Update to 8gnc — Brand Growth Diagnostic

{
  "name": "neuro-design",
  "description": "Apply the Neuro-Design Playbook (v1.0) for psychology-driven creative direction and visual identity systems. Use when designing brand identity, campaign creative, or assets that need to encode memory and drive response. Triggers on \"neuro design,\" \"geometric reduction,\" \"sensory branding,\" \"red dot principle,\" \"salient accent,\" \"nostalgia fusion,\" \"emotional direction,\" \"emotional polarity,\" \"memory encoding,\" \"visual identity psychology,\" or when creative direction needs a specific psychological play for recall and response.",
  "included_files": [],
  "skill_md_contents": "---\nname: neuro-design\ndescription: Apply the Neuro-Design Playbook (v1.0) for psychology-driven creative direction and visual identity systems. Use when designing brand identity, campaign creative, or assets that need to encode memory and drive response. Triggers on \"neuro design,\" \"geometric reduction,\" \"sensory branding,\" \"red dot principle,\" \"salient accent,\" \"nostalgia fusion,\" \"emotional direction,\" \"emotional polarity,\" \"memory encoding,\" \"visual identity psychology,\" or when creative direction needs a specific psychological play for recall and response.\n---\n\n# Neuro-Design Playbook (v1.0)\n\nTurn psychology into repeatable creative moves that drive recall and response.\n\n## Philosophy\n\nReduce to signal. Repeat to encode. Polarize to be remembered. Evoke to belong.\n\nDesign is a memory game. Shape cues the brain can store in one glance or one beat, then repeat them until they feel inevitable.\n\n## When NOT to Use\n\n- **Audiences too diverse to share a cultural memory.** P4 Nostalgia Fusion's QA is \"audience names the era in under one second\" — if your markets or generations don't share the cue, you get costume-party vibes instead of belonging. Stay with P1 or P5, or skip the playbook.\n- **Zero budget for creative testing.** Every play here lives or dies on its QA test and KPIs — recall tests, one-second silent tests, sentiment surveys. If you cannot run any of them, you are shipping unverified psychology and calling it strategy.\n- **Rapid prototyping where shipping beats identity.** Shape libraries, audio stings, alignment grids, and stance rules are compounding assets. If the asset is disposable or the product may pivot next month, the research-backed system work slows you down for nothing.\n- **The problem is pricing or flow, not memory.** This playbook encodes recall and response into creative. For offer architecture use `fairness-anchor-ladder`; for conversion flow and nudges use `ux-ui-psych`.\n\n1. Need universal recognition fast? → **P1 Geometric Reduction**\n2. Need ritual and anticipation? → **P2 Sensory Branding**\n3. Need one click now? → **P3 Salient Accent (Red Dot)**\n4. Need belonging through memory? → **P4 Nostalgia Fusion**\n5. Need a feeling in one second? → **P5 Emotional Direction**\n6. Need talk value and tribe? → **P6 Emotional Polarity**\n\n---\n\n## P1) Geometric Reduction\n\nStrip visuals to simple high-contrast geometry. Use as a code system across touchpoints.\n\n**Use when:** You need universality, control, or fast recognition across formats. Tech, platforms, uniforms, signage, safety.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Define 1–3 core shapes and a primary field color.\n2. Set contrast rules: background fields, stroke widths, spacing grid.\n3. Write the \"code key\" for meaning per shape.\n4. Produce a micro library: SVGs, masks, motion loops, sticker sheet.\n5. Publish do/don't rules for clutter, gradients, and photo use.\n\n**Artifacts:** Shape set, usage grid, icon masks, 3 motion stingers, sticker sheet, one-page rules.\n\n**QA:** Drawable from memory in 5 seconds. Recognizable at favicon size.\n\n**KPIs:** Unaided logo recall, scroll-stop rate, favicon recognition test, speed of task in UI.\n\n---\n\n## P2) Sensory Branding\n\nPair a restrained visual with one or two consistent sensory cues: sound, motion, light direction, or rhythm.\n\n**Use when:** You want ritual, anticipation, and \"it feels like us\" before the message lands.