **Web translation** — Keep text in a column of at most 520px and alternate it left and right. _Why:_ The empty side is compositional, not leftover. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify columns or gutters. _Instead:_ Use any grid that keeps the voids open; do not fill them to balance the page.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius-organic `60% 40% 50% 50% / 30% 30% 20% 20%` · radius-pebble `50% 44% 56% 48% / 52% 60% 40% 48%` · hairline `1.5px`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Form, motif, surface and technique: organic shapes, print texture.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-2` → The American variant is somewhat more organic in form than the International Style.
- **Web translation** — Give tiles and swatches uneven organic radii, never a circle or a square. _Why:_ Organic shapes rather than pure geometry. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:kcc:form-2`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Imagery: textured illustration.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-1` → Illustrators worked in drawings, gouache, collage, screen prints and posters.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-2` → Book-cover designers used collage, photographic manipulation and redrawn type specimens.
- **Web translation** — Draw shapes as flat fields of ink over a paper grain, overprinting where they cross. _Why:_ Textured illustration in bright flat colour. (`token_rule:imagery-7`, `claim:dcc:color-5`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources specify no figurative subject, and the record rules motif out. _Instead:_ Keep to organic shapes and do not add atomic or boomerang motifs to signal the period.

### 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

An organic tile of flat colour, like a cut-paper shape, with the label in the warm sans.

- Anatomy: flat mustard ground, no border; organic radius 60% 40% 50% 50% / 30% 30% 20% 20%; label in the sans at 700
- Tokens: background `#E2B33C` · text `#2B2622` · radius `60% 40% 50% 50% / 30% 30% 20% 20%` · padding `14px 28px`
- State, default: Mustard shape, ink label (7.7:1).
- State, hover: A 2px ink outline appears around the shape.
- State, focus: 2px rust-deep outline, 4px off.
- State, active: Ground turns ochre.
- State, disabled: Paper ground, dashed ink edge, muted label.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: Ink on every tile ground is 7.6:1 or better.
- **Web translation** — Cut the button as one flat organic shape; no gradient, no shadow. _Why:_ Organic shapes in bright flat colour, laid as unmodulated fields. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:dcc:color-5`)
- **Web translation** — Keep the label in the text sans, not the script. _Why:_ Script is an accent for one word, never a control. (`token_rule:typography-4`)

#### Card

Not a box: a block of text on a hairline with open paper around it and one small overprinted pair of inks in its void.

- Anatomy: 1.5px ink rule above; title in the sans at 700; one line of body; a two-ink overprint beside it, decoration
- Tokens: rule `1.5px solid #2B2622` · max-width `420px` · gap `60px`
- State, default: Hairline above, paper around.
- State, hover: Title underlines in rust, 2px.
- State, focus: 2px rust-deep outline.
- Accessibility: The title is the link.
- Accessibility: The inks are aria-hidden decoration.
- **Web translation** — Give each card more space around it than its content needs; the card with the most space leads. _Why:_ Rank by isolation; confident negative space. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`, `token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Separate with a hairline, not a box or a shadow. _Why:_ Space does the grouping, so the edge can be a single rule. (`token_rule:density-6`)

#### Input

A ruled line on paper, the label set above it in small tracked capitals.

- Anatomy: 1.5px ink underline; paper field, no box; label above in teal-deep capitals; error sentence below
- Tokens: border `0 0 1.5px` · border-color `#2B2622` · height `48px` · label `#256A66`
- State, default: Ink underline.
- State, focus: Underline thickens to 3px rust-deep, plus outline.
- State, error: Rust-deep underline; message begins "Error:".
- State, disabled: Dotted underline, muted text.
- Accessibility: The label is real text above the line.
- Accessibility: Errors are words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Rule the field with one line, like a form on a printed page. _Why:_ Hairlines and paper carry the page; a box would crowd it. (`token_rule:density-6`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify an input convention. _Instead:_ Keep the field plain.

#### Navigation

A few words far apart on the paper, the current one marked by a small overprinted dot of two inks.

