Create visual assets with ak:design

Use ak:design to turn a defined visual goal into a brand asset, logo, corporate identity mockup, slide deck, banner, social image, icon, or poster prompt. The Skill routes the request to bundled knowledge or a related Skill, then leaves you with files and visual evidence to review.

Choose ak:design for visual artifacts

Use ak:design when

• You need a logo, icon, poster, banner, social image, presentation, or corporate identity deliverable.
• You want a brand package that connects a logo, identity mockups, and slides.
• You need a design brief or want to search the bundled style, palette, industry, layout, or deliverable data before generating anything.
• You want design-system direction and can route implementation work to the related brand, design-system, or UI-styling Skill when available.

Choose another workflow when

• You are implementing application components, Tailwind classes, or shadcn/ui. Use ak:ui-styling.
• You need product UX reasoning, interaction rules, or an accessibility review. Use ak:ui-ux-pro-max.
• You need a focused audit of existing web files against current external guidelines. Use ak:web-design-guidelines.
• You need programmatic video or 3D scene code. Use ak:remotion or ak:threejs.

Prepare the brief and tools

Before you start:

• State the artifact type, audience, platform or physical format, required copy, brand assets, quantity, dimensions, and delivery format.
• Identify the existing brand source of truth and provide approved logos, fonts, colors, and image rights. Do not ask the Skill to guess official assets.
• Confirm where generated files may be written and whether intermediate HTML, reports, or prompt files should be kept.
• Install Python for bundled search scripts. Logo, CIP, and icon generation also require google-genai and a provider key; CIP image handling requires Pillow.
• Make a browser capture tool available for HTML-to-PNG banner or social-image workflows. Slide previews may load Chart.js, fonts, or images from the network.

See Runtime adapters for target-specific delivery boundaries.

Run the Skill

The Skill has no top-level mode flags. Put the design type and context in the request; the selected built-in script may expose its own options.

/ak:design "Create three SVG settings-icon directions for a finance dashboard, inherit currentColor, include accessible titles, and save only approved files under ./assets/icons"

/ak:design "Create three SVG settings-icon directions for a finance dashboard, inherit currentColor, include accessible titles, and save only approved files under ./assets/icons"

$ak:design "Create three SVG settings-icon directions for a finance dashboard, inherit currentColor, include accessible titles, and save only approved files under ./assets/icons"

Know which path you are starting

The search-only logo, CIP, and poster commands read packaged CSV knowledge and print recommendations or prompts. Generation commands can create directories and files. Default names may be generated automatically, so provide an explicit output directory when ownership matters.

Follow the observable stages

1. The Skill confirms the artifact contract. It captures the audience, format, dimensions, copy, brand constraints, source assets, and file boundary.
2. It routes the work. The selected path may use bundled references, local search scripts, a related Skill, an image provider, or browser capture.
3. It proposes direction before expensive work. Briefs, searches, or concept options should make style, palette, composition, and exclusions visible.
4. It creates source and exports. Depending on the path, this can write SVG, PNG, HTML, Markdown, or prompt text and may make one or more provider calls.
5. It verifies the artifact. Check dimensions, crop and safe zones, typography, brand fidelity, contrast, small-size legibility, and file opening.
6. It reports evidence. The final report should list generated files, provider or renderer used, checks performed, failures, and remaining approvals.

Keep provider and file approval explicit

• Provider-backed logo, CIP, and icon paths transmit prompts and possibly input images to the configured provider and are subject to its billing, quota, retention, safety, and preview-model availability.
• Banner and social-image research can contact external sites; remote fonts, images, and Chart.js can also make network requests during rendering.
• Keep source logos and unrelated project files unchanged. Review the resolved output directory before batch or full-set generation.
• Treat generated words, logos, and brand marks as drafts. Check spelling, trademark conflicts, licensing, and authorized logo usage before publication.
• HTML screenshot output is RGB raster evidence, not proof of print-ready CMYK, bleed, DPI, color profile, or production tolerances.

Verify outputs and evidence

A useful completion report includes:

• The brief and selected visual direction, including rejected constraints.
• Exact artifact paths, formats, dimensions, and variation count.
• The source of design guidance: bundled data, project brand files, related Skill, or live research.
• Provider/model and number of generation calls when an external model was used, without exposing credentials.
• Visual QA for clipping, alignment, hierarchy, contrast, color-only meaning, text accuracy, safe zones, and legibility at the intended size.
• Remaining risks such as missing print proof, browser-only rendering, unverified licensing, or unavailable related Skills.

For SVG icons, verify a valid viewBox, scalable paths, currentColor when required, an accessible title, and clarity at every requested size. For HTML artifacts, render at the exact target viewport and inspect the exported image, not only the source.

Troubleshoot and limits

The bundled style and platform tables are packaged knowledge, not live platform specifications. Recheck current ad sizes, brand rules, provider models, and production requirements when freshness matters. Stable and beta contain the same ak:design Skill and bundled resources in the documented releases.

Continue with the Engineer Kit overview, compare Runtime adapters, or use Projects, artifacts, and checkpoints to plan file ownership and recovery.