# Travel Poster — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Travel Poster**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 6 of 8 research dimensions.
> 10 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:** Flattened landscape illustration, destination wordmark, limited flat palette, poster proportions

**Recognise it by:** A landscape simplified into flat colour with no modelling, colour-lithographed, with a black key printing giving the flat areas their depth, and the destination name set plainly and boldly as the dominant lettering on one large sheet, portrait or landscape. The diagnostic condition is the place is the product: no service, no price, no itinerary — the poster sells a location and nothing else, which is why the destination and a short slogan can be the only copy. Pulp sells a story. Mid-Century Modern shares the flat colour and the illustration but arranges a domestic composition rather than a horizon.

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

**Scope:** The visual register of interwar railway and resort posters, anchored in documented work such as Broders' PLM posters: flat colour, deep perspective, bold destination lettering. Limited palette and tall proportion are Aesthetary's reading.

## What it is arguing

A place is sold by simplifying it. Reducing a landscape to flat shapes of colour produces an image more memorable than the place itself, and the destination name, with at most a short slogan, is the only text the poster owes anyone.

**It refuses:** Refuses photographic detail, and refuses selling a service or a price rather than a place.

## What it is not

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

- Pulp
- Cartographic
- Mid-Century Modern

## 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 · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · 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/travel-poster.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._

- **hierarchy** — The destination wordmark outranks everything, and there is effectively no third level.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Hierarchy
- **color** — Colour: limited flat palette.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — Form / motif / surface / technique: lithographic flatness, no modelling.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### From our catalogue entry · disputed

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

- **imagery** — Imagery: flattened landscape illustration.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Product area: Imagery

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

- **color** — The landscape is reduced to stacked planes of flat colour with no modelling, in a palette small enough to have been hand-separated for lithography.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed · Product area: Color

### Our reading

- **typography** — A geometric or gently condensed sans in caps, letterspaced, sitting as a band. Reasoned from the wordmark's structural role.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Typography
- **layout** — A poster is one flat sheet at large scale, and its orientation varies: the British quad royal is landscape, Broders' PLM posters portrait. Hold the sheet's fixed ratio on screen rather than letting the composition reflow to viewport width; which ratio is the design's choice.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Layout

## 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.

- **Layout** — The poster is a single flat sheet at large scale. The British quad royal is 50 x 40 in, landscape; one Broders PLM poster measures 101.6 x 63.5 cm, portrait.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:layout-from-form-1`
- **Typography** — The destination name is the main lettering, set plainly and boldly, with a short slogan.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers Broders' PLM posters, 1922-32 (encyclopaedic)..
- **Typography** — Lettering on British railway posters came in various styles; it was treated as a set of two-dimensional shapes within the design.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers British railway posters, 1923-39..
- **Typography** — The LNER standardised on Gill Sans as its house lettering.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-3` · Covers LNER only..
- **Typography** — Many posters used more decorative lettering, perhaps derived from shop-fronts and letterpress playbills.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-4`
- **Typography** — Lettering was not always a horizontal band: Broders' Le Tour du Mont Blanc wraps its text around a circular image.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-5` · Covers One PLM poster, 1927..
- **Surface** — Posters were colour lithographs on paper.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers British (LNER), French (Nord, PLM) examples 1925-32..
- **Surface** — British railway posters were still printed from litho stones on old large presses, with hand-drawn colour separations.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-2` · Covers Britain, into the 1930s..
- **Surface** — A black key printing gives the areas of flat colour their sense of depth.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-3`
- **Surface** — Colour count was a cost decision: twelve overprinted colours was not unusual, and cheaper prints were bought by simplifying colour and detail.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-4` · Covers Chromolithography in general (encyclopaedic)..
- **Motif** — Each British railway company had its own branding marks, e.g. the GWR button logo and the LNER ellipse; one company made frequent use of an electric flash or spark motif.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-1` · Covers British Big Four, 1923-39..
- **Motif** — Styles varied within the genre (Art Deco, abstract, representational); the absence of a shared ornament system is Aesthetary's inference.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-2`
- **Form** — The poster is a single flat sheet at large scale. The British quad royal is 50 x 40 in, landscape; one Broders PLM poster measures 101.6 x 63.5 cm, portrait.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1`
- **Form** — The only spatial organisation documented is display: posters pasted on platform hoardings or trimmed and framed in waiting rooms, and occasional multi-sheet series that form one continuous scene when hung side by side.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2` · Covers Purvis's six-sheet LNER series, 1931..

## 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
- **Motif** — Left open
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.
- **Motion** — 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 Travel Poster: a place in flat colour with a dark key, the destination set plainly and boldly, each sheet held at its own ratio, and nothing sold but the place.

