Visual direction: 2026-08-08-iluminar-ora-1000-led-bar

• Template: Real Product Sale (3-slide carousel)
• Canvas: 1080x1350px (4:5), each slide
• Source: real manufacturer product renders — no generation, no AI imagery. Canonical files (per brief, use the request-folder copies, not the product-images/ duplicates with spaces in the filename):
• Slide 1: content-calendar/requests/2026-08-05-0953-iluminar-lighting/images/ora-led-bar4-1000-1.png
• Slide 2: content-calendar/requests/2026-08-05-0953-iluminar-lighting/images/ora-led-bar4-1000-2.png
• Slide 3: content-calendar/requests/2026-08-05-0953-iluminar-lighting/images/ora-led-bar4-1000-3.png

The brand-guide tension, and how it's resolved here

All three assets are white-background manufacturer renders. The brand guide's Don'ts ban bare "white-studio product shots" and ask for equipment shown in operational context with human presence — none of that exists in these files, and the brief is explicit that no new photography or generated render is being made. This is the same constraint the 2026-08-06 Anden post hit, and it's resolved the same way here, across all three slides:

• Knock out the white background completely (flood-fill from the corners, same technique render-post-image.py's load_product() already uses for opaque white-bg product shots — these ORA files read as opaque, not alpha-PNGs, so the fallback path is the one that runs, not the direct-alpha path).
• Composite the isolated fixture onto SPD navy (#2D333A), with the same subtle navy → slate (#5A667C) gradient toward the bottom third that the Anden post used, so the product looks grounded rather than pasted.
• Do not add fake canopy, ducting, or facility elements behind the cutout. As with Anden, a painted-in "context" would look like a bad illusion, not an honest branded graphic. The navy field + a single thin orange accent line (spec-sheet motif, not a scene) is the ceiling of what's honest here without a real facility photo.
• Do not recolor or "clean up" the fixture's own branding. The ORA's red/white diagonal end-cap graphics and the red "ORA" wordmark on the center rail are the manufacturer's actual product colors — leave them exactly as rendered. This is a curated third-party brand; authenticity of the product itself matters more than color-matching it to SPD orange. This satisfies the template's "preserve its natural look" instruction even though the *background* around it is being replaced.
• Flag, don't pretend it's fully solved: this is still an isolated-product composite, not a real facility photo with human presence. Treat it as the same deliberate, template-sanctioned exception the Anden post used — not a model for how ORA should appear in the feed once real installed-facility photography exists.

Slide 1 — Hook (asset -1, angled underside/diode view)

• Background: Knock out white background of ora-led-bar4-1000-1.png; composite onto #2D333A navy field with the slate gradient toward the bottom third. The fixture is shot on a strong diagonal filling most of its native frame — scale to fit within ~800px width on the 1080px canvas, keep the diagonal composition intact (do not rotate it level), positioned lower-center so the headline has clear air above it.
• Logo placement: Brand Assets/logo/logo-white-spd.svg, top-centered, per Template 3 rule. Fixed clear-space zone above/around it — nothing else enters that band.
• Text on image:
• Hook headline (large, Inter Black/Bold, white, upper-middle of canvas, below logo clear-space): "NEW IN THE LINEUP"
• Sub-line (smaller, Inter Medium or Roboto Mono for the model code, white or #5A667C slate): "ILUMINAR ORA — IL-ORA-1000"
• Nothing else. This slide's only job is scroll-stop + "new inventory" signal, not features — no specs, no CTA here.
• Note: Do not use "NOW IN STOCK AT SPD" as the alternate headline the brief floats — ILUMINAR's own product page currently lists the ORA as Out of Stock, and the task's hard rule for this post is no "in stock" language on any slide until SPD's own inventory is confirmed. "NEW IN THE LINEUP" is the safe hook that satisfies the same "signal new inventory" goal without an availability claim.
• Type: Inter Black, ~72–80pt for headline; Inter Medium or Roboto Mono, ~26–28pt for the sub-line (Roboto Mono suits the model number specifically).
• Palette: #2D333A navy (background), #5A667C slate (gradient/sub-line), #FFFFFF white (headline, logo), no orange on this slide except optionally a hairline accent rule under the sub-line — keep it minimal, this is the quietest slide of the three.

