Visual brief: Brief 1, Luteal week breaks ADHD systems

Source verdict: approved/2026-05-19/brief-1-luteal-collapse.md Source draft: drafts/2026-05-19/brief-1-luteal-collapse.md Format: carousel-9 Generated: 2026-05-20T12:30:00Z

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Visual register summary

Warm, calm, grounded. Cream and soft-sand base zone dominates across all nine slides, with deep-brown ink for typography and one accent system per slide (sage for grounding moments, terracotta for collapse and signal, dusty blue only on slide 3 to mark the scientific beat). Display type is Recoleta semi-bold; body is Inter regular. Photography is reserved for slides 4 and 8 (POV, hands, soft natural light, slightly desaturated); the remaining slides are typographic with minimal line-art motifs. A faint paper-grain texture at 5% opacity carries across every slide for warmth. A small line-icon of a cycle ring sits in the upper-right corner of every slide and rotates one twelfth per slide to act as a quiet visual progress meter and reinforce the cycle theme.

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Production-ready units

Slide 1

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: For 7 to 10 days every month, ADHD systems quietly stop working.
  • Body: It is not a willpower drop. It is a phase of the cycle that hits the ADHD brain harder than most clinicians describe. The collapse is predictable, even if it does not feel that way at 6am on day 22.
• Layout: Canvas 1080x1350. Title in the top-third zone, left-aligned, sitting 140px from the top edge and 90px from the left edge, with a 900px maximum text width so it wraps onto three lines. Body in the lower-middle zone, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 870px from the top, 880px text width. Small line-art calendar icon, 64x64px, in the upper-right corner at 80px from the top and 80px from the right edge; seven consecutive day cells along the icon's bottom row are circled with a single thin terracotta loop. Cycle-ring motif (24x24px, deep brown at 0.4 opacity) sits 40px below the calendar icon. No slide number on the hook slide.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with a 5% paper-grain texture overlay covering the full canvas.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~64pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.15, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
• Image / illustration: No photo. The single illustrative element is the hand-drawn calendar icon described above. The icon is a simple line drawing, 1.5px stroke, deep brown #3D2818, with a faint 4-column-by-3-row grid inside; the seven circled days form a single contiguous arc across the bottom row, looped once with terracotta rust #B86C50 at 1.5px stroke, no fill.
• Color accents: Terracotta rust #B86C50 on the seven circled day cells only. One accent, one location.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 2

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: There is a name for the week that breaks every system.
  • Body: It is the luteal phase, the window between ovulation and the start of the next period. For many late-diagnosed women with ADHD, this is also when PMDD or PMDD-adjacent symptoms intensify. Naming the phase is the first move out of self-blame.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 220px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to three lines. Cycle diagram centered horizontally in the middle band, vertical center at 760px from the top, diagram diameter 420px. Body anchored below the diagram, left-aligned, baseline at 1170px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "2 / 9" bottom-right, 60px from each edge, Inter regular 14pt, deep brown #3D2818 at 0.6 opacity. Cycle-ring motif in upper-right corner, 64x64px, 80px from each edge, with the luteal sector now shaded.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~52pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
  • Diagram label "luteal phase": Inter medium, 16pt, terracotta dark #8A4730, all-caps tracking 80, placed just outside the shaded sector with a thin 1px leader line to the sector center.
• Image / illustration: Hand-drawn cycle diagram. A clean line-art ring 420px diameter, 2px stroke, deep brown #3D2818, divided into four phase sectors by faint 1px tick marks at the perimeter. The luteal sector (roughly the 7-to-10 o'clock arc of the ring representing the second half of the cycle) is filled with terracotta rust #B86C50 at 35% opacity, no gradient. A small terracotta dot, 8px diameter, marks the start of the sector. The other three phase sectors are unfilled. No numbers, no day counts, no clinical labels.
• Color accents: Terracotta rust #B86C50 (35% fill) in the luteal sector. Terracotta dark #8A4730 for the sector label only.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 3

