---
name: culture-visual-content-studio
description: Produce, edit, and quality-control general-purpose visual assets from plain-language briefs, including posters, ads, campaign KVs, recruitment and enrollment graphics, event promotions, product visuals, covers, social content, information graphics, and source-led cultural work. Use when Codex must turn a short idea or supplied material into a prompt, generated image, editable layout, final graphic, visual series, or publication package while preserving exact copy, choosing the correct production tool, avoiding fabricated facts, and rejecting generic or non-release-ready results.
---

# General Visual Content Studio

Turn intent into a function-led visual artifact. Treat the skill as a production controller, not a prompt enhancer.

## Non-negotiable rules

1. Preserve the named subject, job, audience, and supplied copy before styling.
2. Choose the production route before writing a prompt.
3. Never invent names, acronym expansions, dates, prices, venues, instructors, credentials, claims, statistics, contact details, URLs, QR codes, course modules, or calls to action.
4. Never deliver image-model-rendered critical text as final artwork.
5. Reject an output that fails the quality gate; do not rationalize it as a concept if the user asked for a finished design.
6. Report what was actually generated, edited, typeset, or left unresolved.

## Resolve the request

Infer one execution mode:

- `analyze-only`: organize or critique sources and visuals; do not create artwork.
- `prompt-only`: deliver one art direction and one compact prompt; state that it is not a rendered design.
- `generate-preview`: create a concept image or visual plate and save it when project-bound.
- `finished-design`: create the visual plate when needed, typeset exact copy with a layout-capable tool, verify it, and deliver the final artifact.
- `production-package`: create the master visual, derivatives, content package, provenance, and release checks.

Infer one visual mode:

- `image-led`: a recognizable subject carries attention.
- `information-led`: typography and facts carry attention.
- `hybrid`: one subject and one information block share the frame.

Use `finished-design` when the user asks for a usable poster, ad, announcement, recruitment graphic, enrollment graphic, schedule, price card, event poster, or other copy-critical deliverable. Use `generate-preview` only when a preview, concept, background plate, or visual exploration is sufficient.

## Compile the brief

For short or casual requests, read [brief-expansion.md](references/brief-expansion.md) and [content-routing.md](references/content-routing.md). Silently establish:

```text
domain and poster job
audience and intended action
image-led / information-led / hybrid
must-preserve copy
unknown or forbidden-to-invent facts
one hero and two recognition anchors
one composition and hierarchy system
production route and final typography method
domain-specific exclusions
delivery format and ratio
```

Ask at most one concise question only when a core term, acronym, named product, output type, or required factual field changes the meaning of the design. An ambiguous acronym such as `FDE` must be confirmed before expanding or visualizing it.

Read [execution-gates.md](references/execution-gates.md) whenever the visual contains factual or action-critical copy.

## Route tools before styling

Read [tool-routing.md](references/tool-routing.md) before making or editing an artifact.

- Use an image-generation tool for photography, illustration, textures, visual plates, raster edits, and image-led concepts.
- Use a layout-capable tool such as Figma, HTML/CSS/SVG, or another deterministic graphics environment for exact typography, dense information, diagrams, tables, schedules, recruitment, enrollment, event facts, prices, and CTAs.
- Use a two-stage route for copy-critical visual work:

  `generate or construct visual plate -> typeset exact copy -> export -> inspect -> revise`

- Do not ask an image model to produce a finished text-heavy poster.
- Do not substitute a generic raster mockup when the user asked for editable or release-ready artwork.

If an image tool fails, report the failure. Do not pretend a prompt is an image and do not silently switch to a credentialed fallback.

## Establish the copy contract

Before production, separate:

- `must_preserve`: text supplied by the user that must appear verbatim;
- `may_edit`: wording the user authorized Codex to improve;
- `unknown`: facts not supplied;
- `forbidden_to_invent`: factual or promotional content that must remain absent;
- `atmospheric_only`: non-critical decorative type, if allowed.

For finished designs, omit unknown facts or use visibly labeled placeholders only when the user explicitly asks for a template. Never imply that a placeholder or invented claim is real.

## Direct the visual

Choose one hero, one dominant composition, and no more than three color groups by default. Preserve at least two subject-recognition anchors at thumbnail size.

Ground the concept in the domain:

- product advertising: recognizable product construction or benefit;
- service advertising: problem, use case, interface evidence, or human outcome;
- course and enrollment: topic, learner outcome, protected title/benefit/metadata/CTA zones;
- recruitment and community: role, audience, value, requirements, action, and trust;
- event and exhibition: event identity plus protected date/place/action block;
- editorial and covers: one framing concept and disciplined metadata;
- public information: comprehension, accessibility, authority, and action;
- entertainment: supplied work or performer identity and credits;
- culture and heritage: traceable sources translated through structure, material, rhythm, process, and light.

Reject default visual clichés unless explicitly requested: generic blue-purple SaaS gradients, stock flat-character mascots, rounded-card grids, random neon HUDs, glowing brains, decorative code, corporate handshakes, universal black-and-gold luxury, unrelated architecture, and template-centered title stacks.

For source-led work, apply the rights and cultural gate in [safety-and-rights.md](references/safety-and-rights.md). For 10 or more images or a folder, index sources before generation.

## Generate or construct

For image generation:

- describe function and subject before style;
- keep the prompt compact, normally 80-180 English words and under 1400 characters;
- include subject-recognition anchors, composition, visual behavior, palette, protected text zones when relevant, and one avoid sentence;
- request no critical text when exact wording matters;
- inspect the result for subject, hierarchy, generic-model priors, text artifacts, and forbidden content.

For deterministic layout:

- use exact copy from the contract;
- build a clear reading order from title to action;
- maintain editable text when possible;
- verify line breaks, punctuation, Chinese and English spacing, contrast, safe margins, and target-size readability;
- inspect an exported raster or PDF before delivery.

## Validate and reject

Read [quality-rubric.md](references/quality-rubric.md) before delivery.

Hard failure conditions:

- wrong poster family or intended action;
- ambiguous core term silently expanded;
- invented factual, promotional, or logistical copy;
- subject unrecognizable at thumbnail size;
- critical text produced only by an image model;
- generic template treatment without a subject-grounded concept;
- output contains forbidden elements;
- any rubric category scores `0`;
- total rubric score is below `20/27`.

When a hard failure occurs, revise or state that no acceptable artifact was produced. Never present a failed draft as a finished deliverable.

For initialized projects, run:

```bash
python scripts/validate_project.py --project <project-dir> --strict
```

## Package larger projects

For 10+ source images, a series, portfolio case study, or publishing package, use the scripts in `scripts/` and read [workflows.md](references/workflows.md). Preserve source filenames, rights status, prompts, tools, typography corrections, final file hashes, and unresolved release notes.

## Deliver

Report:

1. execution mode and production route;
2. final saved paths;
3. sources actually used or `concept-only`;
4. generation and layout tools actually used;
5. exact-copy status;
6. quality-gate result;
7. remaining manual, rights, or factual checks.

Do not call a visual plate a finished poster. Do not call a prompt a generated image.