---
name: creative-direction
description: Defining and guarding the creative vision of a project - creative brief, audience, tone, experience goals, creative pillars, references, and approval criteria - for games, film, animation, books, and brands. Load when starting a project, writing or reviewing a creative brief, setting pillars, resolving conflicting creative options, or checking that work stays on vision.
---

# Creative direction

First link of the visual chain: `creative-direction` -> `art-direction` -> `visual-development`. Story track: `worldbuilding` -> `narrative` -> `character-design`. Creative direction sets the vision both tracks serve.

## Purpose
Turn a vague idea into a written, testable vision so any later session can make decisions without asking.

## Inputs
- The idea, goal, or commission; business or personal constraints (budget, schedule, platform, format).
- Audience and context of consumption.
- Existing material: prior work, brand guidelines, source IP.

## Framework
1. **Creative brief**: what is being made, for whom, why, and what success looks like. One page.
2. **Audience**: who they are, what they want to feel, what they already know.
3. **Experience goals**: the feelings or reactions you want (e.g. dread, wonder, trust), stated as outcomes for the audience, not features.
4. **Pillars**: 3-5 short statements that define the work and settle arguments. Each must be specific enough to exclude something.
5. **Tone and voice**: a few adjective pairs ("warm, not twee").
6. **References**: films, books, games, brands - each with the specific quality borrowed and what is deliberately not borrowed.
7. **Constraints and non-goals**: what the project will not be.
8. **Approval**: the user is the decision-maker; list the gates at which to ask them and the criteria (pillars and brief).

## Output
```
CREATIVE BRIEF
Project / format:
Audience:
Purpose (why now):
Experience goals:
Pillars (3-5): each = statement + "means / does not mean"
Tone & voice:
References (borrow / avoid):
Constraints & non-goals:
Review gates (user decides):
Success measures:
```

## Quality checklist
- A stranger could predict what the work is not.
- Every pillar rules something out.
- Experience goals are about the audience, not the creators.
- References name the quality borrowed, not just the title.
- Review gates and criteria are written down.

## Anti-patterns
- Pillars that are generic ("fun", "high quality", "innovative").
- Brief as a feature list or mood-free spec.
- Reference soup: ten influences with no priority.
- Vision that changes silently between sessions; record changes instead.
- Directing by personal taste rather than the agreed brief.

## Handoff
- Approved brief and pillars -> `art-direction` (visual language) and `worldbuilding` (setting and rules).
- Use pillars as the review lens for `narrative`, `character-design`, and `visual-development` output.