Slide 2 — Product identity (asset -2, angled top view, "ORA" visible on center rail)

• Background: Same knockout-to-navy treatment as slide 1, same gradient. This render is a similar diagonal top-down composition with the red "ORA" wordmark legible on the center rail and the mounting hanger + quick-disconnect cable visible — keep the full diagonal frame, don't crop into the hanger or the cable, both are called out in the brief as things this slide should visually confirm.
• Logo placement: Brand Assets/logo/logo-white-spd.svg, top-centered, same clear-space rule as slide 1.
• Text on image: One short identity line only, per the brief's instruction not to front-load specs here:
• "ILUMINAR'S ORA — A 4-BAR COMMERCIAL LED FIXTURE, 1000W"
• No PPF, efficacy, coverage, or spectrum claims on this slide — those are saved for the caption, not the image, per the brief.
• Placement: Single line, centered, lower-third of the canvas (below the product, which occupies the upper-middle), so it reads like a caption card under the hero shot rather than competing with the diagonal composition.
• Type: Inter Semibold/Bold, ~40–44pt, single line if it fits at this canvas width — if not, break after "ORA —" onto a second line rather than shrinking type below ~36pt.
• Palette: #2D333A navy background, #FFFFFF white for the identity line. No orange needed on this slide — the red ORA branding already visible in the render is the only accent color in frame, and adding SPD orange text next to it would compete rather than complement.

Slide 3 — Availability + CTA (asset -3, straight-on front elevation)

• Background: Same knockout-to-navy treatment. This render is naturally portrait-oriented (tall, centered fixture, symmetrical front elevation) — it's the best-suited of the three for a clean centered composition on the 4:5 canvas. Center the fixture, generous navy margin on both sides, single thin #E85225 orange accent line beneath it (same spec-sheet motif used on the Anden post) to ground it and tie the carousel's visual language together without implying a facility photo.
• Logo placement: Brand Assets/logo/logo-white-spd.svg, top-centered — mandatory per Template 3's "SPD logo at the top" rule, and explicitly called out again for this slide in the brief as the carousel's mandatory close.
• Text on image (three required elements, per Template 3 — availability message, product name, contact CTA):
• Availability line (do NOT say "in stock" or "available now" — ILUMINAR's own site lists this model Out of Stock, and SPD's own inventory isn't yet confirmed): "AVAILABILITY & LEAD TIMES: ASK YOUR SPD REP"
• Product name (repeated, per template): "ILUMINAR ORA — IL-ORA-1000"
• Contact CTA (small, capsule or underline treatment, matches copy.md's CTA line without just repeating the caption verbatim on-image): "DM US"
• Type: Inter Bold for the availability line (~30–32pt — this is a message, not a headline, keep it smaller than slide 1's hook), Roboto Mono for the model number portion of the product-name line (~26pt), Inter Bold for the CTA in a thin orange-outlined capsule (~28pt), matching the Anden post's CTA-capsule treatment.
• Palette: #2D333A navy background, #5A667C slate gradient toward base, #E85225 orange for the accent line under the product and the CTA capsule outline, #FFFFFF white for the availability line, product name, and logo.
• What NOT to put on this slide: no PPFD/coverage footprint, no dimming range, no warranty terms, no MSRP — all unverified or explicitly excluded per the brief. PPF/efficacy/voltage/IP65/daisy-chain are verified but belong in the caption per copy.md, not crammed onto this closing slide; keep it to the three mandated elements only.

Can render-post-image.py be reused for this set?

Partially — as a compositing engine, not as a drop-in script. Its core pieces transfer directly: the load_product() white-background knockout/flood-fill logic (needed here since these ORA renders are opaque PNGs, same situation as the Anden JPG), the gradient_bg() navy-to-slate function, the logo clear-space/overlay logic, and the centered() text-drawing helper are all reusable as-is or with minor generalization.

