# Scandinavian Minimalism — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Scandinavian Minimalism**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions.
> 13 sources attached. 1 claim 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:** Pale neutrals, daylight photography, rounded corners, functional clarity

**Recognise it by:** Pale warm neutrals with visible wood tone, daylight interior photography with soft shadow, rounded corners throughout, and a reduced layout that still leaves content on the page. The diagnostic condition is its position between two neighbours: warmer and more balanced than Swiss, less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism. It is defined by where it sits, and a version pushed toward either pole becomes that neighbour. Soft Minimalism, a direction built on Flat Design, is the adjacent screen-native register.

**Family:** Minimal & Ordered
**Era:** mid-century, contemporary

**Scope:** Scandinavian design is a mid-century furniture and product formation. Aesthetary's warm, reduced screen register borrows its name and simplicity; pale neutrals, daylight imagery and rounded corners are our reading.

## What it is arguing

Restraint without severity. The same reduction that modernism performs, softened by daylight, pale wood tones and rounded form, so the result reads as habitable rather than as doctrinal.

**It refuses:** Refuses the coolness and asymmetric rigour of its two reference points.

## What it is not

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

- Japanese Minimalism
- Soft Minimalism
- Japandi — Nordic warmth laid over Japanese restraint

## 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/scandinavian-minimalism.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: balanced, not asymmetric.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Layout
- **color** — Colour: pale neutral, warm.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color
- **density** — Density: "less empty than Japanese".
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Density
- **imagery** — Imagery: daylight interiors.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form/motif/surface/technique: rounded corners, wood tone.
  - 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._

- **register** — Whether a unified 'Scandinavian design' exists or was assembled for export is a live scholarly dispute, not a settled fact. The joint marketing is dated and documented: Heal's 'Scandinavia Design for Living' (London, 1951) and the touring 'Design in Scandinavia' (1954-57).
  - 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** — Rank by quiet emphasis — modest scale steps and generous but not extreme spacing. No dramatic ratio anywhere.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **position** — Defined by position between neighbours: warmer and more balanced than Swiss Style, less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism. Content remains on the page.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Context (not a design area)
- **motif** — Not a refusal of pattern: the defining exhibition showed craft objects in traditional patterned designs alongside industrial production.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motif

## 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** — The design-history literature on Scandinavian Design has largely not examined how graphic design relates to it.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-typography-1` · Covers literature review, 2017.
- **Interface** — The Paimio chair (1931–32) has an organically shaped frame of two closed loops of laminated birch.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1` · Covers Paimio chair, 1931–32.
- **Interface** — Rounded, softened edges are documented in Finn Juhl's minimal structures, and a V&A low oak-framed chair has rounded armrests.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-interface-1` · Covers Danish furniture, 1948–50.
- **Interface** — One chair's seat and back were formed from a single plywood sheet bent into compound curves, and the V&A says the designer's Royal Hotel pieces show a mastery of double curvature that gives many of them a bulbous or organic form.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-interface-2` · Covers Jacobsen, 1955–58.
- **Interface** — A familiar argument in the literature on Scandinavian design is that Functionalism's aesthetic was 'softened' or 'modified' by its encounter with existing craft traditions.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-interface-3` · Covers historiographic; 'softened' is metaphorical, not an edge radius.
- **Motion** — Some individual objects move mechanically, e.g. the Egg chair's cast aluminium swivel base and a collapsible teak deck chair; the sources cited here do not treat movement as a trait of the formation.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-1` · Covers individual objects.
- **Motif** — Craft objects in traditional patterned designs were shown in the defining exhibition.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-2` · Covers Design in Scandinavia, 1954.
- **Technique** — The formation spanned handicraft, applied art and industrial production.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-3` · Covers Design in Scandinavia selection.
- **Form** — Two documented pieces reduce to few members: a chair whose continuous seat and back are one plywood sheet bent into compound curves, and a stool reduced to an L-shaped leg and a circular top.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-1` · Covers Jacobsen 1955; Aalto 1933.
- **Form** — The V&A describes Finn Juhl as a master of sculptural, organic forms and natural materials, and calls one plywood chair's curvaceousness organic and sensual.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-2`
- **Form** — Furniture could define its own space inside a room.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-form-3` · Covers Egg chair, Royal Hotel lobby, 1958.

## 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
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Interface** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Scandinavian Minimalism as a screen register: pale warm neutrals with oak, rounded corners, a balanced page that stays full, and quiet emphasis. The register and the word "minimalism" are our reading; the mid-century objects also carried pattern and organic curves.

