Aesthetic Literacy

Summary

Gives an agent a structured framework for understanding named aesthetic movements as semiotic systems — not just visual preferences. Provides a 7-dimension decomposition model (palette, type, texture, shape, motion, spatial conventions, cultural markers) and a curated dictionary of 62 major aesthetics organized by family. Enables identification, characterization, disambiguation, and connotation-aware application of any named visual aesthetic.

Used as the foundation for aesthetic-research, image-analysis, asset-creation, and aesthetic-application.

When to Apply This Skill

Apply when:

• A user names an aesthetic ("Y2K", "brutalist", "cottagecore") and wants to understand it formally
• A user uses a vague descriptor ("retro", "cozy", "clean") that needs mapping to a concrete aesthetic
• A user asks about the difference between two related aesthetics
• A design aesthetic needs to be characterized before tokens or assets are produced
• Another skill (aesthetic-research, aesthetic-application) needs to reason about aesthetic identity

Do NOT apply when the request is purely about component implementation, layout structure, or accessibility. Those are outside the scope of this skill.