ink-mascot

What this skill does

# ink-mascot

Generates a portrait 3:5 editorial marketing card in a locked vintage-textbook style: bold serif headline, optional short serif descriptor, and a hand-drawn black-ink anthropomorphic mascot floating on a single solid saturated color background.

The output looks like a page lifted from a 1970s marketing primer — playful, didactic, slightly absurd. Each invocation swaps the **concept, palette, hero object, action, doodle density, and type layout**. Everything else is locked.

## Prompt interpretation

The user briefs in some loose combination of:
- a **concept** (a marketing word — "Branding", "SEO", "Loyalty", "Launch"...),
- a **color or mood**,
- a **character idea** (object, prop, tool that fits the concept).

Expand the brief — fill in any missing dials with sensible defaults, write a one-sentence descriptor if not provided, and pick a hero object that *visibly is* the concept at first glance. Do not stall asking the user to flesh it out; make confident choices and run.

If the user briefs a **series** (e.g. "make me a 6-card marketing curriculum"), pick visibly distinct palettes across the set, vary the hero object and action so every card silhouette reads differently, and hold the type layout consistent across the set unless explicitly asked to vary it.

## Locked style (NEVER vary)

### Canvas and fill
- Tall portrait orientation, 3:5 aspect — well-suited to 1024×1536.
- **One single saturated, slightly-muted flat color fills the canvas edge to edge.** No gradient, no texture, no border frame, no horizontal divider line, no ground line under the character, no separator panel. Text and illustration share the exact same flat color field.

### Ink and line quality
- All artwork in **black ink line work only.** Thin to medium confident outlines.
- **Clean white interior fills** inside every shape so the colored background does not bleed through the character.
- Crosshatch and stipple shading on rounded surfaces — restrained, supporting form, not decorative.
- No color anywhere inside the line art (only black ink + white fill on the colored background). No airbrush gradients, no 3D modeling shading, no photo realism, no drop shadow on the character.

### Type
- Bold black serif (Playfair-style display serif) headline.
- Optional short serif descriptor in the same family, lighter weight, 1–2 lines.
- The headline must be tightly bound to the concept and feel like a chapter heading from an editorial textbook.

### Character anatomy (the locked through-line)
The hero is an anthropomorphic **object**, not a creature. The object IS the body. It always has:
- Two thin black stick arms emerging from the sides.
- Two thin black stick legs.
- **Chunky white sneakers with black laces, toe caps, and visible outsole.** This is the signature detail — never skip it.
- Optional simple face: two dot eyes + tiny smile. Omit the face if the object's silhouette already feels alive.

### Floating ink doodles
Small black-ink props orbit the character on the colored field — sparkles, arrows, hearts, percentage/dollar/at signs, paper drops, motion lines, tiny duplicates of the hero, hashtags, ticks, question marks, lightning bolts, light bulbs, clouds, stars. **Never** contain them in a frame; they float freely.

### Forbidden
- Photographic mockups, 3D shading, airbrush gradients.
- Ground lines, baselines, horizontal dividers, frame borders.
- Drop shadows under the character or under the text.
- Colored fills inside the line art (only black ink + white fill).
- Generic stock mascots with no relation to the concept. The hero must visibly be the concept.

## Dialable axes (vary per invocation)

### 1. CONCEPT — headline word(s)
The chapter heading. Marketing concepts work best. Examples:
`Branding` · `SEO` · `Email marketing` · `Conversion` · `Loyalty` · `Retention` · `Pricing` · `Positioning` · `Storytelling` · `Community` · `Referrals` · `Launch` · `Growth` · `Attribution` · `Personalization` · `A/B testing` · `Targeting` · `Online advertising` · `Multichannel marketing` · `Analytics`.

The concept drives *everything else*: hero object, doodle vocabulary, even the palette's emotional register.

