# Psychedelic — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Psychedelic**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions.
> 9 sources attached. 3 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:** Liquid warped lettering, vibrating complementary colour, radial symmetry, hand-drawn borders

**Recognise it by:** Hand-drawn lettering warped to fill an irregular field until the letterforms and the background share the same contour, complementary colours set at equal value so the edges vibrate optically, radial or mandala symmetry organising the whole sheet, and hand-drawn borders enclosing it. The diagnostic condition is legibility deliberately sacrificed to optical effect: the type is bent to serve the field rather than the field arranged to serve the type. Op Art produces the same vibration with geometric precision and no lettering at all. Maximalism is dense without being optically active.

**Family:** Maximal & Ornamental
**Era:** mid-century, 1970s
**Native medium:** print_poster

## What it is arguing

The poster should reproduce an altered perceptual state rather than describe one. Reading it slowly, with effort, in the presence of optical vibration, is the experience being advertised — so difficulty is the product, not a defect.

**It refuses:** Refuses immediate legibility and the assumption that communication should be efficient.

## What it is not

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

- Op Art
- Maximalism
- Surrealism — Dream logic; wrong register for anything instructional

## 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 · 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/psychedelic.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: radial symmetry; hand-drawn borders.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **typography** — Typography: hand lettered, warped.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Typography
- **color** — Carries a hard technical requirement: the vibration only occurs when complementaries sit at equal value. A designer who picks complementary hues at differing lightness gets no optical effect and the register fails.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: warped field, hand-drawn border.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### 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._

- **color** — Complementary colours are set at equal value so their shared edge vibrates optically. Equal value is the mechanism; a merely bright palette is not this.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Color
- **lettering** — Lettering is hand-drawn and warped to fill an irregular field until letterform and ground share a contour. Legibility is treated as a spectrum to be spent, not a requirement to be met.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Typography
- **lineage** — The Art Nouveau descent is documented, not inferred: Time named the style 'Nouveau Frisco' in 1967 and Wilson's work was directly influenced by Art Nouveau.
  - 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)

### Our reading

- **hierarchy** — There is deliberately almost no hierarchy. Everything competes at once, and the reader resolves it over time. Stating "no hierarchy" is itself the instruction.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **motion** — Slow continuous warp or colour cycling. Never scroll-triggered — the effect must be present, not revealed.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion

## 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** — TIME wrote that at first glance the calligraphy is totally unreadable, so people stop for a second glance.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-typography-1` · Covers Wilson's Fillmore posters, 1966–67.
- **Color** — Complementary colours in standard inks were set side by side so their edge vibrates; Moscoso, trained under Albers, attended to value and brightness in doing so.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-1`
- **Imagery** — Mouse and Kelley often appropriated images rather than inventing them: from advertisements and product labels, art books and illustrated texts of the past, including a 19th-century illustration.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-1` · Covers Mouse and Kelley, Avalon/Fillmore, 1966.
- **Imagery** — Collage, including photographic collage, is a documented device alongside drawn imagery.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-2`
- **Imagery** — The Family Dog logo borrowed an image of a Native American fur trader from the American Heritage Book of Indians.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-3` · Covers historical context; a cultural-appropriation fact about the subject, not a rule for the Aesthetic.
- **Imagery** — Later, the poster artists responded with clear, legible text and recognisable imagery in place of psychedelic colours and themes.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-4` · Covers marks the late edge of the 1965-1972 scope.
- **Surface** — Most posters of 1966-1968 were printed on uncoated papers; coated papers were used more often from 1969.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1`
- **Surface** — The artists emphasised that the popping colour came from juxtaposing standard printing inks.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers San Francisco concert posters.
- **Motion** — The dance concerts the posters advertised had liquid light shows: oil-and-dye emulsions on overhead projectors made bubbling visuals that pulsed with the music.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1` · Covers companion medium (light show), not the poster.
- **Motion** — Some Moscoso posters used standard colours to give the illusion of animation under alternating coloured lights.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Moscoso, 1967 onward.
- **Motion** — Bill Graham recalled that people often spent time looking at the posters and would sway back and forth.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-3` · Covers Bill Graham's account of Wes Wilson posters.
- **Technique** — Most posters were photo-offset lithographs from small San Francisco shops; a few were screen prints.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers 1966-1968 core.
- **Technique** — Colour was pre-separated by the artist into flat spot colours, one plate per colour, giving planes of solid colour or dot patterns rather than process-colour reproduction.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2`
- **Technique** — Most posters were printed on small one-colour sheet-fed offset presses, and young artists collaborated with commercial lithographers.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3`
- **Technique** — Blended rainbow backgrounds came from the split-fountain inking technique; metallic inks were also used.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-4`
- **Technique** — Four-colour process printing was used for some of the later Fillmore posters.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-5` · Covers late.
- **Form** — The objects are flat printed posters, plastered on telephone poles and in store windows.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1`
- **Density** — Wilson's designs were described as expanding to fill all available space.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-density-1` · Covers Wilson.

