Every Region Occupied
A three-circle overlap diagram where every region you draw has something real in it — held to three sets, because four creates overlaps nobody can fill. Six fields.
Two runs of the same template. A library's three tests beside a fishing day's three conditions. Both keep to three sets and both fill all seven regions, so neither draws a relationship it declines to explain. The first needed a second attempt for a rendering fault rather than a logical one: it came back on a black ground with dark type on it, against a template that asks for pale.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — three circles, seven regions, every one carrying something nameable: four items in each set, a real thing in each two-way lens, and the argument at the centre. The reference's baseline is why the count is fixed at three. It was given four sets, and four overlapping ellipses create fifteen regions; it labelled about six and left the rest drawn and empty, including pairs it never addressed, while labelling the same four-way region twice under two different names. An empty region is not neutral — it is a relationship the diagram has drawn and declined to explain, and a reader will assume it was meant.
Generated for this library
Input
Title DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
Claim A pattern only earns its place when all three are
true of it
Sets DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
Items four per set
Overlaps described+built: the template · built+used: the
shipped screen · described+used: the brief someone
worked around · centre: a pattern worth keeping
Palette pale mint ground; indigo, sage, clay
Returned 1 diagram · 3:4 · three translucent circles
regions all seven carrying content - three sets, three
lenses, one centre, nothing drawn and left blank
overlaps each holding something that belongs to both, named
before the lists were written
centre one phrase, the thing the whole diagram argues for
sets four items each, keyword length, evenly weighted
type set names on the circle edges, large; items small
and dark; the claim underlined by one drawn arcYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The title
- 2The one-line claim
- 3The three sets
- 4Four items in each set
- 5The three overlaps and the centre
- 6The palette
Every Region Occupied
Produce ONE image, 3:4 portrait: a three-circle overlap diagram. Follow every line. Replace only the FIELDS block; everything after it is fixed.
First — do you have the fields?
If any field below still has braces around it, stop and ask. Put all the questions in one short message, and show the example under each one so they can see the shape of a useful answer. Wait for the replies, then draw. Never fill a brace yourself: a value you invented is a value nobody asked for, and it will look exactly as considered as the ones they did give you.
Ask in whatever language they are writing to you in. Translate the questions and the examples; do not make someone read English to tell you what they want.
The examples are only examples. If someone answers a question, use their answer; never fall back to the example because you prefer it.
If the fields are already filled in, ignore this and carry on.
Fields — replace these six lines only
- The title: {the three sets, or a short phrase} e.g. DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
- The one-line claim: {what the diagram argues} e.g. A pattern only earns its place when all three are true of it
- The three sets: {three} e.g. DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
- Four items in each set: {four each} e.g. DESCRIBED: a brief, a sketch, a prompt, a reference · BUILT: a component, a page, a prototype, a fork · USED: shipped, copied, taught, complained about
- The three overlaps and the centre: {four phrases} e.g. described+built: the template · built+used: the shipped screen · described+used: the brief someone worked around · centre: a pattern worth keeping
- The palette: {a ground, and three colours} e.g. pale mint ground; indigo, sage, clay
The occupancy law
Three circles make seven regions, and every one of them must carry something. Three set-only areas, three two-way lenses, one centre. Nothing is drawn and left blank.
An empty region is not neutral. It is a relationship the diagram has drawn and declined to explain, and a reader will assume you meant it.
Three sets, not four
This is why the count is fixed.
A reference run of this style was given four sets. Four overlapping ellipses create fifteen regions; it labelled about six and left the rest drawn and empty, including pairs it never addressed. It also labelled the same four-way region twice, under two different names.
Four sets cannot be honestly filled. Use three. If the subject seems to need four, one of them is either a property of the others or belongs in the centre.
The overlaps
Each two-way lens carries something that genuinely belongs to both — a real thing, nameable before the item lists were written, not a phrase composed to fill the shape.
The centre is the diagram's argument: the thing that is true only where all three meet. It gets the strongest phrase on the page.
The circles
- Three, equal in size, arranged in a triangle with generous overlaps — every lens large enough to hold two lines of text.
- Translucent fills so the overlaps deepen naturally into a third colour where two cross, and deeper still at the centre.
- A firm outline on each in its own colour.
- Set names on the circle edges, large, bold, angled to follow the curve, each in its own colour.
The content
- Four items per set, keyword length, in a small dark sans, bulleted, sitting in the set-only area.
- One phrase per overlap, set slightly bolder than the items.
- One phrase at the centre, bolder again.
- No paragraphs anywhere. If a phrase needs a sentence, it is the wrong phrase.
The page
- The title across the top in heavy dark sans.
- The claim beneath it in one line, with a single hand-drawn arc underlining it in one accent.
- A pale cool ground — mint, grey-blue, grey-white.
- Nothing below the circles: no banner, no author line, no key principles strip, no legend.
Nothing invented
Sets, items, overlaps and centre all come from the fields. Do not generate the content from the title, do not add a fourth set, and do not fill a region by making something up — if a region cannot be filled from what you were given, the fields need changing, not the diagram.
Never
- ✕ four or more sets
- ✕ any drawn region left empty
- ✕ two labels on the same region
- ✕ overlaps invented to fill the shape
- ✕ paragraphs, banners, legends or a principles strip
- ✕ content the fields did not supply
- ✕ 3D, shadows, glows, or heavy texture
The result
A diagram with nothing decorative in its geometry: three sets, seven regions, every one of them carrying a thing you could point at — and a centre that says what the whole arrangement was for.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Write the three overlaps and the centre before the item lists — if any of the four is hard to name, change a set rather than inventing a phrase.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the diagram.
- Count the regions before shipping: three circles make seven, and all seven should carry something. An empty lens is a relationship the diagram claims and does not explain.
What you swap
- The title
- DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
- The one-line claim
- A pattern only earns its place when all three are true of it
- The three sets
- DESCRIBED · BUILT · USED
- Four items in each set
- DESCRIBED: a brief, a sketch, a prompt, a reference · BUILT: a component, a page, a prototype, a fork · USED: shipped, copied, taught, complained about
- The three overlaps and the centre
- described+built: the template · built+used: the shipped screen · described+used: the brief someone worked around · centre: a pattern worth keeping
- The palette
- pale mint ground; indigo, sage, clay
Before it runs
- Exactly three sets. Four is the trap this template exists to avoid — it creates fifteen regions and you can honestly fill about six.
- Overlaps you can name before you start. If you cannot say what belongs to both of two sets, they may not be the right two sets.
- A centre worth reaching. The middle region is the diagram's whole argument, and a weak phrase there wastes the geometry.
When to reach for it
When something is the meeting of a few things: a role, a discipline, a product's sweet spot, a brief. Templates in this style ask for three to five overlapping sets, and at four the diagram starts drawing regions that assert relationships nobody claimed.
What changes
- One clean overlap diagram: three translucent circles, every region labelled and filled.
- Held to three sets, which is the largest number whose regions can all actually be occupied.
- Each pairwise overlap carrying something that genuinely belongs to both, not a phrase invented to fill a gap.
- The centre reserved for the thing the whole diagram exists to name.
- A short item list per set, so the picture stays a diagram rather than becoming a wall of keywords.
Pairs with
- Count Both SidesA value-proposition canvas — a square facing a circle, three regions each — where the two halves are written as pairs, so anything unmatched shows up instead of hiding in a list. Six fields.
- Each Layer Takes Something AwayAn exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.
- Inner Before OuterA concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.