Belief-Shift Visual System — Spec

Built by: Wren (Designer) Date: 2026-07-01 Status: Foundation built, for Kathryn's review. Belief-4 card held. Files: belief-shift-cards-aos.html, belief-shift-cards-pb.html

What this is

A repeatable card system for the belief-shift content revamp. Same six layouts rendered in both brand skins so a run of belief-shift content looks sequenced, not random. Every card: one focal point, readable at thumbnail, gold kept rare.

The two skins are structurally identical — only the skin changes. That sameness is the point: a viewer scrolling either brand's feed sees a recognizable system.

The six templates

1. Math Post carousel — one escalating number per slide, gold serif figure centered, running total at base, reframe on the final slide. Two slide types: single-figure (A) and total (B).
2. Old Way vs New Way split — two columns; old always carries more rows (complexity) than new (simplicity). The visual weight is the argument. Adapted off the source's red/green coach aesthetic but muted for each brand. Marker glyphs (× / →) carry the color-coding so it reads at thumbnail without relying on hue alone.
3. Pattern-reveal — "You think X. Actually Y." Two stacked panels, belief muted on top, truth in gold below. Used sparingly — sharpest instrument in the set.
4. Proof card — one testimonial, one named number in a gold callout, one attribution. Gold appears exactly once. Never two numbers on a card.
5. Origin / peer card — Kathryn headshot + one-line philosophy. Editorial/declarative on AOS ("Consultants create dependency. I build capability."), warmer/invitational on PB ("You built the practice. Let's build the systems that hold it.").
6. Cost-of-inaction card — arithmetic of waiting. Amber #c49a4a for the waiting state, never alarm-red. Escalating lines then total in large serif. Steady, no urgency theater.

7. Behind-the-build (belief-4) — HELD. Placeholder only. Pending Reid's rebalance of how belief 4 resolves across DFY / DIY / advisory after Kathryn's "don't center everything on DFY" note. When the resolution locks, this card slots into the same system (likely a Math Post or Old-vs-New variant depending on how the three lines resolve).

Guardrails applied

• Gold stays rare — one gold moment per card (the figure, the callout, the reveal line). Never gold-on-gold.
• Real people / artifacts over illustration — headshot slot takes a real photo; no illustrated avatars. No stock-corporate, no startup gradients on AOS.
• One focal point per card — every layout resolves to a single thing the eye lands on.
• Readable at thumbnail — figures are large, glyphs (not just hue) carry the old/new coding, body copy is minimal.
• Amber ≠ red — cost-of-inaction uses amber; muted red is reserved for the "old way" column only.

Carousel production path — VALIDATED

Question posed: test the "MAL LinkedIn Carousel Builder" (named in content-strategy.md line 193) against both skins. Kathryn confirmed she has not actually used it.

Finding: the MAL tool is unvalidated and undocumented anywhere in the vault. The one place it's referenced (wrong-clock/post2-carousel.html) lists it as one option beside "screenshot the full-size slides." No brand-import path, no template, no confirmation it takes AOS/PB styling. Betting the system's consistency on an untested external tool is the wrong call — especially when the brand has strict, specific requirements (two custom serif/sans pairings, exact hex values, gold-rarity rules) that a generic carousel builder is unlikely to honor.

Path landed on: branded HTML → screenshot → PDF. This is the path I own.

Why:

• Brand fidelity is guaranteed — the CSS is ours. Exact hex, exact fonts, exact spacing. No tool can drift the brand.
• Already proven — this is the same mechanism wrong-clock/post2-carousel.html uses, which Kathryn has shipped from.
• Zero external dependency — no account, no subscription, no import/export round-trip, no tool that can change under us.
• Repeatable — new belief-shift cards are new HTML blocks in the same file; the system scales by copy-paste-edit, not by re-learning a tool.

How to produce a carousel (documented path):

1. Open the skin file (belief-shift-cards-aos.html or -pb.html) in a browser.
2. Scroll to the Full-size cards (1080×1350) section.
3. Screenshot each card at exact dimensions (browser at 100% zoom; the cards are already sized).
4. Combine the screenshots into a single PDF (any PDF tool, or print-to-PDF).
5. Upload to LinkedIn as a Document post (not an image carousel) for the swipe-through carousel experience. A single card can also be exported as a standalone image for a text+image post.

If Kathryn still wants to try MAL later: the slide content in these files is tool-agnostic — the copy and structure drop into any builder as input. But the branded-HTML path is the default and the one to standardize on.

How to extend the system

• New belief-shift card → copy the matching template block (preview + full-size) in the relevant skin file, swap the copy.
• Keep both skins in lockstep — anything added to AOS gets a PB twin so the sequence holds across brands.
• Never introduce a second gold moment, a bright color, or a gradient on AOS.
• The belief-4 card is the only known gap — build it when Reid's rebalance lands.

Open items for Kathryn

• [ ] Review the six templates in both skins — layout, copy tone, the muted red/green vs terracotta/sage call on old-vs-new.
• [ ] Confirm the branded-HTML carousel path over MAL (my recommendation).
• [ ] Belief-4 card is held — no action until Reid's DFY/DIY/advisory rebalance is settled.
• [ ] Drop the real Kathryn headshot into the origin card slot (PB has an asset at the CYP convertri URL in visual-style-cyp.md; AOS needs a dark-register headshot if one isn't already on hand).