## 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** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Form** — 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 Psychedelic: hand-lettered display warped to fill its field, complementaries set side by side at matched value so the edge vibrates, flat spot colour, radial symmetry and hand-drawn borders; legibility is spent in display only, and every sentence and control sits still, ink on cream.

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/psychedelic.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#F84F33` | — | The sheet; one half of the vibrating pair. | Web translation |
| pair | `#00AAB4` | equal lightness to ground (oklch 0.66) | The other half of the pair; display only, never under text. | Web translation |
| magenta | `#CD3EC6` | — | Petals and plates. | Web translation |
| green | `#3E9F24` | — | Petals and plates. | Web translation |
| cream | `#FFF4DE` | — | Still panels for every sentence and control. | Web translation |
| ink | `#2A1330` | 15.6:1 on cream | All reading text, rings and borders. | Web translation |

Other accents the record supports:

- Split-fountain blend (recorded as "Blended rainbow backgrounds from split-fountain inking"): `linear-gradient(90deg, #CD3EC6, #F84F33, #3E9F24, #00AAB4)`

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:ps-r1` → Set complementaries at equal value so the shared edge vibrates; a merely bright palette is not this.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-1` → Complementary standard inks side by side, with attention to value and brightness.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-5` → No complementaries at unequal value.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-2` → Flat spot colours, one plate per colour: solid planes, not process colour.
- **Web translation** — Never set a sentence on the vibrating pair. _Why:_ The vibration is the display's effect; reading text on it becomes unreadable for everyone, and a hazard for some. (`token_rule:ps-r1`, `token_rule:ps-r2`)

### Typography

Family: heavy display (Shrikhand) under a warp, with Karla for text. Stack: `"Shrikhand PY", "Cooper Black", Georgia, serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Setting | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | 9.4rem | 400 | 1 | not specified | -0.04em | — | along a wave, through a displacement warp | The one display word; decorative, with the plain name as the heading text. |
| heading | 2.375rem | 400 | 1.1 | not specified | not specified | — | — | Panel headings. |
| body | 1.125rem | 500 | 1.6 | not specified | not specified | 64ch | — | Reading text, ink on cream, in Karla. |
| label | 0.75rem | 700 | 1.4 | not specified | not specified | — | — | Kinds and small labels. |

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:ps-r2` → Hand-draw the lettering and warp it to fill an irregular field until letter and ground share a contour.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-typography-1` → At first glance the calligraphy is unreadable, so people stop for a second glance.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No typeset lettering in the display.
- **Web translation** — Hand-letter the display wherever you can; a typeface under a warp filter is a stand-in and should be named as one. _Why:_ The record asks for hand-drawn lettering, which a font under a filter does not meet; Shrikhand and Karla are ours. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `claim:failure-7`)

### Grid and layout

No column grid: a sheet organised radially, enclosed in a hand-drawn border, with the reading panels set off the vertical below it.