### 2. PALETTE — single solid background hex
One saturated, slightly-muted hue. Avoid pure pastels and avoid black/white/gray.

| name | hex |
| --- | --- |
| orange | `#F08C4A` |
| cream sage | `#D9DEC2` |
| sunshine yellow | `#FFD93D` |
| sky blue | `#7FB6E6` |
| mint teal | `#9FD9C2` |
| coral peach | `#F4A896` |
| lavender | `#C7B8E8` |
| dusty terracotta | `#D88880` |
| sage olive | `#B5C088` |
| mustard | `#E8C547` |
| cobalt | `#4A6FB5` |
| rose | `#E8A2B0` |
| plum | `#8C6BA8` |
| rust | `#C26B4B` |
| forest | `#5C8A6E` |
| slate | `#7A8B9C` |
| butter cream | `#F2E0A8` |
| tangerine | `#E89A4F` |
| pistachio | `#C5D89B` |

**Default:** pick a hue that fits the concept's emotional register (growth → green family, urgency → red/orange, trust → blue, premium → plum/cobalt). For a series, pick distinct hues so the set reads cohesively on a shelf.

### 3. HERO — anthropomorphic object
Pick a **theme-native** prop, not a generic mascot. Examples paired with concepts:

| concept | hero |
| --- | --- |
| Branding | paint bucket, stamp, brush |
| SEO | magnifying glass |
| Email marketing | envelope, mailbox |
| Content marketing | notebook, fountain pen, quill |
| Conversion | funnel |
| Online advertising | megaphone |
| Multichannel marketing | browser window |
| Targeting | bullseye, dartboard |
| Analytics | chart, dashboard panel |
| Positioning | compass, lighthouse |
| Loyalty | gift box, badge |
| Pricing | price tag, coin stack |
| Launch | rocket, flag |
| Growth | seedling, watering can |
| Referrals | gift box passing a duplicate |
| Community | speech-bubble cluster |
| A/B testing | scales, split tube |

**Default:** if the concept is unfamiliar, pick the most iconic theme-native prop — what would appear next to this concept in a marketing textbook glossary.

### 4. ACTION — what the character is doing (pose verb)
Drives the energy. Both hands should be doing *something*.

- `holding` — static, calm
- `pressing/stamping` — concentrated, decisive
- `launching` — paper airplane, rocket, projectile
- `painting/writing/drawing` — making something
- `catching/receiving` — incoming object
- `pointing/presenting` — gesturing at a prop
- `running/skating` — motion, hustle
- `peering/inspecting` — magnifying, investigating
- `juggling` — multi-tasking
- `building/stacking` — incremental progress
- `planting/watering` — growth, nurture

**Default:** the action most tightly bound to the concept's verb (Branding → stamping, SEO → peering, Launch → launching).

### 5. DOODLE DENSITY — floating ink props
- **L1 — minimal**: 0–2 props. Calm, lots of negative space.
- **L2 — balanced** (default): 3–5 props.
- **L3 — packed**: 6–8 props. Busy, energetic.

Props should be theme-relevant doodles drawn in the same ink language as the character: sparkles, arrows, hearts, currency/at signs, paper drops, motion lines, tiny duplicates of the hero, hashtags, ticks, question marks, lightning bolts, light bulbs, clouds, stars.

### 6. TYPE LAYOUT — where the words sit
- **A** — Title top, descriptor below, illustration fills bottom *(default)*.
- **B** — Illustration top, headline anchored at bottom. No descriptor.
- **C** — Headline only, no descriptor (cleanest, poster-like).
- **D** — Big single-word headline + tiny one-line descriptor (max contrast).

## Worked examples

### Example 1 — Default (Layout A, L2 balanced)
**Brief:** "Loyalty, plum, gift box"

**Dial fill:**
- Concept: Loyalty
- Palette: plum #8C6BA8
- Hero: gift box (square wrapped present with a tied ribbon and bow)
- Action: holding the ribbon up like a banner
- Doodle density: L2 (4 props — sparkle, heart, confetti streamer, tiny duplicate mini gift box)
- Type layout: A (headline "Loyalty" top, two-line descriptor below)

**See** `ref-loyalty-plum.png`.

### Example 2 — Bottom-anchored headline (Layout