What it can't do unmodified: it's hardcoded for exactly one layout — one product image, one fixed two-line product-name block, one spec line, one CTA capsule, all anchored to one specific vertical rhythm (NAME_1/NAME_2/SPEC/CTA constants, POST/PRODUCT/LOGO paths pointing at the Anden post). Each of this carousel's three slides has a structurally different text stack — slide 1 is a big hook headline + sub-line, slide 2 is a single identity line with no spec/CTA at all, slide 3 is a three-part availability/name/CTA stack — so the script needs to become a parameterized function (product path, output path, and a per-slide list of text blocks with their own type treatment) run three times, rather than being re-run as-is. The product renders' differing orientations (wide diagonal for slides 1–2, tall front-elevation for slide 3) should scale fine through the existing escala = min(width-bound, height-bound) logic without changes. Recommend extending the script into a small per-slide function rather than hand-laying-out each slide manually in an image editor, since the navy/gradient/logo/knockout logic is already correct and tested — it's the text-layout portion that needs to be made slide-aware.

Visual direction: 2026-08-06-anden-710-pint-dehumidifier

• Template: Product Promotion
• Canvas: 1080x1350px (4:5)
• Source: path to real asset — product-images/anden-710-pint-grow-optimized-dehumidifier-277-volt.jpg (primary; -2.jpg alternate angle available if the compositor prefers the reverse 3/4 view). Both are real Anden manufacturer renders on a white/transparent cutout background. Do not use an AI image generator to invent or re-render the product itself — this is a real, named unit going out under SPD's name, and a generated render risks getting louvers, panel labeling, or proportions wrong.

Flagged conflict: template vs. brand guide, and how this resolves it

The templates file defines Product Promotion as "a studio-style product render on a clean branded background." The brand guide's Don'ts explicitly ban "white studio product shots with no operational context," and its photography rule wants "real commercial facilities, equipment in operational context, human presence." Both are real, and they point in different directions here. What I did:

• Removed the literal white/transparent studio background and replaced it with a designed SPD-branded backdrop (navy field, slate and orange geometry — see palette below). This satisfies the *template's* definition of Product Promotion and moves the image away from a bare, context-free white cutout.
• This does not fully satisfy the brand guide's deeper photography rule. A branded color field behind a product cutout is still an isolated product shot — there is no real commercial facility, no canopy, no human presence in it. I'm not going to pretend a color swap solves that. Treat this post as a deliberate, template-sanctioned exception for a Product Promotion slot, not as a model for how Anden should normally appear in the feed.
• What SPD would need to fully comply: a real photo of this specific 710-Pint unit installed in an operating commercial facility — mounted or floor-standing in a canopy room, visible ducting/power tie-in, ideally with a team member present for scale and human presence, shot at eye level or slightly low angle to read as "real facility," not marketing set. If SPD can get that shot before 8/6, it should replace this direction outright and the post should probably shift toward the "Facility Builds & Outcomes" pillar rather than Product Promotion. Flagging this to the calendar owner rather than deciding unilaterally to swap templates.

Compositing brief (since this is asset-plus-background, not full generation)

• Isolate the product from anden-710-pint-grow-optimized-dehumidifier-277-volt.jpg (clean cutout, keep the coiled power cord and Anden badge visible — do not crop off the Anden logo on the unit, it's a curated brand and should read as authentic).
• Place the unit at roughly 60% frame height, angled 3/4 view as shot, sitting in the lower-middle two-thirds of the canvas — single focal point, nothing else in frame.
• Background: #2D333A navy as the dominant field (90%+ of the background), with a subtle darker-navy to slate (#5A667C) gradient falling toward the bottom third to ground the product and avoid a flat, dead-white-swap-for-navy feel.
• One thin geometric accent only, in #E85225 orange — e.g., a single horizontal line or bracket motif sitting behind/under the unit, echoing an "equipment spec sheet" feel (nods to operational/technical context without faking a facility photo). Do not add fake canopy, plants, or facility elements behind the cutout — that would be worse than plain navy, because it would look like a bad photo-illusion rather than an honest branded graphic.
• Keep the product's own drop shadow subtle and consistent with a single soft light source, top-left, so it doesn't look pasted.
• Generous whitespace above and beside the unit — no clutter, single focal point per template rule.

Logo file + placement

• Brand Assets/logo/logo-white-spd.svg — white SPD logo, correct for the navy background.
• Centered top, per the Instagram Post Templates rule for Product Promotion. Note: the brand guide's general Do's list says logo bottom-right on Reel covers and carousel slides — that rule doesn't apply here since this is a single static feed image, not a carousel or Reel cover, so top-centered stands. Flag for later: if this post is ever repackaged into a carousel (e.g., paired with a second slide showing the unit in a facility once that photo exists), move the logo to bottom-right on those slides to match the carousel rule.