- Anatomy: links in the sans, generously spaced; current: a teal and ochre dot overprinting beside it; rust underline on hover
- Tokens: gap `40px` · mark `ochre + teal, multiply` · underline `2px #B5562B`
- State, default: Ink words on paper.
- State, hover: Rust underline, 2px, 4px offset.
- State, focus: 2px rust-deep outline.
- State, current: The two-ink dot, aria-current="page".
- Accessibility: aria-current marks the page; the dot is decoration.
- Accessibility: Targets at least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Space the links far apart; never pack a menu bar. _Why:_ Confident negative space is the density rule. (`token_rule:density-6`, `token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page with two inks overprinting. _Why:_ Printed texture: overprint where flat inks meet. (`claim:surface-8.surface`, `token_rule:surface-8`)

### Motion

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

- Durations: drawing 125ms (eight drawings a second), cycle 375ms for three drawings
- Easing: all `steps(1)`
- Transforms: None: a moving part is redrawn, not tweened.
- Entrance: None.
- Hover: Instant.
- Reduced motion: Hold the first drawing.
- **Web translation** — Limited animation: fewer drawings a second (twelve, eight or six), redrawing only the parts that move. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-2`)
- **Web translation** — Movements are often repeated and recycled rather than drawn fresh. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-3`)
- **Web translation** — Simplified shapes and bold colours unmodulated by rounding or shadow, engaging the flat surface of the frame. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-1`)
- **Web translation** — If something moves, swap between a few drawings with steps(1); never ease or tween it. _Why:_ Limited animation redraws; it does not interpolate. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-2`, `claim:kcc:w2-motion-4`)
- **Web translation** — Move one part; hold the rest. _Why:_ Only the parts that move are redrawn. (`claim:kcc:w2-motion-2`)

### Deliberately not added

- **Which hues lead** (color): A declared freedom; the sources say vivid and flat, not which colours.
- **A specific face** (typography): Typography is a declared freedom.
- **Columns and gutters** (gridLayout): The sources specify negative space, not a grid.
- **Motifs** (imagery): The record rules motif out.
- **Any interface convention** (components): Interface is not specified by the source. 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 · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Typography | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Specified: form, surface, technique · Ruled out: motif | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |

Unresearched: Typography, Motion. 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

Every area of this record has a recorded position. That is unusual — most records do not.

## Grade your own work

19 checks: 8 mechanically testable, 9 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 1 further research dimension produced no rule (Motion). This rubric is silent on it. 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: Illustration with visible printed texture — grain, overprint, screen — in bright flat colour, organic and rounded shapes rather than pure geometry, and negative space held open with evident confidence. The diagnostic pair is illustration plus warmth: the geometry is softened and hand-made, and the empty areas are compositional rather than leftover. Swiss Style is photographic and cool. Googie takes the same period's optimism and shouts it at a motorist; this is indoors and quiet.
  - _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?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom: our research brief does record failure modes to avoid, listed under avoidance below. They are recorded judgement, not requirements.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### 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. Composition: confident negative space.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[mechanical · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. A humanist or geometric sans with warmth, plus period script for accent. Not a claim about the register — reasoned from the era's lithographic practice.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing. No one has researched the dimension yet, and this is only what Aesthetary would do. Departing from it costs you nothing.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank by isolation. The element with the most space around it leads. Follows directly from the claimed negative space.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. "confident negative space" is an explicit density claim.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: textured illustration.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Form / motif / surface / technique: organic shapes, print texture.
  - _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 photography as primary imagery.
  - _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 pure hard-edged geometry.
  - _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 cool or neutral 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 crowding.
  - _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 digital flatness without print texture.
  - _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 Googie: indoor repose versus roadside advertising. Same decade, opposite volume. Against Seventies Revival: warm-but-optimistic versus warm-but-compressed. MCM permits brightness; Seventies Revival forbids it. Anti-signature: swap illustration for photography and it drifts to Swiss. Raise the volume and angle the baselines and it becomes Googie.
  - _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: photographic primary imagery.
  - _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: closing the negative space..
  - _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 Brazilian Modernism? That language is: A named architectural school, not a climate
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Brazilian Modernism than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Travel Poster? That language is: Sells a place, not a service; lithographic flatness
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Travel Poster 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.

**Not covered at all:** Motion: 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: `mid-century-modern` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/mid-century-modern.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/mid-century-modern.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._