anti-generic-design-restraintlisted

<!-- last-verified: 2026-07 --> # Anti-generic design restraint The judgment layer that runs *before* you write CSS. Its job is to keep the design from landing on the defaults every AI reaches for, and to make each visual choice a choice made for *this* brief. Distinctiveness comes from restraint and specificity, not from adding more. **Precedence vs `frontend-design`:** `frontend-design` owns craft and visual direction — palette, type, layout, the overall aesthetic call. This skill is the narrower taste gate applied on top of that direction: it only vetoes genericness, it doesn't choose the direction. On conflict, `frontend-design`'s direction leads; this skill's role is to flag when that direction (or any part of it) reads as the generic default and send it back for revision, not to overrule it with a competing direction of its own. ## 1. Name the anti-patterns you're avoiding The "AI-generated look" is a small set of recognizable tells. Watch for them: - **Generic default combinations** — the palette/type/layout you'd produce for any similar prompt regardless of subject. The current clusters: warm cream background + high-contrast serif + terracotta accent; near-black + a single acid accent; broadsheet hairline rules with zero radius. All legitimate *sometimes*, but defaults, not decisions. - **Overuse of gradients and glows** — decorative gradient accents, glowing borders, and soft shadows applied everywhere signal templated output. - **Excess motion** — **