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/scandinavian-minimalism.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#F5F1EA` | — | The page. | On the record |
| card | `#FBF8F3` | — | Panels and fields. | Web translation |
| linen | `#ECE5D9` | — | Quiet emphasis: the diagnostic, the current tab. | Web translation |
| ink | `#2F2B27` | 12.5:1 | All text. | Web translation |
| oak-ink | `#6B5237` | 6.5:1 | Buttons and small warm text. | Web translation |
| oak | `#C9A27C` | — | Underlines and decoration only; never text. | Web translation |
| sage | `#8E9A86` | — | A rare second decoration; never text. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:color-5` → Pale neutral, warm.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No cool or neutral-grey palette.
- **Web translation** — Treat wood-and-white as the contemporary register, not as the mid-century objects' palette. _Why:_ Research found natural wood and white tones recommended by present-day promotion and more present there than in the objects. (`claim:kcc:definition`)

### Typography

Family: a warm grotesque (Familjen Grotesk), one family, 400 and 600. Stack: `"Familjen X", "Seravek", "Segoe UI", "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | 3.08rem | 600 | 1.1 | not specified | not specified | 16ch | The page title. |
| heading | 1.54rem | 600 | 1.25 | not specified | not specified | — | Section headings. |
| body | 1.125rem | 400 | 1.65 | not specified | not specified | 66ch | Running text. |
| label | 0.98rem | 400 | 1.5 | not specified | not specified | — | Kinds, captions, small print. |

- **Not specified by the source** — Letterforms are an open question: the literature has largely not examined graphic design in relation to Scandinavian Design. _Instead:_ Choose a face and say it is a choice; do not present it as Scandinavian.
- **Web translation** — One warm grotesque at a single 1.15 ratio. _Why:_ Quiet emphasis asks for modest scale steps; the face itself is ours. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`, `claim:freedom-typography`)

### Grid and layout

An even two-column rhythm in a 1000px column: balanced, full, never a single block in a void.

| Viewport | Columns |
| --- | --- |
| 1000px | 2 |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Balanced, not asymmetric.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:density-6` → Less empty than Japanese Minimalism.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by quiet emphasis: modest steps, generous but not extreme spacing.
- **Web translation** — Set content in even pairs; if a row has one item, it spans the column. _Why:_ Pushing toward emptiness or asymmetry turns it into its neighbour. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `claim:dcc:failure-7`)

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `14px` · radius-small `12px` · radius-round `999px` · shadow `none`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-4` → No sharp corners.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-interface-1` → Rounded, softened edges are documented in Finn Juhl's minimal structures and a V&A oak chair's armrests.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-form-1`, `claim:kcc:w2-form-2` → Documented pieces reduce to few members, and curve plywood into compound, organic forms.
- **Web translation** — Use one radius family (12–14px) on every surface and control. _Why:_ Rounded corners throughout is the recognised register; one family keeps it quiet. (`token_rule:surface-8`, `claim:dcc:gestalt`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Daylight interiors.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:motif-2` → Pattern belongs to it too: craft objects in traditional patterned designs were in the defining exhibition.
- **Web translation** — Use licensed daylight photographs; where none is held, leave a labelled placeholder rather than an illustration. _Why:_ The record names photography; a drawing would stand in for evidence it does not hold. (`token_rule:imagery-7`)

### Where it sits

Defined by its neighbours: warmer and more balanced than Swiss, less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism.

- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:sm-r2` → Warmer and more balanced than Swiss Style; less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism.
- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:sm-r1` → Whether a unified "Scandinavian design" exists or was assembled for export is a live scholarly dispute.
- **Web translation** — Never present minimalism as essentially Scandinavian. _Why:_ The reduced register and the "minimalism" framing are our reading; the formation spanned handicraft, applied art and industry. (`claim:kcc:definition`, `claim:kcc:technique-3`)

### 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 soft oak-ink block with fully rounded corners and a plain label.

- Anatomy: oak-ink fill; rounded corners (14px); label in the page face, 600
- Tokens: fill `#6B5237` · label `#FBF8F3` · border `none` · radius `14px` · shadow `none` · transition `none`
- State, default: Oak-ink fill, card-white label.
- State, hover: The fill deepens to ink.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline, 3px outside.
- State, active: Ink fill.
- State, disabled: Linen fill, muted label, and the word "unavailable" in the label.
- Accessibility: Card-white on oak-ink is 6.9:1.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- Accessibility: Disabled is said in words, not only by fading.
- **Web translation** — Round every corner of the button; never square. _Why:_ No sharp corners is on the record, and softened edges are documented in the furniture. (`claim:failure-4`, `claim:kcc:w2-interface-1`)
- **Web translation** — Keep the fill warm and quiet: oak-ink, not a saturated accent. _Why:_ Pale warm neutrals and quiet emphasis; no dramatic contrast anywhere. (`token_rule:color-5`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

#### Card

A warm card on the linen ground, rounded, with content in it: never an empty frame.

