# Editorial photo carousels for Cosmos Luminosity

Use when Margarita sends a fixed set of photographs and asks to overlay text for an Instagram carousel.

## Core creative direction

- Preserve **every photograph the user supplied** unless she explicitly approves removing one. A back-facing, distant, blurred, or atmospheric frame may be an intentional narrative beat; do not discard it merely because the face is absent.
- Where a face is present, choose a crop that keeps it clearly visible and keep typography away from the face, hair contour, and ideally the body silhouette.
- Choose the intensity mode from the references and Margarita's request rather than defaulting automatically to soft editorial styling:
  - **Airy editorial:** restrained serif headline, small sans-serif utility text, generous negative space, thin rules, subtle local gradient or shadow.
  - **Bold CL manifesto:** oversized heavy sans-serif, high contrast, assertive line breaks, and one intellectual provocation per slide. Text may occupy 40–50% of the frame, but the face remains clear and the photograph still carries the composition.
- Established Cosmos Luminosity palette: **violet + yellow + gold**. In bold mode, use violet and yellow on selected key words as semantic impact points; use gold for numbering, rules, micro-labels, or brand signature; keep most supporting text white for readability. Do not substitute red as the default accent.
- Avoid large opaque black panels, generic template layouts, heavy frames, and indiscriminate text blocks. Use localized feathered dark gradients where readability requires support.
- Treat the set as a visual sequence: opening image, alternating scale/movement/gaze, atmospheric pause, strong closing image. Preserve all originals exactly once unless the user asks otherwise.

## Workflow

1. Wait until all images arrive and the user says `конец` when she established that marker.
2. Create a numbered contact sheet of every original and inspect it with vision.
3. For each photograph record:
   - whether the face is visible;
   - approximate face/head area;
   - strongest 4:5 crop;
   - dark or quiet negative-space zones suitable for text;
   - whether the frame is an intentional atmospheric/back-facing image.
4. Map each source image to exactly one slide before rendering. Verify count and uniqueness.
5. Compose at Instagram portrait size, normally 1080×1350.
6. Place typography photograph by photograph rather than applying one fixed template blindly. Narrow the text column or reduce type size whenever it approaches hair, face, arms, or the light-colored outfit.
7. Use soft localized gradients instead of rectangular panels. The gradient should support text without visibly flattening the whole image.
8. When the source image already contains typography, do not merely darken it and place new type over it. First remove/reconstruct the old text area cleanly (content-aware fill, inpainting, or a clean original photograph); otherwise ghost lettering and duplicate counters will make the result look unfinished. If only a compositional mockup is possible, label it explicitly as a rough direction sample.
9. Render a contact sheet and run a strict visual QA pass.
10. Fix every cited collision and re-render. Run a second final QA pass before delivery.

## Bold-premium adaptation for Cosmos Luminosity

When Margarita asks for a carousel to feel **дерзко**, do not equate boldness with crude scale, maximal caps, black strokes, neon overload, or text covering half the portrait. Her target is **aesthetic audacity**: intellectually sharp, editorial, visually clean, and premium.

Use the established Cosmos Luminosity palette deliberately:

- **deep violet** — primary field, depth, or one major semantic accent;
- **warm yellow** — a precise attention flash, used sparingly;
- **gold** — navigation, rules, numbering, signature, and premium micro-details;
- off-white — readable body/headline support.

Preferred composition for bold photo slides:

1. Start from a **clean photo without baked-in text**. If only a flattened designed slide is available, ask for the original before producing a publication-ready redesign. Do not try to hide old copy with a translucent gradient: ghost text and duplicate numbering destroy premium quality.
2. Protect the face and silhouette first. Place typography in genuine negative space or use an intentional split-editorial field; never let massive type visually crush the person.
3. Build intensity through hierarchy, crop, contrast, and one sharp phrase—not through making every line huge.
4. Use at most two strong color accents in the main statement; reserve gold for fine structure. Avoid a violet–yellow–gold “traffic light” effect where all colors have equal visual weight.
5. Prefer elegant serif + clean sans-serif pairings, or one refined display family. Avoid default-looking bold grotesks, thick outlines, heavy shadows, and opaque black boxes unless explicitly requested.
6. A bold CL slide may still have air. The desired effect is a luxury editorial manifesto, not cheap shock marketing or generic spiritual softness.
7. When showing a draft, label it honestly. Before delivery, run visual QA for old-text ghosts, duplicated page numbers, text/face collisions, clipping, noisy color balance, and phone-size readability.

If the source already contains copy and a quick direction preview is still useful, use a clearly intentional split composition that crops out the contaminated zone. Do not claim it is a final design; photo quality and clean-source replacement remain explicit limitations.

## Visual QA checklist

For all slides, verify:

- all supplied photographs are present exactly once;
- no source was silently removed or duplicated;
- faces remain open wherever present;
- headings do not touch hair, forehead, or facial contour;
- body and dress are not cut through by large text blocks;
- light text does not sit on bright dress, skin, or glowing installations without enough contrast;
- no line is clipped or outside safe margins;
- type remains readable at phone size;
- visual hierarchy is consistent while placement adapts to each image;
- the result feels editorial and image-led, not like a quote-card template.

## Copy principles for saveable carousels

A Cosmos Luminosity carousel is more saveable when it gives a compact practice rather than only defining the brand. A useful structure is:

1. charged but understandable cover;
2. one idea or question per slide;
3. a progression such as fact → state/body → unseen option → available lightness → next action;
4. final slide naming the CL principle and a single save CTA.

Keep one dominant thought per slide. Use Portal concepts accurately: a question directs attention; attention changes what becomes noticeable; noticed options can influence choices and actions. Avoid claiming that a question automatically changes external reality.

## Pitfalls learned

- Do not interpret “make sure my face is visible” as permission to remove every back-facing photograph. It means protect the face where it exists; preserve requested atmospheric frames.
- Do not choose the photographs for the user when she supplied a fixed seven-slide set.
- Do not call a carousel stylish merely because it uses a serif font. Editorial quality depends on crop, negative space, text width, hierarchy, and respect for the subject.
- Automated or model-based visual QA may miss collisions on the first pass. Ask explicitly about each slide, face/hair/body overlap, contrast, clipping, and safe zones, then repair the named slides and verify again.