recipe-manager/docs/visual-audit/assets.md

Visual Asset Pack — T03 + Photo-First Correction

Date: 2026-03-27
Owner: agent-assets

Status summary

T03 successfully produced a legal-safe original SVG asset pack. However, art direction has now shifted to photo-first to improve perceived quality and appetite appeal.

This file records what remains useful from T03 and what is now deprecated as primary art.

Keep vs deprecate

Keep (active)

• Category utility icons: /assets/category/icon-*.svg
• Placeholder fallbacks: /assets/food/placeholder-recipe*.svg
• Empty-state illustrations (temporary): /assets/empty-state/*.svg

Deprecate as primary storytelling assets

• Hero illustrations: /assets/hero/*.svg
• Curated illustrated dishes: /assets/food/curated/*.svg
• Category illustration set: /assets/category/illustrations/*.svg

Deprecated means: not preferred for homepage hero, recipe cards, or detail hero going forward.

New source of truth (photo-first)

• Strategy doc: docs/visual-audit/photo-first-assets.md
• Asset pipeline: frontend/public/assets/photos/README.md
• Slot manifest: frontend/public/assets/photos/manifest.json

Licensing note

• Legacy T03 SVG assets remain repo-owned and safe.
• New primary visuals should be real photos from approved free/licensable sources, tracked per-asset in the photo manifest.

Icon direction

Adopt lucide-react for modern, restrained UI iconography and retire emoji/mixed icon styling over time.