Theme Factory - Stylist Workflow & Standards

A high-performance styling toolkit providing curated, accessible theme configurations and layout constraints for presentation decks, documents, and web interfaces.

Progressive Disclosure & Reference Triggers

This skill utilizes external theme specification files and a PDF preview:

• Visual Showcases: View the static compiled portfolio theme-showcase.pdf to see visual treatments. Do NOT modify this file.

• Theme Assets: Specific themes reside in themes/<theme-name>.md. Only load the chosen theme configuration into the context window once the user select it, keeping the context lightweight.

• Trigger: Run a grep or check folder files to ensure target themes exist before applying.

Freedom Calibration & Constraints

• Constraint Level: Medium

  • High Rigidity: WCAG accessibility contrast ratios (minimum 4.5:1 for body text, 3:1 for headers) must be enforced. No more than two font families per theme.

  • Medium Rigidity: Standard theme directory schema must be followed.

  • High Freedom: Custom theme generation parameters, layout distribution, and structural styling details.

Theme Selection & Design Decision Tree

Use this tree to match the audience and platform context to the perfect theme preset:

Who is the primary audience and what is the distribution channel?

 ├─ Corporate / Enterprise / Trust-Critical (Finance, Consulting, B2B)

 │   ├─ Print/Light Background → Use: ocean-depths (Navy/Teal) or modern-minimalist (Grayscale)

 │   └─ On-Screen/Dark Background → Use: midnight-galaxy (Deep Indigo) or tech-innovation (Charcoal/Blue)

 ├─ Creative / Editorial / Lifestyle (Brand Pitches, Consumer Products)

 │   ├─ Warm/Vibrant → Use: sunset-boulevard (Warm Orange/Red) or golden-hour (Autumnal Rust)

 │   └─ Soft/Organic → Use: desert-rose (Dusty Coral/Rose) or botanical-garden (Moss/Olive)

 └─ Nature / Ecology / Natural Sciences

     └─ Use: forest-canopy (Earth/Emerald) or arctic-frost (Ice Blue/Slate)

Professional Mindset & Design Principles

1. The 60-30-10 Rule: Apply colors systematically:

   • 60% Dominant (Canvas): Backgrounds and structural spaces.

   • 30% Supporting (Structure): Main text, headers, and grid lines.

   • 10% Accent (Callout): Action buttons, highlighted metrics, and key data nodes.

2. Readability & Contrast First: Never sacrifice accessibility for aesthetic preferences. Ensure all text meets the WCAG AA minimum threshold.

3. Typography Hierarchy: Use a strict scale: Headers (2.0x base size, bold/heavy weight), subheadings (1.4x base size, medium weight), body text (1.0x base size, regular weight).

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Step-by-Step Theme Application Procedure

Step 1: Theme Discovery

• Present the names of the 10 available themes to the user.

• Reference the existence of theme-showcase.pdf for visual inspection.

Step 2: Theme Selection & Loading

• Wait for the user's confirmation or selection.

• Once selected, load the corresponding config file (e.g. themes/ocean-depths.md) to read hex codes and font pairings.

• If a custom theme is requested:

  • Generate a new markdown definition detailing: Name, Color Palette (hex codes), Typography (headers/body), and Best Used For description.

  • Show it to the user for validation before application.

Step 3: Application & Verification

• Map the theme values to the target artifact format (e.g., CSS variables, HTML styling, markdown metadata, or template values).

• Verify contrast ratios programmatically or heuristically.

• Output the styled artifact.

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Critical Anti-Patterns (NEVER List)

| Anti-Pattern | Description | Alternative / Solution |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| NEVER load all themes at once | Loading all theme configuration files into the context window causes token bloat. | Disclose selectively; load only the chosen theme file once selected. |

| NEVER violate contrast ratios | Using light accent colors on light backgrounds (or dark on dark) renders text unreadable. | Always use high-contrast primary colors for text (e.g. Cream on Navy, Charcoal on White). |

| NEVER use more than 2 fonts | Combining three or more font families makes layouts appear disorganized. | Stick to one font family for headers and one for body. |

| NEVER modify theme-showcase.pdf | Attempting to write or rewrite the binary PDF showcase corrupts the file. | Keep the showcase file strictly read-only. |

| NEVER hardcode system fonts without fallback | Hardcoding platform-specific fonts (e.g., San Francisco, Segoe UI) breaks cross-platform rendering. | Specify standard web-safe fallbacks (e.g., "Helvetica Neue, Arial, sans-serif"). |

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Common Error Scenarios & Fallbacks

Scenario 1: Selection of non-existent theme

• Root Cause: User requests a theme that is not one of the 10 presets and doesn't specify custom settings.

• Fallback:

  1. Default to modern-minimalist or ocean-depths as safe corporate standards.

  2. Ask the user for clarification or if they would like to generate a custom theme.

Scenario 2: Requested typography font is missing in the render system

• Root Cause: Standard system fonts (like DejaVu Sans or Arial) are missing on the target host.

• Fallback: Map to standard generic CSS families:

  • Sans-Serif: sans-serif

  • Serif: serif

  • Monospace: monospace

  
  font-family: 'DejaVu Sans', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
  

Memory Sync

After completing key technical findings, architectural decisions, code refactorings, or risk assessments, you MUST trigger the local memory capture.

1. Save the final summary or artifact as a Markdown file in the project directory.
2. Invoke the capture script:

   python3 ~/memory_system/capture_knowledge.py <file_path>
   

3. This ensures that new learnings, policies, and technical snippets are automatically routed to the correct local storage (OKF or ChromaDB).