---
name: cross-pollination
description: "Draw from architecture, fashion, music, food, and industrial design to expand your design taste range. Use when seeking inspiration beyond digital, building diverse reference sets, or expanding creative vocabulary."
---

# Cross-Pollination

If all your references are from the same domain, your taste ceiling is whatever that domain already figured out.

## How to use

- `/cross-pollination` Apply cross-pollination constraints to reference building in this conversation.

## Constraints

### Diversity Requirements
- MUST include references from at least 5 different domains in any reference board
- MUST include: screen-based design, physical product design, spatial design, communication design, and a wild card
- MUST organize cross-domain boards by principle, not by domain
- A board theme should be a principle like "tension between structure and organic form" not a style like "minimalist"

### Source Diversity
- Swiss poster archives, Japanese packaging design, Brazilian graphic design
- Indian textile patterns, Scandinavian industrial design, Soviet space program graphics
- Italian magazine covers, contemporary African brand design, transit maps from different cities
- Medical device interfaces, musical instrument interfaces, food plating compositions

### Anti-Patterns
- Only looking at design blogs and Dribbble
- Cross-referencing as decoration ("inspired by architecture") instead of genuine principle transfer
- Staying in your comfort zone of familiar references
- Collecting volume without analyzing why the reference matters