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Radial symmetry; hand-drawn borders.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → There is deliberately almost no hierarchy: everything competes at once.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-density-1` → The design expands to fill all available space.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-4` → No generous whitespace.
- **Web translation** — Keep the poster sheet full; let the reading half be a run of still panels, each off the vertical. _Why:_ The sheet carries the language; reading on a screen needs a place where the effect does not reach. (`claim:kcc:w2-density-1`, `token_rule:ps-r2`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `44% 56% 48% 52% / 12% 14% 10% 12%` · ring `4px` · tilt `1.5deg` · shadow `none`

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Warped field, hand-drawn border.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-3` → No geometric construction.
- **Web translation** — Give every panel and control an uneven radius and an ink ring; nothing is set square. _Why:_ A drawn edge is the record's border; geometric precision would make it Op Art. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:failure-6`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-1` → Images were often appropriated rather than invented: advertisements, product labels, old art books and illustration.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-2` → Collage, including photographic collage, sits alongside drawn imagery.
- **Web translation** — Use appropriated or collaged images only where you hold the licence; never draw a period-style figure to stand in. _Why:_ Imagery presence is a declared freedom; the documented practice is borrowing, which on the web is a licensing question. (`claim:freedom-imagery`, `claim:kcc:imagery-1`)

### Where legibility is spent

The poster treats legibility as a spectrum to spend. A website spends it only in display.

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:ps-r2` → Legibility is a spectrum to be spent, not a requirement to be met.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:declared-freedom` → How far legibility degrades is a declared freedom.
- **Web translation** — Spend it in the display word; every sentence, label and control stays readable, ink on cream. _Why:_ Difficulty is the poster's product; on a site, a person still has to find the door. (`intent`, `token_rule:ps-r2`)

### 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 cream lozenge with a hand-drawn ink ring, its label in the display face.

- Anatomy: cream field; 4px ink ring; uneven, drawn-looking radius; label in Shrikhand
- Tokens: fill `#FFF4DE` · label `#2A1330` · border `0 0 0 4px #2A1330 (ring)` · radius `30px 26px 32px 24px` · shadow `none` · transition `none`
- State, default: Cream, ink ring, ink label.
- State, hover: The field turns blue-green; the label stays ink.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline, 3px outside the ring.
- State, active: The field turns orange; the label stays ink.
- State, disabled: Label struck through; the field stays cream.
- Accessibility: Ink on cream is 15.6:1; ink stays the label colour on every fill.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: The label never sits on the vibrating pair.
- **Web translation** — Keep the control legible: cream field, ink label, the vibration kept off it. _Why:_ Legibility is spent in display on the poster; a control that cannot be read fails the person using it, not the style. (`token_rule:ps-r2`, `claim:declared-freedom`)
- **Web translation** — Draw the edge as an ink ring with an uneven radius, never a geometric pill. _Why:_ Hand-drawn borders are on the record and geometric construction is ruled out. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `claim:failure-3`)

#### Card

A cream panel enclosed in ink, set a little off the vertical, on the orange ground.

- Anatomy: cream field; 4px ink ring; wobbling radius; a tilt of about a degree; display heading
- Tokens: background `#FFF4DE` · ring `4px #2A1330` · radius `44% 56% 48% 52% / 12% 14% 10% 12%` · tilt `±1.5deg` · padding `36px 48px`
- State, default: Panel off the vertical.
- State, hover: The ground behind it shows blue-green.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline.
- Accessibility: Every sentence sits on cream in ink.
- Accessibility: The tilt is removed on narrow screens.
- **Web translation** — Enclose each card in a hand-drawn ink line and set it off the vertical. _Why:_ Hand-drawn borders enclose the field; nothing in the language is set square. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `token_rule:surface-8`)

#### Input

A cream field inside an ink ring, its label above in heavy text.

- Anatomy: cream field; 3px ink ring; rounded, uneven radius; label above, 700
- Tokens: background `#FFF4DE` · ring `3px #2A1330` · radius `22px 18px 24px 16px`
- State, default: Ink ring.
- State, focus: Ring thickens to 5px.
- State, error: Message below in ink, beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Label struck through.
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: Errors are written.
- **Web translation** — Give entry the same cream-and-ink ring as the panels. _Why:_ Reading and entry stay on still cream; the vibration belongs to display. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `token_rule:ps-r2`)

#### Navigation

Cream tabs ringed in ink, set at slightly different angles, the current one filled blue-green.

