Canvas Design

---
name: canvas-design
description: "Own art direction and production for static or fixed artifacts. Use the communication lane for posters, campaign graphics, information graphics, covers, signage, and print/screen collateral; use the expressive lane for artwork, experimental posters, generative pieces, and concept-led compositions. Use delegated mode for assets inside an owner-defined interface thesis."
license: Apache-2.0
---

# Canvas Design

> Modified by Codeflare in 2026 from Anthropic's canvas-design skill to add purpose-specific lanes, delegated ownership, and capability-aware production guidance.

Create original, medium-appropriate static work. The brief wins; no single aesthetic, text ratio, philosophy, or refinement ritual fits every artifact.

## Inspect and classify

Inspect supplied copy, assets, identity, references, output requirements, and project evidence. Determine audience, job, mandatory content, medium, dimensions, viewing context, variants, emotional target, creative risk, production constraints, and editable-source needs.

Proceed when requirements are sufficient. Otherwise ask one focused batch containing only material gaps. Never claim the user requested a style, second pass, or level of polish they did not request.

Choose one mode:

- **Communication / production:** required information and action lead. Read [references/communication-production.md](references/communication-production.md).
- **Expressive art object:** concept and visual experience lead. Read [references/expressive-art.md](references/expressive-art.md).
- **Delegated asset:** create an illustration, texture, image, or fixed element for a web, mobile, or desktop owner. Inherit that owner’s thesis, palette, type, material, imagery, and restraint; do not invent another direction.

A static screenshot of UI remains an interface task. Interactive HTML canvas, WebGL, or an animated web hero belongs to `frontend-design`.

## Establish one direction

Derive the concept from subject, audience, content, identity, medium, and desired effect. References reveal qualities such as composition, rhythm, typography, palette logic, material, image treatment, and energy; do not copy layouts, branding, illustrations, or a living artist’s recognizable style.

When direction is unresolved, offer two or three materially different concepts or a bounded visual probe when capability makes that useful. When direction is delegated, choose and state consequential assumptions.

Use literal, documentary, typographic, illustrative, playful, restrained, expressive, or abstract language when it serves the artifact. Thin type, sparse copy, grids, bleed, overlap, bright color, muted color, geometry, photography, and ornament are options, never defaults or bans.

## Produce safely

Prefer project or installed fonts and reviewed assets. Obtain permission before network access or downloads. Inspect provenance and usage rights when external material is necessary. Preserve mandatory facts and copy exactly; never invent names, dates, sponsors, endorsements, metrics, or claims.

Use available tools and formats that satisfy delivery. If requested export, color, font, accessibility, or editable-source capability is unavailable, state the limitation instead of fabricating compliance.

## Refine from evidence

Open or render the actual output when possible. Inspect composition, hierarchy, readability, contrast, clipping, unintended overlap, edge behavior, glyphs, required text, dimensions, variants, and medium-specific production details. Fix observed defects in one coherent pass and confirm; repeat only for remaining material defects.

Report what was inspected and what could not be verified. Deliver only requested artifacts and useful reproducible source.