option-board
Option Board (creative options for the client to pick)
The recurring move: one creative ask in, a curated board of genuinely different options out, the decision-maker picks, the winner becomes the locked master. Built from catalog, cover-design, and mockup-board work.
Philosophy (locked): you are producing options for someone else to choose from. Deliverables are ranges of distinct options that you screen and curate, and the decision-maker makes the final pick. Never frame the ask as "which one is final". Propose options WITH a recommendation and why; forcing a premature convergence is the bug.
Style: follow your own label conventions before drafting anything the decision-maker sees.
1. Scope the axes first
Decide what varies BEFORE generating. Options must differ on a BOLD axis, visible at a glance (setting, subject, composition, mood, material), not a subtle one. Two options that differ only in a small detail are the same option in different clothes: cut one (the novelty check). 6 to 10 options is a board; 3 is a choice; 40 is a dump.
2. Element-level vs whole-design
For a COMPLEX design (a package, a label, a catalog), do not generate whole compositions first. Use the 3-phase modular method (your own still-generation skill owns the generation craft; the method is summarized here for the board and pick context):
- Element study pages: one page per element, ~6 variants each, on a plain gray background. Client picks per element. Cheap, parallel.
- Full combinations: assemble the picked elements into complete compositions.
- Composite + lock: pixel-precise placement, with any element the model renders unreliably composited deterministically instead of generated.