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/travel-poster.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#EFE6D2` | — | The page ground behind the sheets. | Web translation |
| ink | `#15343D` | 10.6:1 | The key: bands, text, the darkest plane. | Web translation |
| cream | `#F4E3BE` | — | Lettering on the band; fields. | Web translation |
| sand | `#F2C572` | — | A flat plane: land, facts, the current page. | Web translation |
| sky | `#F6D48E` | — | A flat plane: sky. | Web translation |
| haze | `#7FA7A8` | — | A flat plane: distance. | Web translation |
| sea | `#1E5C6B` | — | A flat plane: water; cream text at 5.9:1. | Web translation |
| coral | `#D9603F` | — | A flat plane: the headland. Never text. | Web translation |
| coral-deep | `#9E3F25` | 5.3:1 | Coral wherever it is text, and focus. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → Lay every colour flat, with no modelling.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-3` → Use a dark key printing to give the flat areas their depth.
- **Web translation** — Keep to the page's nine inks. _Why:_ A limited flat palette is the record's reading; the count and the inks are ours. (`token_rule:color-5`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The palette size is not evidenced. _Instead:_ Twelve overprinted colours was not unusual and cheaper prints simplified colour; choose a count and say it is yours.

### Typography

Family: a letterspaced geometric sans for bands (Josefin Sans, our reading) and Karla for reading text. Stack: `"Karla TP", "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| destination | clamp(1.75rem, 5vw, 3rem) | 700 | 1.1 | uppercase | 0.14em | — | The destination name, the one dominant line. |
| band | 0.75rem | 700 | 1.5 | uppercase | 0.2em | — | Labels and small bands. |
| text | 1.125rem | 400 | 1.65 | not specified | not specified | 860px | Everything read at length. |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → Set the destination name as the main lettering, plainly and boldly, with a short slogan.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Treat lettering as shapes within the design, not as a separate text block.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:typography-4` → Set the wordmark in a geometric or gently condensed sans, in caps, letterspaced, as a band.
- **Web translation** — Use Josefin Sans for bands and Karla for text. _Why:_ The page's own faces: a geometric caps sans for the band and a plain sans for reading. (`token_rule:typography-4`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources name no single period lettering style. _Instead:_ Styles varied: the LNER used Gill Sans, other posters decorative lettering from shop-fronts and playbills. Choose one and do not call it the genre's face.

### Grid and layout

One sheet, not a grid: a horizon of stacked flat planes under the destination band, the sheet held at its own ratio, portrait or landscape.

Tokens: ratio-portrait `5 / 7` · ratio-landscape `50 / 40`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:layout-3` → Hold the sheet at a fixed ratio rather than reflowing it; portrait or landscape is the design's choice.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-1` → A poster is one flat sheet at large scale: the quad royal 50 × 40 in landscape, a PLM poster 101.6 × 63.5 cm portrait.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Keep hierarchy nearly binary: destination, then everything else.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a column grid. _Instead:_ Lay the page as sheets on a wall; if you need columns, state them as yours.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · sheet-margin `5px solid #FFFFFF` · shadow `none`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-2` → No modelling, gradient or cast shadow.
- **Web translation** — Square corners, and a thin white margin round each sheet. _Why:_ A single flat sheet, trimmed and pasted or framed; the margin is the paper. (`claim:kcc:form-1`, `claim:kcc:form-2`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry · disputed** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Show a flattened landscape illustration.
- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed** · `token_rule:tp-r1` → Reduce the landscape to stacked planes of flat colour, no modelling.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No photography.

### The hoarding

Posters were seen pasted on platform hoardings or framed in waiting rooms, and a series could hang side by side as one continuous scene.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-2` → Display is the only spatial organisation: pasted on hoardings, framed in waiting rooms, or hung as a continuous series.
- **Web translation** — Show a set of posters as sheets side by side on one wall, each whole. _Why:_ The documented display is the hoarding; a set of cards is a set of sheets, not a mosaic. (`claim:kcc:form-2`)

### 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 flat block of one ink with the label in letterspaced capitals, like a strip cut from the poster's band.

- Anatomy: flat ink field, no gradient, no shadow; label in the band face, capitals, letterspaced; square corners
- Tokens: background `#15343D` · color `#F4E3BE` · radius `0` · shadow `none` · tracking `0.16em`
- State, default: Ink block, cream label (10.4:1).
- State, hover: The block changes to the sea ink (cream on sea 5.9:1).
- State, focus: 3px deep-coral outline, 3px outside.
- State, active: Sea block, label underlined.
- State, disabled: Haze block, ink label.
- Accessibility: Every state is a flat colour change with text at 4.5:1 or better.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Make the button one flat plane of ink. _Why:_ Flat colour with no modelling is the surface; a button is one more plane. (`claim:kcc:definition`, `token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Web translation** — Set the label as the band sets the wordmark: letterspaced capitals. _Why:_ Our reading of the record's type: a geometric or gently condensed sans in caps, letterspaced, sitting as a band. (`token_rule:typography-4`)

#### Card

A small poster on the hoarding: a flat landscape above, the destination in the dark band below, and a short slogan at most.

