# Image Assignment Protocol

## Step 1: Audit Available Assets

Before assigning images, catalog everything:

```bash
ls [brand]/assets/ | sort > image-inventory.txt
```

Group by type:
- `buck-*` / agency-*: Agency-produced imagery (Tier 1 — always preferred)
- `lifestyle-*`: Lifestyle/documentary photography (Tier 1)
- `web-*`: Web-captured screenshots (check for rounded corners — often Tier 2 or discard)
- `appstore-*`: App store screenshots (usually have device borders → Tier 2 or Tier 3)
- `logo-*` / `Nav_Foundation_*`: Brand guidelines assets (Tier 1 for logo/color/type sections)
- `product-*`: Product screens (Tier 1 if clean, Tier 2 if device-bordered)
- `3d-*`: 3D brand objects (Tier 1 — brand identity assets)
- `press-*`: Press/product releases (Tier 1)
- `homepage.*` / `homepage-fresh.*`: Website screenshot (Tier 1 for Layout+UX card)

## Step 2: Image Selection by Section

### §01 Quick Facts
**Want:** The brand's primary product artifact at its most iconic. Physical product preferred.
- Cash App: Cash App Visa card (stacked, styled)
- Bank: The card, the app icon on device
- Platform: The product in use, clean background

### §02 Positioning
**Want:** Brand's cultural world — where they live, not what they sell. Campaign adjacency OK if it shows positioning, not a specific product moment.
- Lifestyle context, brand's world
- NOT: single celebrity close-up (campaign), product screenshot

### §03 Brand Evolution
**Want:** Wide/panoramic that shows the full system — guidelines overview, brand mosaic, spread
- Natural ratio preferred — panoramic images make short cards that contrast well with tall §02
- Brand guidelines mood board, visual identity overview

### §04–05 Color & Typography
**Want (card image):** Shows the brand's visual language in action — typography in use, brand pillars, design system grid
- NOT: pure product shot
- Agency-produced brand system image works best

**Want (expanded — Logo):** `logo-wordmark.png` on brand color + `Nav_Foundation_logo.png` (construction guide)
**Want (expanded — Type):** `Nav_Foundation_type.png` (glyph specimen) or equivalent type specimen

### §06 Layout & UX
**Want (card image):** The website homepage / landing page. Shows full design intent at a glance.
- `homepage-fresh.png` or `homepage.png` preferred
- Natural ratio

**Want (expanded):** 3–4 product screens at natural ratio, full-bleed. In order:
1. Homepage / hero
2. Core feature (payment, portfolio, main product)
3. Secondary feature (savings, explore, discover)
4. Optional: 4th screen for depth

**Avoid:** App store screenshots with rounded device borders. Use direct screen captures instead.

### §07 Assessment
**Want:** Design principles visual, brand strategy diagram, or brand framework image
- Cash App: four design principles grid ("Lead with Green, Push the Energy…")
- Generally: any image that shows the brand's strategic framework or design language systematically

### §08 Verdict
**Want:** The brand's most iconic physical/visual artifact — "this is what [brand] IS"
- Cash App: card on green cushion
- Any brand: the thing that is immediately, unmistakably "them"
- NOT: campaign photography

### §09 Brand Personality
**Want:** Brand world objects, lifestyle context, the universe the brand inhabits
- Object collages, brand world flat-lays, lifestyle photography in brand palette

### §10 Social
**Want:** Social-native content. Something designed TO be shared, not a screenshot OF sharing.
- Meme formats, viral card designs, cultural moment tie-ins
- Avoid: screenshot of a social profile page with loading skeleton or bad crop

**Critical crop check:** If using a portrait image, ensure the subject's face/head is NOT cut off at fixed height. Test at the card width.

### §11 Campaigns
**Want:** Cinematic, film-grade campaign imagery. The brand at its most produced.
- Full-width hero shots from major campaigns
- Natural ratio preferred — this is the left col's visual anchor

### §12 Audience
**Want:** Documentary/lifestyle photography of the actual audience demographic
- Specific, not generic. Shows who actually uses this product.

### §13 vs [Client]
**Want:** Cultural/campaign image that frames the comparison
- Something that shows the brand in its most "vs eToro" (or client) light

## Step 3: Brand in Practice — Uniqueness

BIP images must NOT appear in any section card. After assigning section images, mark them off and only use remaining images for BIP.

BIP priority:
1. More agency-produced imagery (alternate angles, unpublished assets)
2. 3D brand objects (highly distinctive)
3. Card variants, custom editions, collabs
4. Motion stills, animation frames
5. Illustration system samples
6. Brand guidelines spreads, color usage examples

## Step 4: Image Quality Check

Before finalizing any assignment:

**Check for baked-in rounded corners:**
Examine each `web-*` and `appstore-*` image. Web captures from browsers on macOS/iOS often show the device's screen with hardware rounded corners baked into the image file. These look bad in cards. Identify and replace with:
- Direct product screenshots (no device frame)
- Website screenshot tool output (no rounding)
- Agency-produced equivalent

**Never cut faces:**
If a card image shows a person, their face must be fully visible at the card's fixed height. A cropped crown or a forehead is a failure state — not a design choice.

**Check crop at card width:**
For portrait images shown at fixed height (NOT `.natural`), verify the important content is in the visible portion. Rule: the `object-position` value tells the browser where to anchor the crop.

```
object-position: center 20%  → shows the TOP 20% of image area (good for tall landscapes where subject is at top)
object-position: center 60%  → shows 60% down (good for subjects in middle of portrait)
object-position: center center → centers (default, usually fine for square/landscape)
```

**Quality floor:** Minimum 1200px wide for any image used as a card thumbnail. Sub-1200px images pixelate at card width on retina displays. No watermarks, no stock photography, no generic placeholder images.

**Portrait images of people at fixed height:** Start with `center 40%` and adjust. Never use `center top` (20%) for a portrait image where you want to see a face — that will just show the forehead.

## Fallback Decision Tree

```
Have a good image for this section?
├── YES: Agency/brand photography, no rounded corners, subject clearly visible → .m-img
├── YES: Clean product screenshot, no device rounding → .m-img
├── MAYBE: Web-captured image with some issues → can you crop to avoid problems?
│   ├── YES → .m-img with careful object-position
│   └── NO → go to fallback
└── NO good image:
    ├── Does brand primary color show well (not too light)? → .m-img.fallback.color
    └── Dark brand or unclear → .m-img.fallback (dark + ghost number)
```