Palette used

• #2D333A Navy — dominant background field
• #5A667C Slate — gradient/shadow toward base, secondary text color
• #E85225 Orange — single accent line/bracket motif behind product, and the CTA text treatment
• #FFFFFF White — logo, headline/product-name text
• #EEEEEE Light gray — not used here (would wash out against navy); reserved if a lighter alternate background is tested

Type

• Inter, Bold/Black for the product name line.
• Roboto Mono for the spec line (277V / capacity figure) — this is exactly the kind of spec detail Roboto Mono is reserved for per the brand guide.

Text on image

Keep this distinct from the caption (which carries the 120V-vs-277V narrative and the full-stack invoice message) — on-image text should be short, spec-forward, and scannable, not a repeat of the caption's sentences:

• Product name line: "ANDEN 710-PINT DEHUMIDIFIER"
• Spec line (Roboto Mono): "277V · GROW-OPTIMIZED"
• CTA (small, orange or white, bottom third): "DM TO SPEC"

No pricing, no availability line — that belongs to the Real Product Sale template, not this one.

Visual direction: 2026-08-11-iluminar-photoperiod-scheduling-mistakes

• Template: Industry News
• Canvas: 1080x1350px (4:5)
• Source: needs to be sourced/shot — no suitable existing image found in this project. Do not generate an AI render and do not substitute a white-studio product shot (both explicitly prohibited by the brief for this post).

Asset check performed (per brief instruction to look before flagging)

• product-images/ — contains only the ILUMINAR ORA-1000 LED bar renders (ora led bar4-1000-1/2/3.png) and the Anden 710-pint dehumidifier photos. All are white-background studio product shots. Disqualified twice over: (1) brief bars white-studio shots for this post, and (2) brief separately bars referencing the ORA-1000 or any specific fixture in this piece.
• content-calendar/requests/2026-08-05-0953-iluminar-lighting/images/ — same three ORA renders, duplicated. Same disqualification.
• content-calendar/posts/2026-08-08-iluminar-ora-1000-led-bar/slide-*.png and content-calendar/posts/2026-08-06-anden-710-pint-dehumidifier/image.png — these are finished, already-published composite posts (SPD logo + headline + CTA baked in over the studio renders above), not raw photography. Not reusable as a background layer, and topically tied to a different, product-specific post.
• post-examples/ — six real published posts (example-1 through example6). example5.jpg and example6.jpg show real commercial cannabis flowering-canopy photography with an environmental-control unit in frame, and example-3.jpg (HBX) shows the editorial technique this post should borrow (bold stacked white headline over a darkened/blurred real photo). However, all six belong to Hydrobuilder/Anden's own published feed — they are reference material for style only, not licensed SPD/ILUMINAR assets, and none depict the subject of this post (dark-period integrity, blackout curtains, timers/controllers, or light leaks). Not eligible for reuse.
• No other real facility, blackout-curtain, timer/controller, or dark-cycle photography exists anywhere else in the repo.

Conclusion: nothing on hand qualifies. A real photo must be sourced (licensed commercial-cultivation stock, or an actual SPD/ILUMINAR facility photo) before this post can be produced as specified. Recommended subject for the photo, in priority order:

• A real commercial flowering-room blackout curtain/door, closed, ideally with a visible seam or the kind of gap that causes a light leak — literal and on-message without needing text to explain it.
• A photoperiod timer/controller panel in a commercial facility (not a home-grow timer).
• A wide shot of a commercial flowering canopy under lights at the moment of the flip (transitional, moody lighting) — closest in spirit to post-examples/example5.jpg/example6.jpg but must be SPD/ILUMINAR-sourced or properly licensed, not lifted from those references.

If none of these can be sourced/shot before the publish date, flag the date back rather than shipping with a stand-in — do not default to a text-only navy background, since the Industry News template requires a supporting image/illustration as the focal point, and swapping to text-only would be a deviation from the template that hasn't been approved.