- Anatomy: white margin round the sheet; flat-colour picture, no modelling; dark band with the destination name in capitals; optional one-line slogan
- Tokens: margin `5px solid #FFFFFF` · band `#15343D` · ratio `held (portrait or landscape)`
- State, default: Flat sheet in its white margin.
- State, hover: The band's name underlines.
- State, focus: 3px deep-coral outline outside the margin.
- Accessibility: The whole card is one link; its name is the destination.
- Accessibility: The picture is decorative when the name says the place.
- **Web translation** — Make the destination name the main lettering, set plainly and boldly, with a short slogan at most. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:typography-1`)
- **Web translation** — Let the destination outrank everything; there is no third level. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)
- **Web translation** — Hold each card at a fixed ratio, portrait or landscape. _Why:_ The record holds the sheet's ratio rather than reflowing it, and documents both orientations. (`claim:dcc:layout-3`, `claim:kcc:form-1`)

#### Input

A flat cream field on the page with a 2px ink edge and its label in band capitals above.

- Anatomy: cream field; 2px ink edge; label above in the band face; error on a flat coral-deep line below
- Tokens: background `#F4E3BE` · border `2px solid #15343D` · radius `0` · height `2.75rem`
- State, default: 2px ink edge on cream.
- State, focus: 3px deep-coral outline.
- State, error: Message in deep coral (5.3:1 on paper), beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Haze field.
- Accessibility: The label is real text above the field.
- Accessibility: Error text is words, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Draw the field as one flat plane with an ink edge. _Why:_ Flat colour, no modelling: no inset shadow or bevel. (`token_rule:surface-8`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Forms have no place on a poster. _Instead:_ Keep fields few and plain; a form is service copy, which the register refuses on the poster itself.

#### Navigation

The dark band across the top of the page, sections in letterspaced capitals, the current one on a sand plane.

- Anatomy: ink band, full width; links in the band face, capitals; current page on a flat sand block
- Tokens: background `#15343D` · color `#F4E3BE` · current `#F2C572` · tracking `0.16em`
- State, default: Cream capitals on the ink band.
- State, hover: Underline, 2px.
- State, focus: 3px cream outline.
- State, current: Sand block, ink capitals (8.2:1).
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: Every label at 8:1 or better on its plane.
- **Web translation** — Run navigation as a dark band in the band face. _Why:_ The wordmark sits as a band; navigation borrows the band and never outranks the destination. (`token_rule:typography-4`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

- **Web translation** — Do not animate. State changes are instant swaps of flat colour. _Why:_ A poster does not move; the record gives motion no place. (`claim:motion-reason`)

### Deliberately not added

- **How many inks, and which** (color): The palette size is not evidenced; the nine inks are the page's.
- **One lettering style for the genre** (typography): Styles varied, from Gill Sans at the LNER to decorative lettering.
- **A column system** (gridLayout): The record holds a sheet and its ratio, not a grid.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The research record does not establish them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented rules.
- **Any position on screen motion** (motion): A poster does not move. Choosing none is this grammar's translation.

## 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 · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Not specified by the source: form · Left open: motif · Specified: surface, technique | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Not specified by the source | — | no |

Unresearched: Typography. 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:

- Form

**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: 7 mechanically testable, 10 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 (Density, Motion). This rubric is silent on them. 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: A landscape simplified into flat colour with no modelling, colour-lithographed, with a black key printing giving the flat areas their depth, and the destination name set plainly and boldly as the dominant lettering on one large sheet, portrait or landscape. The diagnostic condition is the place is the product: no service, no price, no itinerary — the poster sells a location and nothing else, which is why the destination and a short slogan can be the only copy. Pulp sells a story. Mid-Century Modern shares the flat colour and the illustration but arranges a domestic composition rather than a horizon.
  - _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 · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. A geometric or gently condensed sans in caps, letterspaced, sitting as a band. Reasoned from the wordmark's structural role.
  - _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 · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The destination wordmark outranks everything, and there is effectively no third level.
  - _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: limited flat palette.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: flattened landscape 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: lithographic flatness, no modelling.
  - _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 · disputed · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · disputed]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The landscape is reduced to stacked planes of flat colour with no modelling, in a palette small enough to have been hand-separated for lithography.
  - _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.
  - _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 modelling, gradient or cast shadow.
  - _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 service or price copy.
  - _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 reflowing the poster proportion away.
  - _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 modelled, photographic colour: however many inks, each is laid flat.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Mid-Century Modern: horizon versus domestic arrangement. Against Pulp: place versus story; a flat lithographed landscape sold on a hoarding versus a painted scene sold on a rack. Anti-signature: add itinerary or price copy and the register collapses — it stops selling a place. Add photographic modelling and it becomes ordinary tourism marketing.
  - _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: adding copy beyond the destination and a short slogan.
  - _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: breaking the proportion..
  - _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 Pulp? That language is: A painted full-colour cover over black-ink pages on cheap paper: the budget spent where it sells
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Pulp than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Cartographic? That language is: Map grammar as layout; only works when location is genuinely relevant
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Cartographic 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:** Density: Not specified by the source; Motion: Not specified by the source. 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: `travel-poster` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/travel-poster.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/travel-poster.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._