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Pick two cues max. Example: low piano chord + slow tilt-up light.\n2. Lock duration, attack/decay, and start time in the edit.\n3. Create a 2–4 second sting and a 10–15 second long open.\n4. Document where the cue appears: openers, chapter cards, app events.\n5. Add a silent variant that keeps the same rhythm and light.\n\n**Artifacts:** Audio stings, motion overlays, light rig guide, LUT, edit macro/template.\n\n**QA:** Cue recognized without logo. People predict what's coming.\n\n**KPIs:** Watch-through lift when cue present, unaided cue recognition, brand-correct association in surveys.\n\n---\n\n## P3) Salient Accent (The Red Dot Principle)\n\nCalm palette plus one high-salience accent that trains the eye to a single priority.\n\n**Use when:** You need instant hierarchy across busy feeds, banners, or dashboards.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Define a neutral base palette.\n2. Choose one accent with high salience relative to the base.\n3. Assign one job to the accent: CTA, notification, key stat.\n4. Write restraint rules: only one accent per frame.\n5. Add accessibility rules for color vision variance.\n\n**Artifacts:** Color spec sheet, accessibility deltas, component map showing accent use.\n\n**QA:** If two accents appear in one frame, the rule fails.\n\n**KPIs:** CTR lift, time-to-action, error reduction in flows.\n\n---\n\n## P4) Nostalgia Fusion\n\nUse era-coded cues to unlock belonging, then pair with modern form and pace.\n\n**Use when:** Your audience shares a cultural memory you can refresh without parody.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Name the memory: era, place, texture, palette, lens.\n2. Pull three cues only: color, type, texture.\n3. Pair with modern moves: bold scale, cropped motion stills, asymmetry.\n4. Write a rule for pace: classic slow burn or short-form rhythm.\n5. Build a reference board: \"memory vs modern.\"\n\n**Artifacts:** Palette card, texture pack, type guide, motion cut rules, reference board.\n\n**QA:** Audience names the era in under one second without text.\n\n**KPIs:** Saves, shares, comment mentions of the era, repeat view rate.\n\n---\n\n## P5) Emotional Direction\n\nPick one feeling and align every element to it so the emotion reads pre-verbally.\n\n**Use when:** Product or campaign must read in under a second.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Choose one word: calm, defiance, desire, relief, pride, joy.\n2. Set composition rules: angle, gaze, spacing, gravity.\n3. Map color, type weight, texture, and motion to that word.\n4. Create a diagnostic grid: does each element push the word?\n5. Kill any element that is neutral or off-axis.\n\n**Artifacts:** One-word brief, alignment grid, do/don't examples, type and motion rules.\n\n**QA:** One-second silent test: viewers agree on the feeling without copy.\n\n**KPIs:** Unaided emotion labeling, lift in desired action vs control.\n\n---\n\n## P6) Emotional Polarity\n\nChoose an axis and take a side so the work attracts the right tribe and repels the wrong one.\n\n**Use when:** You need memorability and word-of-mouth more than universal approval.\n\n**Build steps:**\n1. Define the axis: rebellion vs conformity, elite vs open, raw vs polished.\n2. Pick a stance and write three non-negotiables.\n3. Align voice, image, layout, and channels to that stance.\n4. Pre-wire community safety and moderation.\n5. Plan variants for markets that truly require softer takes.\n\n**Artifacts:** Axis map, stance rules, content guardrails, moderation SOP.\n\n**QA:** If everyone likes it, you probably missed.\n\n**KPIs:** Sentiment split, share velocity, press pickup, inbound from the right audience.\n\n---\n\n## Pitfalls by Play\n\n- **P1:** Cold tone for human-first brands. Over-sterility.\n- **P2:** Too many cues. Inconsistent timing. Loudness wars.\n- **P3:** Accent inflation. Reward schedules that push into manipulation.\n- **P4:** Costume party vibes. Copyright look-alikes. Generational mismatch.\n- **P5:** Mixed signals. Safe middle. Design by committee.\n- **P6:** Performative edge. Punching down. No safety plan.\n"
}