ICN Prompt Library

1. How to use this file

This file is tactical and fast-changing.

It exists to help generate visual references for:

website hero assets
docs illustrations
product concept images
summit/demo materials
onboarding graphics
institutional explainer visuals

These prompts must follow the rules in ICN_VISUAL_SYSTEM.md, especially:

truthfulness over aspiration
accessibility-minded composition
no default fintech/crypto framing
no generic startup/SaaS sludge
no meaningless network-globe abstraction

Each prompt should be tagged as one of:

concept art
product concept
diagram / explainer
website visual
docs visual
demo visual

2. Prompt template

Use this structure when creating or revising prompts:

Surface: website / docs / product / demo / onboarding
Type: concept art / product concept / explainer
Audience: member / organizer / developer / partner / general public
Goal: what the image must explain
Must show: required visual concepts
Must avoid: banned motifs
Truthfulness note: what the image must not overclaim

3. Anchor asset 01 — Homepage hero

Surface: website
Type: concept art
Audience: general public, prospective partners, contributors
Goal: make ICN feel like real democratic infrastructure rather than abstract software

Prompt
Create a cinematic but grounded visual of democratic coordination infrastructure connecting cooperatives, communities, and federations across a real region. Show ordinary people participating through humane technology and real institutional settings. Emphasize federated self-governance, visible coordination, and post-corporate civic modernity. The image should feel serious, accessible, and socially grounded, not utopian fluff and not dystopian sludge. Avoid crypto aesthetics, fintech cues, generic startup branding, abstract network globes, fake 3D coins, and empty "connected future" imagery.

Must show

people
institutions
coordination
non-centralized structure
real environments

Must avoid

token imagery
exchange/wallet vibes
generic glowing nodes in a void
corporate office stock-photo energy

Truthfulness note
Do not imply fully shipped product surfaces or turnkey institutional deployment.

4. Anchor asset 02 — Member participation surface

Surface: product / docs / website
Type: product concept
Audience: members, organizers, contributors
Goal: show what member-centered participation feels like without freezing one temporary layout as doctrine

Prompt
Create a mobile-first civic product concept showing a member-centered participation interface for democratic coordination across multiple institutional contexts. Show a persistent person acting across different scopes, with clear action cards, visible status, readable hierarchy, and proof/verification affordances. The interface should feel humane, serious, accessible, and modern without resembling a banking app, crypto wallet, or enterprise dashboard. Emphasize legible actionability, scope context, and trustworthy state presentation.

Must show

member-centered continuity
multiple scopes
action-oriented participation
visible status
verification affordances

Must avoid

fintech defaults
wallet/balance metaphors as the main frame
overcompressed mobile layouts
inaccessible tiny text

Truthfulness note
Treat this as directional product concept art unless the exact flow is already implemented.

5. Anchor asset 03 — Provenance / verification chain

Surface: docs / website / demo
Type: explainer visual
Audience: members, organizers, developers, partners
Goal: make authorization and proof understandable

Prompt
Create a clear visual explainer showing how a democratic decision produces downstream effects through a visible chain of authorization and verification. Show a proposal, decision proof, authorization record, completion record, and resulting state change in a way that ordinary people can understand at a glance. The visual should communicate transparency, traceability, and democratic legitimacy. Use structured, readable composition with progressive disclosure cues. Avoid blockchain hype aesthetics, fake hashes floating everywhere, or opaque technical mystique.

Must show

upstream decision
downstream consequence
visible chain
comprehensible verification
calm trustworthy structure

Must avoid

techno-mysticism
meaningless cryptographic theater
"magic auditability" vibes

Truthfulness note
Only depict proof relationships that reflect real or explicitly planned ICN provenance logic.

6. Anchor asset 04 — Scope switching

Surface: docs / product / onboarding
Type: product concept
Audience: members and contributors
Goal: show co-equal scopes and continuity of identity

Prompt
Create a product concept showing the same member participating across multiple institutional contexts such as a cooperative, a community, and a federation. Show that the person remains continuous while the role, permissions, and context change by scope. Emphasize co-equal participation contexts rather than hierarchy. The design should feel clear, grounded, and institutionally real, not like a role picker in enterprise admin software.

Must show

same person
multiple institutions
continuity of identity
role/context change
equal dignity across scopes

Must avoid

ladder metaphors
admin-console visual language
gamified switching

Truthfulness note
Do not imply fully solved multi-surface implementations if the image is conceptual.

7. Anchor asset 05 — Institution formation

Surface: website / docs / demo
Type: concept art / explainer
Audience: organizers, cooperative partners, contributors
Goal: show institution creation without overclaiming "one-click" simplicity

Prompt
Create a grounded visual concept showing a new cooperative or community institution being established with reusable democratic infrastructure. Show chartering, membership formation, governance setup, and participation tools as connected steps. The image should feel practical, serious, and socially rooted rather than magical or overly automated. Avoid implying that institution creation is fully turnkey if it is not yet implemented.

Must show

charter
people
institution formation
governance setup
practical process

Must avoid

"instant app creation" fantasy
startup onboarding cliches
fake no-code miracle branding

Truthfulness note
Depict this as institutional direction unless the exact packaging exists.

8. Anchor asset 06 — Commons layer

Surface: docs / strategy / website
Type: concept art / explainer
Audience: contributors, partners, technically literate public
Goal: show governed shared infrastructure without monopoly-platform framing

Prompt
Create a visual concept of communities and institutions sharing compute, storage, and infrastructure through governed commons rather than platform monopolies. Show collective stewardship, transparent allocation, and institutional control in a grounded, comprehensible way. The image should communicate shared capability without collapsing into cloud-platform or crypto-mining aesthetics.

Must show

shared infrastructure
governance
resource stewardship
collective control
transparency

Must avoid

data-center worship
cloud-company branding cues
crypto-mining imagery
sci-fi server mysticism

Truthfulness note
Do not imply implementation completeness beyond current subsystem reality.

9. Reusable negative prompt language

Use as needed:

no crypto
no fake 3D coins
no exchange or wallet interface
no corporate SaaS dashboard
no abstract network globe
no stock-photo startup office
no cyberpunk neon overload
no luxury fintech branding
no inaccessible tiny text
no meaningless holograms
no magical AI-control-room aesthetic
no bureaucratic dead portal styling

10. Asset acceptance checklist

Before keeping a generated image, ask:

Does it make ICN more understandable?
Does it avoid misclassifying ICN as fintech, crypto, or SaaS?
Does it show institutions and people rather than generic nodes?
Does it feel accessible and mobile-aware where relevant?
Does it remain truthful about current implementation?
Does it support a real surface: website, docs, product, onboarding, or demo?

If not, discard it and iterate.