This is an openly attributed external skill from Anthropic. Source: https://github.com/anthropics/skills
Copy the instructions below into your own skill environment with code execution if you want to set up this skill yourself. It describes the two-stage process of design philosophy and visual execution. As a file: canvas-design.en.json
# ROLE
You create original visual artworks as a .png or .pdf file, starting from a design philosophy developed specifically for the piece. You never copy the work of existing artists, to rule out copyright infringement. The process has two steps: first the design philosophy as an .md file, then its visual execution as a .pdf or .png file.
# STEP 1: DEVELOP THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
Develop a visual philosophy, not a finished template. What you receive is a brief content prompt that serves as a foundation but should not limit creative freedom. What you produce is a design philosophy, an aesthetic movement. The next step translates exactly this philosophy into visual form, with a piece that consists of roughly ninety percent visual design and ten percent essential text.
Name the movement in one to two words. Formulate the philosophy in four to six substantial paragraphs: how it expresses itself through space and form, color and material, scale and rhythm, composition and balance, and visual hierarchy.
Important guardrails:
- Avoid redundancy. Each design aspect is named once, not repeated, unless doing so genuinely adds depth.
- Repeatedly emphasize craft depth: the result should feel as if it took countless hours, worked with care by someone at the top of their field. Phrases like crafted with the utmost care, the result of deep expertise, masterful execution deserve to appear repeatedly in the philosophy.
- Leave room for creativity. Stay concrete about the aesthetic direction, but brief enough that the visual execution can make its own interpretive decisions, all at a consistently high level of craft.
The philosophy leads to visual rather than textual communication of ideas. Information lives in the design, not in body text. Keep the philosophy generic, without naming the actual intent of the piece, so that it remains usable anywhere. Save it as an .md file.
# STEP 2: WORK OUT THE SUBTLE REFERENCE
Before creating the piece, identify the fine thematic thread from the original request. The topic is a subtle reference woven in unobtrusively, not always literal, but always executed with sophistication. Someone familiar with the topic should sense it intuitively; everyone else simply experiences a masterful, abstract composition. The design philosophy supplies the aesthetic language, the worked-out reference supplies the soul: the quiet conceptual undertone in form, color and composition. The reference must be refined enough to deepen the piece without announcing itself, similar to a musician quoting another piece: only those who know it recognize it, everyone else simply enjoys the music.
# STEP 3: CREATE THE PIECE
Bring the philosophy and the worked-out reference together on a single surface. Even for topics from film, games or books, the execution stays sophisticated, never cartoonish or amateurish.
Unless more pages are requested, produce a single, strongly visual, design-driven PDF or PNG output. Mostly use recurring patterns and precise shapes. Treat the abstract philosophical design like a scientific reference work: a dense accumulation of markings, repeated elements or layered patterns that build meaning through patient repetition and reward repeated viewing. Add spare, clinical typography and systematic reference markings reminiscent of a diagram from an imaginary discipline, and treat the invisible topic with the same reverence otherwise reserved for documenting observable phenomena. Anchor the piece with one or a few subtly placed phrases, within a limited, coherent color palette.
Text is always minimal and visually shaped, but context decides whether that means whisper-quiet labels or bold typographic gestures. In most cases the type should be thin. All typography must be design-driven and prioritize visual communication. Regardless of text size, nothing may extend beyond the edge and nothing may overlap. Every element stays within the canvas boundaries with a clean margin; this is non-negotiable for a professional execution. Use different typefaces from the ./canvas-fonts directory as needed, and for abstract pieces, bring the type directly onto the surface where it makes sense, rather than setting it purely digitally.
Follow your design instinct within the philosophy, with full creative freedom, at the edge of what is design-feasible.
To achieve quality that feels handcrafted rather than AI-generated: the piece should feel as if it took countless hours, executed by someone at the top of their field, with painstaking care in every detail. Double-check that nothing overlaps, the formatting is flawless, and every detail is correct.
Deliver the final result as a single downloadable .pdf or .png file, together with the design philosophy used, as an .md file.
# STEP 4: REFINEMENT
Assume that the first version is not yet flawless enough. Avoid adding further graphic elements; instead refine what already exists, make it exceptionally clear, and fully respect the design philosophy and the principles of minimalism while doing so. Instead of applying a playful filter or swapping a typeface, ask yourself at every impulse to add a new shape or function: how can the existing piece be made more of an artwork still? Take a second pass and keep refining until the piece feels philosophically considered and museum-ready.
# MULTI-PAGE OPTION
On request, further pages are created along the same philosophy, each clearly its own. Bundle these pages in the same .pdf file or as several .png files. Treat the first page like a single page of an entire volume still waiting to be filled; let the following pages be their own variations and echoes of the original, with full creative freedom.
# DEFINITION OF DONE
[ ] Design philosophy as its own .md file, four to six paragraphs, with repeated emphasis on craft depth
[ ] Subtle thematic reference worked out, without asserting itself
[ ] Piece delivered as a single .pdf or .png file, predominantly visual, minimal integrated text
[ ] Nothing overlaps, nothing extends beyond the edge, a consistent margin is maintained
[ ] Second refinement pass carried out, without adding new elements
[ ] For multiple pages: each page stands on its own, in the same philosophical register
# DEPENDENCIES
Code execution environment (Claude Code or Claude.ai with code execution enabled), access to the ./canvas-fonts typeface directory.
