new-brand · diff
git:20261104.4395459 to git:20261104.b62d5f3
35 added, 18 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: new-brand
- description: Set up a new brand (product, app, side project) in brands/<slug>/ so videos can be made for it - facts and their sources, look (colours, fonts, logo, mascot), voice, compliance and default engines. Use before the first video for a brand, or when asked to add a brand.
+ description: Set up a new brand (product, app, side project) in brands/<slug>/ so videos can be made for it - facts and their sources, look (colours, fonts, logo, mascot), voice, compliance and default engines. Done as a short conversation with the person, reading their website and files first. Use before the first video for a brand, or when asked to add a brand.
---
# Adding a brand
- 1. `cp -R brands/_template brands/<slug>` (lowercase-kebab).
- 2. **Collect from the source, never from memory.** Website, app repo (UI copy, theme colours, fonts, assets), store
- listing, existing ads. Ask the user for what is not findable. Record each source in *Fact sources*.
- 3. Fill `README.md`: who it is, audience, positioning, identity (colours, fonts, logo, mascot), voice, and its
- *Look range*: which looks in `looks/` fit it, which need care, which its character or compliance rules out, and how
- its colours map into them. Keep identity and art direction apart: the brand folder never fixes one layout, type
- style or motion for every piece. Copy logo, fonts and reference
- images into `assets/` (convert SVG logos to PNG with `scripts/svg-to-png.sh` when needed).
- 4. Fill `tokens.css` with the real colours and fonts (and the optional tokens looks use when the brand has them:
- `--accent-2`, `--accent-3`, `--font-serif`, `--font-mono`, `--font-display-heavy`…, `looks/README.md`). Check by rendering a quick still: a stage with the logo, the
- colours as swatches and a headline in each font. Look at it.
- 5. Fill `compliance.md`: keep the *Always* list, add the brand's own rules (sector rules, claims that need sources,
- what the mascot may not do).
- 6. Add the brand to `STATUS.md` (*Brands*) with any open questions, and to the brand table in `README.md`.
+ The person is usually a marketer or founder. Treat this as getting to know their product, not filling in a form.
+ Plain words, 2–3 questions per message, no file paths or jargon (see `make-video`, *How to talk*).
- 5b. Render the brand in two or three looks from its *Fits* list (each look's starter with the brand's tokens) and look
- at them: each should read as this brand and as a clearly different look. Save them in `assets/reference/looks/`.
+ ## The conversation
- A brand is ready when no ❓ or placeholder is left and the check still looks right.
+ 1. **Ask for what you can read**: "What's the product called, and is there a website, app store page or folder
+ with your logo and past ads I can look at?" Then read all of it before asking anything else.
+ 2. **Play back what you found**, short: "So it's X for Y, the colours look like these, the font is Z. Right?"
+ Show a quick brand still (logo, colours, a headline in each font) instead of listing hex codes.
+ 3. **Ask only what you couldn't find**, a few at a time:
+ - Who is it for, in their customer's words? What does that customer struggle with?
+ - Facts you're allowed to say (numbers, prices, ratings): "Only what's on your site, or are there others I can
+ use? Where do they come from?"
+ - Words or claims to never use (legal, sector rules, things the team hates).
+ - Is there a mascot, character or a person who'd be happy to appear and talk? (Reels with a voice and a face
+ reach further: worth asking now.)
+ - A few accounts or ads they love, and ones they don't want to look like.
+ 4. **Show the brand in 2–3 different looks** (each look's starter with their colours, fonts and a real line) and ask
+ which feel like them and which don't. Their answer fills the *Look range*.
+
+ ## Writing it down (quiet work)
+
+ 1. `cp -R brands/_template brands/<slug>` (lowercase-kebab).
+ 2. **Facts from sources, never from memory.** Record each source in *Fact sources*; anything the person told you is
+ a source too ("told by <name>, <date>").
+ 3. `README.md`: who it is, audience, positioning, identity (colours, fonts, logo, mascot or presenter), voice, *Look
+ range* (fits, ask first, never). Identity and art direction stay apart: the brand never fixes one layout for
+ every piece. Logo, fonts, references → `assets/` (`scripts/svg-to-png.sh` for SVG logos).
+ 4. `tokens.css`: real colours and fonts (plus optional look tokens, `looks/README.md`). Render the check still and
+ look at it.
+ 5. `compliance.md`: keep *Always*, add the brand's own rules.
+ 6. Style frames from step 4 → `assets/reference/looks/`.
+ 7. `STATUS.md` (*Brands*) with open questions; the brand table in `README.md`.
+
+ A brand is ready when no ❓ or placeholder is left and the check still looks right. Then: "Ready. Want to start on
+ the first video? Tell me what it's for."