- Anatomy: card fill; 14px radius; heading 600; body text; no border, no shadow
- Tokens: background `#FBF8F3` · radius `14px` · padding `28px` · shadow `none` · border `none`
- State, default: Card on linen.
- State, hover: Fill shifts to the lighter ground.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline.
- Accessibility: Ink on card is 13.3:1.
- Accessibility: Headings are real headings, one level below the section.
- **Web translation** — Rounded corners, wood tone. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Web translation** — Pair cards two to a row where the content pairs; keep the page full. _Why:_ Balanced, not asymmetric, and less empty than Japanese Minimalism. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `token_rule:density-6`)

#### Input

A rounded card-white field with a thin oak edge and a label above.

- Anatomy: card-white field; 2px oak border; 12px radius; label above, 600
- Tokens: background `#FBF8F3` · border `2px solid #B48A63` · radius `12px`
- State, default: Oak edge.
- State, focus: Edge turns ink, 3px outline outside.
- State, error: Message below in ink, beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Linen fill, label says "unavailable".
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: The oak edge is decoration; focus and error are marked in ink and words.
- **Web translation** — Round the field and edge it in oak; put focus and errors in ink. _Why:_ No sharp corners; oak is decoration only, never a carrier of meaning on its own. (`claim:failure-4`, `token_rule:color-5`)

#### Navigation

A plain row of links underlined in oak; the current one sits on a rounded linen tab.

- Anatomy: links in the page face; oak underline; current page on a rounded linen tab
- Tokens: underline `2px solid #C9A27C` · current `#ECE5D9` · radius `999px`
- State, default: Ink text, oak underline.
- State, hover: Underline turns oak-ink.
- State, focus: 3px ink outline.
- State, current: Rounded linen tab, no link.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: Current is marked by shape and fill, not only colour.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page with a modest step, not a dramatic one. _Why:_ Rank by quiet emphasis: modest scale steps, no dramatic ratio anywhere. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

- **Not specified by the source** — Whether movement matters to this formation is an open question. _Instead:_ Keep state changes instant and add no entrance motion; some objects swivel or fold, but the sources do not make movement a trait.

### Deliberately not added

- **Letterforms** (typography): An open question: the literature has largely not examined graphic design in relation to Scandinavian Design.
- **Any motion** (motion): An open question: the sources do not treat movement as a trait of the formation.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The formation is furniture and objects; the four components are translations of the record's rules.

## 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 | Open question | Aesthetary decided | no |
| 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 | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Open question | Aesthetary decided | no |

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

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Typography
- Motion

**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

19 checks: 6 mechanically testable, 11 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 2 further research dimensions produced no rule (Typography, Motion). This rubric is silent on them. 2 context rules are 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: Pale warm neutrals with visible wood tone, daylight interior photography with soft shadow, rounded corners throughout, and a reduced layout that still leaves content on the page. The diagnostic condition is its position between two neighbours: warmer and more balanced than Swiss, less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism. It is defined by where it sits, and a version pushed toward either pole becomes that neighbour. Soft Minimalism, a direction built on Flat Design, is the adjacent screen-native register.
  - _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: balanced, not asymmetric.
  - _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 quiet emphasis — modest scale steps and generous but not extreme spacing. No dramatic ratio anywhere.
  - _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. Colour: pale neutral, warm.
  - _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. Density: "less empty than Japanese".
  - _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: daylight interiors.
  - _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: rounded corners, wood tone.
  - _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 cool or neutral-grey 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 extreme asymmetry.
  - _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 extreme emptiness.
  - _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 sharp corners.
  - _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]** Check your work against this: Not a refusal of pattern: the defining exhibition showed craft objects in traditional patterned designs alongside industrial production.
  - _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 doctrinal rigour.
  - _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 Japanese Minimalism: less empty, less asymmetric — a formal comparison only. Against Swiss Style: warmer, more balanced. Against Soft Minimalism: a direction on Flat Design, not a peer language. Anti-signature: cool it and tighten the grid and it becomes Swiss. Empty it and push the asymmetry and it becomes Japanese Minimalism. The record has little margin on either side.
  - _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: pushing toward either neighbour pole..
  - _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 Japanese Minimalism? That language is: Emptiness is an active compositional element, not leftover space
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Japanese Minimalism than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Japandi? That language is: Nordic warmth laid over Japanese restraint
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Japandi 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.

- Whether a unified 'Scandinavian design' exists or was assembled for export is a live scholarly dispute, not a settled fact. The joint marketing is dated and documented: Heal's 'Scandinavia Design for Living' (London, 1951) and the touring 'Design in Scandinavia' (1954-57). _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached)_
- Defined by position between neighbours: warmer and more balanced than Swiss Style, less empty and less asymmetric than Japanese Minimalism. Content remains on the page. _(Our reading · Evidence: Our reading)_

**Not covered at all:** Typography: Open question; Motion: Open question. 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: `scandinavian-minimalism` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/scandinavian-minimalism.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/scandinavian-minimalism.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._