Design brief (to apply once a qualifying photo is sourced)

Layout modeled on post-examples/example-3.jpg (HBX post) and example4.jpg (Matrix post), which are the two examples in this feed's history that best match the "Industry News" editorial format (bold stacked headline + real photo + concise supporting copy):

• Background/photo treatment: The sourced photo (blackout curtain, timer panel, or flowering canopy at the flip) runs full-bleed as the base layer, then gets a Navy (#2D333A) tint/overlay at roughly 55-65% opacity so it reads as a moody, darkened backdrop rather than a bright product photo — this also protects legibility for the white headline text sitting on top of it. Keep the photo naturalistic (no illustration/AI style); it should look like a real, slightly underexposed facility shot, consistent with the "dark period" subject matter.
• Headline (top third): Large, bold, stacked, all-caps or sentence-case Inter Bold/Black, left-aligned with generous left margin, in White (#FFFFFF) with one short emphasis word or phrase picked out in Orange (#E85225) — same technique as "HPS. LED." in example4 and "Protective Gear" in example-3. Exact headline wording is copy, to be finalized by the caption/copy step; visual direction is: 2-4 short stacked lines, built around the cost-of-the-mistake framing from the brief's key message (e.g., the idea that darkness — not the timer setting — is what's production-critical, and that small errors compound into lost cycles/revenue). Keep it commercial/ROI-toned, no hedging, per brief voice notes.
• Supporting facts (middle/lower section): The three supporting facts from the brief laid out as a clean, scannable editorial list (not paragraphs) — short line-broken statements, White or Light Gray (#EEEEEE) body text in Inter Regular/Medium, each fact getting its own line group with tight leading and a small Orange (#E85225) rule, bullet, or numeral as the only accent graphic (no icons/illustration clutter):
• Flowering is triggered by uninterrupted darkness, not just a 12/12 timer setting — light leaks, inconsistent flips, and timer/power failures during the dark period can disrupt the signal.
• Different genetics have different critical night-length requirements, so one blanket schedule and blackout standard doesn't reliably work across a mixed commercial canopy.
• Scheduling and spectrum mistakes at the flip compound throughout the flowering cycle — poor blackout maintenance and ignoring spectrum changes are common, avoidable production risks.
• CTA line (bottom): One short "learn more" line only, per brief's single-CTA rule, styled small and restrained (Roboto Mono or Inter, Slate #5A667C or White), sitting clear of the logo lockup — no button/badge graphic needed for this template (that's a Product Promotion/Real Product Sale convention, not Industry News, per the examples).
• Whitespace/focal point: Keep the top ~15% and bottom ~10% clear of dense text so the layout doesn't feel cramped edge-to-edge; the headline is the primary focal point, the photo is atmospheric support (not itself the subject the eye lands on first) — this mirrors example-3 and example4 more than the product-forward examples (example-1, example5, example6).

Logo file + placement

• Brand Assets/logo/logo-white-spd.svg — white logo, top-centered, sized consistent with the other Industry News-style posts (see content-calendar/posts/2026-08-08-iluminar-ora-1000-led-bar/slide-1.png and 2026-08-06-anden-710-pint-dehumidifier/image.png for scale reference), since the background will be a darkened/navy-toned photo.

Palette used

• Navy #2D333A — overlay tint on the sourced photo, for legibility and mood.
• Orange #E85225 — accent only: one emphasis word in the headline, and the small rule/numeral accents on the facts list. Never a full background per brand guide.
• White #FFFFFF — headline text, logo.
• Light Gray #EEEEEE / Slate #5A667C — supporting facts body copy and CTA line, per hierarchy.

Text on image

• Headline: copy team to finalize exact wording; visual/tonal brief above (cost-of-mistake framing, "darkness is the trigger, not the timer").
• Three supporting facts as listed above (from brief, used verbatim/near-verbatim — not to be embellished beyond what's already vetted).
• One CTA line: "learn more" framing per brief (read the full article to identify and prevent the most common photoperiod scheduling mistakes) — final wording is a copy-step task, not this design brief's.
• No product name, no ILUMINAR logo lockup, and no specific fixture/spec called out on the image, per brief's instruction that ILUMINAR should only be referenced contextually (spectrum/lighting control as part of getting the flip right), not promoted as a product in this post.