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: Estrogen falls. Dopamine signaling follows.
  • Body: In the second half of the cycle, estrogen drops sharply. Estrogen modulates dopamine activity in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. The result for an ADHD brain that already runs low on available dopamine is a system under further load, not a personal collapse.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 220px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to two lines. Line graph centered horizontally in the middle band, vertical center at 780px from the top, plot area 760px wide by 320px tall. Body anchored below the graph, left-aligned, baseline at 1180px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "3 / 9" bottom-right per the convention. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Warm off-white #FAF3E2 with 5% paper-grain texture. This single slight base shift signals the scientific beat without leaving the warm zone.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~54pt, deep slate #3D4F60, line-height 1.18, sentence case. (Deep slate is used only on this slide to mark the science register.)
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
  • Graph axis labels "estrogen" and "dopamine": Inter medium, 14pt, deep slate #3D4F60, placed at the start of each line, no axis tick numbers.
• Image / illustration: Hand-drawn-style line graph. Two horizontal axes are implied but not drawn; no gridlines, no numeric ticks. The estrogen line starts high on the left, runs flat for roughly the first third of the plot, then descends steeply into the right two-thirds, ending at the lower-right area of the plot. The dopamine line tracks beneath it with the same general shape but at a consistently lower baseline, also descending in the right two-thirds, ending lower-right. Estrogen line: dusty blue #7C95A6, 2.5px stroke. Dopamine line: deep slate #3D4F60, 2.5px stroke, dashed (8px dash, 4px gap). The lines do not touch. A single faint vertical tick on the x-axis sits where the descent begins, labeled "ovulation" in Inter medium, 12pt, deep slate at 0.6 opacity. No other annotations.
• Color accents: Dusty blue #7C95A6 and deep slate #3D4F60. This is the only slide using the muted-blue accent system.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 4

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: The first systems to break are the most automated.
  • Body: The morning routine that has held for three weeks looks unfamiliar on day 23. The grocery list system stops generating a list. Time perception loosens. Twenty minutes between two anchored points stretches or disappears.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 220px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to two lines. Photograph fills the middle band from 320px to 920px from the top, full canvas width, framed with a 40px cream margin on the left and right. Body anchored below the photograph, left-aligned, baseline at 1180px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "4 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture in the margins around the photo.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~52pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
• Image / illustration: Photograph. POV looking down at a wooden kitchen counter in soft morning light. In frame: a weekly planner open to a midweek page, the page edge slightly curled; half a cold coffee in a plain stoneware mug placed at the upper-left corner of the frame; a woman's hand resting on the right page of the planner, fingers relaxed but not writing, no rings, no nail polish indication. Light source from the right at a low angle, warm and slightly diffused, suggesting early morning through a window. Color treatment slightly desaturated, warm cast, no high contrast. Composition uses rule of thirds; the planner spine sits on the left vertical third line, the mug at the upper-left intersection. Generous negative space around the hand. No phone, no laptop, no calendar app screens, no clutter. Mood is quiet and stalled, not despairing.
• Color accents: No graphic accent. The terracotta tone reads naturally from the wooden counter and warm light.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 5

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: The more rigid the routine, the harder the luteal collapse hits.
  • Body: A system designed for the other three weeks of the cycle treats every missed step as evidence of failure. For ADHD plus cyclical hormone shifts, this becomes a multiplier. The routine does not bend, so the person bends, often into shame.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 240px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to three lines. Grid motif fills the middle band, vertical center at 800px from the top, motif dimensions 720px wide by 360px tall, centered horizontally. Body anchored below, left-aligned, baseline at 1200px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "5 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Soft sand #E8D9B8 with 5% paper-grain texture. The slightly darker base reinforces the heavier emotional weight of this slide.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~52pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
• Image / illustration: Hand-drawn grid. A regular grid of squares, 8 columns by 4 rows, each cell 90x90px, thin 1.5px stroke in deep brown #3D2818 at 0.7 opacity. The central cell (column 4, row 2 from the top) is broken open: two of its four sides are drawn as fractured lines, with a small terracotta rust #B86C50 jagged shape suggesting the break, no fill. Surrounding cells are intact. The break is small enough to require a beat of looking, not dramatic. No drop shadow.
• Color accents: Terracotta rust #B86C50 on the broken cell edges only.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 6

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: The same brain operates in two different conditions each month.
  • Body: Across the follicular and ovulatory phases, executive function tends to run closer to baseline. Across the luteal window, the same brain is working with a different hormonal floor. Tracking the difference reveals a pattern, not a flaw.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 240px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to three lines. Two bar shapes side by side in the middle band, both bars sharing the same baseline at 940px from the top. Left bar: 200px wide, 420px tall, x-center at 380px from the left edge. Right bar: 200px wide, 140px tall, x-center at 700px from the left edge. Bar labels sit beneath each bar at 980px from the top. Body anchored below, left-aligned, baseline at 1200px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "6 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~50pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
  • Bar labels "21 days" and "7 days": Inter medium, 18pt with tabular figures, deep brown #3D2818, centered beneath each bar.
• Image / illustration: Two solid bar shapes representing the same brain under two hormonal conditions. Left bar (21 days, follicular plus ovulatory window): sage #7A9468, solid fill, no stroke, soft 4px rounded corners on the top edge only. Right bar (7 days, luteal window): terracotta rust #B86C50, same construction. Both bars share the same baseline and the same width to emphasize the same-brain framing; only the height differs. No axis, no gridlines, no numeric scale. A faint 1px deep-brown horizontal line runs across the canvas at the shared baseline at 0.3 opacity to ground both shapes.
• Color accents: Sage #7A9468 (left bar) and terracotta rust #B86C50 (right bar). Two accents on this slide is the intentional exception, since the comparison is the slide's point.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 7

