Workflows / 05

Art-Direct ImageryRequires more research

Keep generated images inside the same visual language as the rest of the work.

Mostly research-bound. Some records hold imagery rules; none records which traits survive into generated images, and only a handful of imagery Elements are linked to an Aesthetic.

What you bring

  • A chosen Aesthetic or Direction SpecRequiredWorks today, by hand
  • The images you need: hero, product, textureRequiredWorks today, by hand

Before → Aesthetary → After

Before

  • Specify a Direction
  • A web direction that already exists

Aesthetary

  • Imagery rules and refusals, where the record holds them
  • The imagery Elements an Aesthetic usesRequires more research
  • Which traits survive the move into image generationRequires more research
  • Choosing reference images by trait, so they are not averagedPlanned

Leaves with: Imagery Brief

After

  • Midjourney
  • Ideogram
  • Firefly
  • Check Fidelity, on the images

What leaves Aesthetary

Imagery Brief: Planned

Imagery Brief

  • Prompt vocabulary
  • What must not appear
  • How to choose reference images
  • A check list for the images

What exists today

The imagery rules and refusals on a Build page, read by a person.

Worked example

Kawaii · real data

In

Kawaii, and an image to make.

What the record holds for imagery

  • Done in period practiceImagery: character illustration.

It refuses: Refuses sharpness, irony about cuteness, and the assumption that the register permits loose execution.

That is all there is. 55 of 83 records hold any imagery rule, and 3 imagery Elements are linked to an Aesthetic. Which traits survive into a generated image is not recorded anywhere, so the Imagery Brief cannot be written yet.

Routes

2 · products as routes, not destinations

MidjourneyRequires more research

Out of Aesthetary · Midjourney

Its own method: prompt vocabulary, choosing style references by trait, and what must not appear. It needs the Imagery Brief and survival data, neither of which exists.

  1. Read the imagery rules and refusals on the Build page
  2. Choose references that share one trait each, not a whole look
  3. Write what must not appear before the prompt
  4. Judge the results against “How you recognise it”

No API is assumed. Nothing is automated.

Ideogram, FireflyPlanned

Out of Aesthetary · Ideogram, Firefly

The same Imagery Brief in each tool’s own prompt syntax. Planned.

Failure modes

Visual examples planned

  • Style codes that drift from the brand and decay with model updates.
  • Several references averaged into a look none of them has.
  • Images that match the palette and miss the language.

What Aesthetary does not do here

  • Generate images or host a style-code libraryMidjourney, Ideogram, Firefly

Try it

Imagery page →Y2K brief: withheld and prohibited →

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