- Anatomy: cream tabs; ink rings; small tilts; current tab filled
- Tokens: background `#FFF4DE` · current `#00AAB4` · ring `3px #2A1330`
- State, default: Ink label on cream.
- State, hover: Tab fills blue-green.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline.
- State, current: Blue-green fill, ink label, no link.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: Ink on blue-green is 6.0:1.
- **Web translation** — Give the tabs no rank between them: same size, same weight, only the current one filled. _Why:_ There is deliberately almost no hierarchy; on screen that means no link is louder than another. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

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

- Durations: warp 18s, drift 60s, state 0ms
- Easing: drift `ease-in-out`, state `none`
- Transforms: a displacement warp that breathes, and rotation of a few degrees; no hue cycling
- Entrance: None: the effect is present, not revealed.
- Hover: An instant swap of flat fill.
- Reduced motion: Everything still: the warp holds its shape and nothing drifts.
- **Web translation** — Slow continuous warp or colour cycling; never scroll-triggered: the effect must be present, not revealed. _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** — Some Moscoso posters gave an illusion of animation under alternating coloured lights. _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-2`)
- **Web translation** — Choose the warp over colour cycling, keep it slower than ten seconds a cycle, and never flash. _Why:_ Continuous motion is on the record; on a screen, fast hue change is a seizure and vestibular risk, so the slowest form of it is the one we take. (`token_rule:motion-14`, `claim:kcc:motion-1`)

### Deliberately not added

- **Interface conventions** (components): Interface is not specified by the source; the four components are translations of documented rules.
- **Three-dimensional form** (shapeGeometry): The objects are flat printed posters; form does not apply.

## 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 · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Imagery | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Does not apply: form · Specified: motif, surface, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |

Unresearched: Imagery, 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

20 checks: 8 mechanically testable, 11 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 1 with no recorded position. 2 further research dimensions produced no rule (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: Hand-drawn lettering warped to fill an irregular field until the letterforms and the background share the same contour, complementary colours set at equal value so the edges vibrate optically, radial or mandala symmetry organising the whole sheet, and hand-drawn borders enclosing it. The diagnostic condition is legibility deliberately sacrificed to optical effect: the type is bent to serve the field rather than the field arranged to serve the type. Op Art produces the same vibration with geometric precision and no lettering at all. Maximalism is dense without being optically active.
  - _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: radial symmetry; hand-drawn borders.
  - _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. Typography: hand lettered, warped.
  - _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. There is deliberately almost no hierarchy. Everything competes at once, and the reader resolves it over time. Stating "no hierarchy" is itself the instruction.
  - _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. Carries a hard technical requirement: the vibration only occurs when complementaries sit at equal value. A designer who picks complementary hues at differing lightness gets no optical effect and the register fails.
  - _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: warped field, hand-drawn border.
  - _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. Slow continuous warp or colour cycling. Never scroll-triggered — the effect must be present, not revealed.
  - _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 · 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. Complementary colours are set at equal value so their shared edge vibrates optically. Equal value is the mechanism; a merely bright palette is not this.
  - _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. Lettering is hand-drawn and warped to fill an irregular field until letterform and ground share a contour. Legibility is treated as a spectrum to be spent, not a requirement to be met.
  - _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 typeset lettering.
  - _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 high-contrast legible pairing.
  - _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 geometric construction.
  - _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 generous whitespace.
  - _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 complementaries at unequal value.
  - _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 Op Art: hand-drawn and lettered versus geometric and wordless. Against Maximalism: optically active versus merely dense. Anti-signature: geometric precision makes it Op Art. Legible type makes it a 1960s pastiche.
  - _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: typesetting the display.
  - _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: resolving hierarchy..
  - _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 Surrealism? That language is: Dream logic; wrong register for anything instructional
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Surrealism than to this Aesthetic.

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

- **[mechanical · recorded accessibility cost · Evidence: No grade recorded]** This Aesthetic accepts "Legibility" as a cost. Your reader did not. Does your work carry that cost in the decorative layer only — display, demonstration, atmosphere — while every passage meant to be read holds a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1?
  - _If it fails:_ You have inherited a historical cost that the language never required you to pass on. The Aesthetic survives at AA on reading matter; reproducing the cost is a choice, not fidelity.

### 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.

- The Art Nouveau descent is documented, not inferred: Time named the style 'Nouveau Frisco' in 1967 and Wilson's work was directly influenced by Art Nouveau. _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached)_

**Not covered at all:** Density: Specified · Our reading; 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: `psychedelic` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/psychedelic.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/psychedelic.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._