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: Reframing the week changes what counts as success.
  • Body: Under a willpower frame, a collapsed routine on day 24 is a moral event. Under a phase frame, it is data about which systems were built for three weeks and which were built for four. The behavior is the same. The interpretation changes the next decision.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 240px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to two lines. Two framed boxes side by side in the middle band, each 380px wide by 380px tall, vertically centered at 740px from the top. Left box x-center at 320px from the left edge; right box x-center at 760px from the left edge. Each box has a 32pt label inside, vertically centered. Body anchored below, left-aligned, baseline at 1170px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "7 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~52pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
  • Box labels "willpower" and "phase": Inter medium, 28pt, sentence case. Left label color charcoal #2A1F18. Right label color deep brown #3D2818.
• Image / illustration: Two boxes, both 380x380px, same outer dimensions. Left box (willpower): 2px stroke in deep brown #3D2818, three thin fracture lines running diagonally across the box from upper-left to lower-right at 1px stroke in terracotta dark #8A4730, no fill. Right box (phase): 2px stroke in deep brown #3D2818, filled with a single flat tint of sage #7A9468 at 18% opacity, no gradient, edges clean. The visual contrast between the cracked-empty left box and the calm-filled right box does the conceptual work without any additional iconography.
• Color accents: Terracotta dark #8A4730 on the left box's fracture lines, sage #7A9468 (18% fill) inside the right box.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 8

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: Track one cycle. Notice which systems hold.
  • Body: For a single cycle, the experiment is simple. Each evening, note one system that held that day and one that did not. By the next luteal window, the pattern often shows up on its own, no app required.
• Layout: Title in the top third, left-aligned, 90px from the left edge, baseline at 220px from the top, 880px text width, wraps to two lines. Photograph fills the middle band from 320px to 920px from the top, full canvas width, framed with a 40px cream margin on the left and right. Body anchored below the photograph, left-aligned, baseline at 1180px from the top, 90px left margin, 900px text width. Slide number "8 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right.
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture in the margins around the photo.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~54pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.18, sentence case.
  • Body: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45.
• Image / illustration: Photograph. POV looking down at a small open notebook on a warm wooden surface, slightly desaturated, soft natural light from the upper-left at golden-hour angle. The notebook is open to a fresh page with a hand-ruled vertical line drawn down the middle creating two columns; the left column header reads "held" and the right column header reads "did not", both in a relaxed everyday handwriting in dark ink, no calligraphy. Two or three short hand-written entries below the headers in the same hand, kept legible but not staged; entries can read as plausible everyday items (no brand names, no clinical language). A simple unbranded pen rests at a casual angle across the lower-right of the right page, tip pointing up-left. Composition uses rule of thirds; the spine of the notebook sits roughly on the left third line. Negative space at the upper-right and lower-left of the frame. No phone, no app, no calendar, no clutter.
• Color accents: No graphic accent. The notebook paper and warm wood provide the cream and terracotta tones naturally.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

Slide 9

• Text overlay (verbatim from approved draft):
  • Title: Which system collapses first for you?
  • Body: Many late-diagnosed women find the same one or two systems break first every cycle. Sharing that detail in the comments helps other readers locate their own pattern faster. Save this for the day it stops feeling like a personal failure.
• Layout: Low-information slide. Title is the focal element, centered horizontally, vertical center at 540px from the top, 880px maximum text width, wraps to three lines. Body sits in the lower third, centered horizontally, baseline at 1100px from the top, 820px text width, three short sentences each on their own line spaced for breathing room. Small line-art comment-bubble icon, 48x48px, centered horizontally beneath the body at 1220px from the top. Slide number "9 / 9" bottom-right. Cycle-ring motif upper-right with the full ring now closed (representing the completed cycle reading).
• Background: Cream #F4ECDC with 5% paper-grain texture.
• Typography:
  • Title: Recoleta semi-bold, ~72pt, deep brown #3D2818, line-height 1.15, sentence case. Larger than every other slide to honor the low-information emotional close.
  • Body: Inter regular, 20pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.5, text-align center.
• Image / illustration: Single hand-drawn line-art comment bubble, a simple rounded rectangle with a small tail at the lower-left, 1.5px stroke in deep brown #3D2818, no fill, no inner text. The icon is accent, not focal.
• Color accents: No accent color on this slide. Cream and deep brown only, to let the question carry the slide.
• Motion (if applicable): Still.

