# Isolation Protocol

Use this protocol while collecting evidence and creating the first ten typography-led HTML design directions. Its purpose is to reduce active visual cross-pollination long enough for the subject's own formal logic to emerge.

## Create a source boundary

Record two short lists before concept work:

1. **Allowed evidence:** the subject-specific material the author may use.
2. **Prohibited influence:** contemporary visual sources the author will not inspect.

Do not make a moodboard. Do not collect aesthetic adjectives as substitutes for evidence.

## Prohibited during creative development

Do not search for, open, inspect, or ask another system to summarize:

- designers, studios, illustrators, visual artists, or named visual movements;
- design galleries, portfolio sites, award sites, trend reports, social feeds, or image boards;
- Behance, Dribbble, Awwwards, FWA, Pinterest, Instagram design feeds, Figma Community, Framer galleries, or “best design” collections;
- existing identities, campaigns, publications, websites, interfaces, or visual systems offered as references;
- design tokens, templates, UI kits, component demonstrations, theme catalogues, or starter designs;
- icon libraries or type catalogues used to discover a look;
- Google Fonts, Material Design, Meta/Facebook systems, or other platform house styles;
- AI-generated concepts or images used as inspiration;
- unrelated visual work previously produced by this skill.

If the human supplies visual references, distinguish the need underneath them from their appearance. Ask what quality or problem the reference represents. Do not copy its formal answer.

## Allowed evidence

Prefer sources that belong to the subject:

- exact user-provided copy, naming, speech, memories, stories, sketches, and first-party records;
- the audience's real language, needs, environment, and expectations;
- place, climate, light, sound, movement, local habits, and available materials;
- history, chronology, taxonomy, measurements, maps, data, and internal relationships;
- workflows, tools, rituals, frictions, repairs, errors, and physical constraints;
- scientific, mathematical, ecological, or mechanical behaviors observed directly or described factually;
- nonvisual culture as structure: spoken cadence, musical timing, narrative sequence, oral history, or social ritual;
- medium constraints such as format, printing method, screen behavior, viewing distance, duration, cost, and production capacity.

Do not turn a geography into a visual stereotype. Place is evidence only when its actual language, material, history, climate, behavior, or lived culture affects the subject.

## Translation test

For every formal decision, complete this sentence internally:

> This behaves like **[subject evidence]** because **[relationship or mechanism]**, so the design uses **[formal rule]**.

Reject a decision when its only explanation is that it looks contemporary, premium, clean, bold, artistic, innovative, or unlike AI.

## Functional research is separate

The author may inspect specifications, real workflows, existing code, accessibility requirements, browser behavior, manufacturing limits, legal requirements, or content structure when needed to understand the problem.

Extract the constraint, then close the source. Do not inherit its typography, spacing, icons, component shapes, or composition unless the human has already committed to that existing system.

## Controlled font exception

Round one may use an existing font because typography must be seen to judge a direction. Follow this order:

1. Derive the required behavior before browsing: languages, glyph coverage, width, contrast, rhythm, weight range, optical sizes, technical formats, medium, licensing scope, and budget.
2. Reversible use of a clearly licensed open-source font may proceed without a preliminary question when no account, purchase, license acceptance, or redistribution risk is involved. Ask once before any paid acquisition, trial agreement, account creation, license acceptance, or other commitment.
3. Search independent foundries and libraries in Spain, Greece, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and independent United States studios. Include both independent open-source libraries and paid foundries.
4. Treat geography as a discovery route, never as proof of quality or a shortcut to a regional look.
5. Exclude Google Fonts. Do not use a typeface because it appears unusual in a catalogue.
6. Verify the primary source, designer or foundry, license, price, allowed uses, formats, language coverage, variable-font support, webfont terms, and redistribution restrictions.
7. Record the licensing facts in the direction capsule. Reveal them after the first visual response and before any paid acquisition. Do not buy, download, embed, copy, or redistribute a paid font without explicit approval.
8. Keep a fallback path if acquisition is declined. A fallback may preserve functional metrics temporarily, but it is not proof of the final typography.

Do not restrict Round 1 to fonts already installed with macOS, Windows, Linux, a browser, or the current machine. System-installed faces are technical fallbacks only; convenience or local availability cannot define a direction. Do not replace the required independent search with a list of familiar operating-system fonts.

Do not reveal font names, foundry names, or licensing prestige before the human's first visual response. Record those facts in the withheld direction capsule, then disclose them for any direction the human wants to consider.

## Icons and conventions

Do not create a custom icon family merely to claim originality. After explicit human commitment, an existing open-source or paid family may be evaluated against the committed formal requirements.

The same applies to printing conventions, production formats, and established interaction patterns. Use them as implementation knowledge after the direction is locked. Never let their defaults choose the language.

## Isolation audit

Before presenting A through J, verify:

- every direction has a traceable subject-derived premise;
- no external visual reference entered the process;
- no direction depends on a platform kit, template, or familiar style label;
- any font search began from written requirements and has licensing evidence;
- every direction contains only type, one flat background, text colors, and whitespace;
- the ten directions evolved independently rather than by mutation from the first one.