Design

The universal design entry point — routes your task to the right specialist skill automatically.

What This Skill Does

The Challenge: Design encompasses brand strategy, design systems, UI implementation, logo creation, banners, and more. Teams waste time figuring out which tool or skill to use for each design task.

The Solution: Design skill acts as an intelligent router — it understands the nature of your design task and activates the appropriate specialist skill. One entry point for all design work, with automatic routing to brand, design-system, ui-styling, logo, banner, or CIP skills.

Activation

Implicit: Activates whenever user mentions “design”, “UI”, “brand”, “visual”, “style”, or “look and feel”.

Explicit: Activate via prompt:

Activate design skill for [describe design task]

Routing Logic

Task-to-Skill Mapping

Task TypeRoutes ToExamples
Brand identityBrand”Define our brand personality”, “Create brand guidelines”
Design tokens, component specsDesign System”Set up our design system”, “Create color tokens”
UI implementation, stylingFrontend Design”Style this component”, “Build this UI from mockup”
Logo creationLogo Design”Design a logo”, “Create an icon”
Banners and ad creativesBanner Design”Make social media banners”, “Create ad creatives”
Full corporate identityCIP Design”Build complete brand system”, “50 brand deliverables”
AI image generationAI Artist”Generate images for”, “Create AI visuals”

Capabilities

1. Scope Clarification

When task scope is ambiguous, asks one clarifying question before routing.

Clarification questions:

  • “Is this for digital use only or print as well?”
  • “Are you starting from scratch or updating existing brand?”
  • “Do you need implementation (code) or visual specs (guidelines)?“

2. Design Brief Generation

Before any design work, structures a design brief.

Brief components:

  • Purpose and goal
  • Target audience
  • Platforms and formats needed
  • Brand constraints (existing colors, fonts)
  • Reference inspirations
  • Timeline and deliverables

3. Cross-Skill Orchestration

For complex design projects spanning multiple skills, coordinates sequencing.

Example flow for product launch visuals:

  1. Brand skill → confirm voice and positioning
  2. Design System skill → confirm tokens
  3. Banner Design skill → create ad creatives
  4. AI Artist skill → generate supporting visuals
  5. Assets Organizing skill → structure outputs

Prerequisites

  • Clear description of design goal or task
  • Access to brand guidelines if existing brand

Best Practices

1. Brief before designing Always capture purpose, audience, and constraints before generating. Iteration is expensive without clarity.

2. Design for your audience, not your taste B2B enterprise looks different from B2C consumer. Route through brand discovery if audience is unclear.

3. Deliver system, not just assets Individual assets become inconsistent over time. Pair any asset creation with guidelines.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: New Product Visual Identity

Scenario: Launching a new feature — need consistent visuals across website, ads, and social.

Routing path:

  1. Design → Brand (positioning and personality)
  2. Design → Design System (tokens for new feature section)
  3. Design → Banner Design (ad creatives)
  4. Design → AI Artist (hero illustration)

Use Case 2: Website UI Redesign

Scenario: Redesigning the pricing page for better conversion.

Routing path:

  1. Design → Design System (confirm existing tokens)
  2. Design → Frontend Design (implement new layout)
  3. Design → Banner Design (hero section graphic)

Troubleshooting

Issue: Not sure which type of design work is needed Solution: Describe the end deliverable (“I need a PNG banner” vs “I need React component styling”). Design skill routes from deliverable, not process.

Issue: Design task spans multiple skills Solution: Use this skill to create a design plan first. It will sequence the sub-skills correctly.

  • /ckm:design - Activate design workflow
  • /ai-artist - AI visual generation