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Cross-unit consistency

• Canvas: every slide is 1080x1350px, sRGB color profile.
• Paper-grain texture: the same paper-grain texture file at 5% opacity covers every slide as a top layer beneath the type. Use one consistent grain so the carousel reads as a single object.
• Cycle-ring motif: a small line-art circle, 24x24px on slides 1 and 9 (smaller, quieter at the bookends) and 22x22px on slides 2 through 8, deep brown #3D2818 at 0.4 opacity, sits in the upper-right corner of every slide at a consistent 80px margin from the top and right edges, beneath the slide number on slides where both appear (on slide 1 the ring sits below the calendar icon as described). The ring's filled arc grows by one twelfth per slide: slide 1 has no fill, slide 2 has the leading edge of the luteal sector marked, slide 9 has the full ring closed. This is a quiet progress meter only; nobody needs to read it as data.
• Slide number tag: "{N} / 9" in Inter regular 14pt, deep brown #3D2818 at 0.6 opacity, bottom-right corner, 60px from the bottom and 60px from the right edge. Present on slides 2 through 9. Omitted on slide 1 (hook) per protocol convention.
• Title typography: Recoleta semi-bold, sentence case, deep brown #3D2818 everywhere except slide 3 (deep slate #3D4F60 to mark the scientific register). Point size varies by slide per the specs above to balance text length against the title zone; never smaller than 50pt, never larger than 72pt.
• Body typography: Inter regular, 22pt, charcoal #2A1F18, line-height 1.45 on every slide except slide 9 (centered, 20pt, line-height 1.5).
• Left margin convention: 90px on every text block except slide 9 (centered).
• Accent rule: zero or one accent per slide, with two intentional exceptions (slide 6's twin bars, slide 7's two framed boxes). No slide uses more than two accent colors.
• No brand mark on individual slides. The cycle-ring motif acts as the recurring brand thread. The handle lives in the post bio, not on the slide.

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Designer notes

• Tight specifications: every hex code in this brief is fixed and pulled from section 0 of the visual-direction-protocol. Do not substitute. Every typeface and weight is fixed; if Recoleta is not licensed for the production tool in use, fall back to Lora bold (per the protocol) and flag the substitution before export, do not silently swap. Inter is the only body face.
• Creative latitude:
  • Slide 4 and slide 8 photographs: the props, surface, and lighting direction are specified, but the exact framing crop and the precise hand pose are open to the designer or photographer. Hold the POV, hold the soft natural light, hold the slightly desaturated treatment, hold the no-clutter rule.
  • Slide 8 handwritten column entries: keep legible and plausible, no brand names, no clinical language. Designer chooses the words within those constraints. Suggested examples: "morning walk", "lunch made", "inbox triage", "shower" for "held"; "evening routine", "grocery run" for "did not". Do not write anything that reads as a confession or a joke.
  • Slide 5 grid: the exact pattern density (8x4) can shift to 7x4 or 9x4 if the canvas balance reads better in production; keep the broken cell roughly central.
  • The cycle-ring motif's exact arc progression (twelfths versus eighths) can shift if visual readability suffers; intent is a quiet progress meter, not a precise dial.
• Tight constraints, no latitude:
  • Slide 1 hook typography (Recoleta semi-bold, ~64pt, deep brown #3D2818) and the cream #F4ECDC background are anchored by the writer's draft and must not be softened or restyled. The calendar icon with seven circled days is the established anchor.
  • Slide 9's low-information layout (single large title, minimal body, comment-bubble icon) is required by writing-protocol section 1.1 for the final slide. Do not add additional imagery.
  • The "Save this for the day it stops feeling like a personal failure" line stays inside the body block on slide 9; it is the save prompt and must not be pulled into the title.
  • No em dashes anywhere in the designed asset. Use commas, periods, parentheses only.
• Export specs: PNG at 1080x1350px, sRGB, 72ppi, one file per slide named brief-1-slide-{N}.png. Carousel order 1 through 9. If exported as a video preview for review, MP4 1080x1350, 30fps, 3 seconds per slide with hard cuts, no audio.
• Accessibility: every title and body block must clear a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background. The deep brown #3D2818 on cream #F4ECDC and on soft sand #E8D9B8 both clear comfortably; verify the deep slate #3D4F60 on warm off-white #FAF3E2 for slide 3 before export.
• Open questions: none. The asset is fully specified above.