Inner Before Outer
A concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.
Two runs of the same template. A library read outward from its files to its direction, beside a harbour read outward from the water to the season. Both keep each layer name on its own ring and both hold their four wedges from centre to rim, so either can be read around or outward.
Generated from this template with the fields shown above — FOUNDATION sits on the inner ring, PRACTICE on the middle, DIRECTION on the outer, each on its own band at the same clock position, so depth is legible at a glance. Read any wedge outward and it tells one story that needs the step before it: saved screens, then copied into work, then house style. The reference's baseline is why the label rule exists. It put its operational label on the inner ring, its strategic label at the top of the outer ring, and its foundation label at the bottom of the middle one — three names scattered across two rings, leaving a reader unable to say which ring was which layer. The rings were beautiful and the depth meant nothing.
Generated for this library
Input
Centre VIBARY
Rings FOUNDATION - what exists · PRACTICE - how it gets
used · DIRECTION - where it is going
Sectors PATTERNS · MOTION · PALETTES · PROMPTS
Cells one short phrase per sector per ring
Colours indigo, sage, clay, slate - all pale
Labels each on its own ring, at the top, running outward
Returned 1 diagram · 1:1 · white ground, pale sectors
rings three, each carrying exactly one layer name, the
names reading FOUNDATION then PRACTICE then
DIRECTION from the middle outward
depth each ring holding what the ring outside it needs -
the saved screens before the copying before the
house style
sectors four wedges holding their colour and their subject
from the centre to the rim
centre one white disc, the name in heavy caps
cells one short phrase each, keyword length, never a
sentenceYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The centre
- 2The three rings, inner to outer
- 3The four sectors
- 4What sits in each cell
- 5The sector colours
- 6The ring labels' placement
Inner Before Outer
Produce ONE image, 1:1 square: a concentric capability model. 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 centre: {the subject's name} e.g. VIBARY
- The three rings, inner to outer: {three, each a name and a phrase} e.g. FOUNDATION — what exists · PRACTICE — how it gets used · DIRECTION — where it is going
- The four sectors: {four} e.g. PATTERNS · MOTION · PALETTES · PROMPTS
- What sits in each cell: {one short phrase per sector per ring} e.g. PATTERNS: the saved screens / how they get copied / which ones become house style · MOTION: the curves / how they get reused / what the library moves like
- The sector colours: {four pale colours} e.g. indigo, sage, clay, slate — all pale
- The ring labels' placement: {where the layer names sit} e.g. each on its own ring, at the top, running outward
The depth law
Concentric rings claim something specific: what is inside is what the outside is built on. If the rings could be reordered without loss, the geometry is decoration and the diagram should have been a list.
- Each ring holds what the ring outside it depends on. The innermost is the thing that must exist first; the outermost is what becomes possible last.
- Read any wedge from the centre outward and it should tell one story, each step needing the one before it.
The label law
This is where these diagrams come apart, and it is easy to check.
Each layer name labels exactly one ring, and the names run inner to outer in order.
A reference run of this style put its innermost label on the inner ring, its outermost label at the top of the outer ring, and its *foundation* label at the bottom of the middle ring — so the reader could not tell which ring was which layer. The rings were beautiful and the depth meant nothing.
Set each ring's name on that ring, all at the same clock position, following its curve. Never two names on one ring, never a name between rings.
The sectors
Four wedges, and a wedge is the same wedge all the way out. Its colour, its subject and its position hold from the centre to the rim. A sector that changes topic between rings has broken the grid the diagram is made of.
Sector names run around the outside of the outer ring, following the curve, in heavy capitals with wide tracking.
The cells
Each sector-ring intersection carries one short phrase — keyword length, two lines at most. Never a sentence, never a paragraph. A small line icon may sit above the phrase, all icons in one weight.
The centre
A white disc, roughly a fifth of the diagram's width, carrying the subject's name in heavy capitals with slight letterspacing. Nothing else in it.
Colour and type
White ground. Each sector takes one pale colour, held across all three of its rings, going slightly deeper toward the rim. One sans family throughout, dark grey type. Thin white gaps separate the rings so the layers read as distinct bands.
No gradients beyond that slight deepening, no shadows, no 3D, no decorative rings, no dashed orbits.
Nothing invented
Rings, sectors and cell phrases all come from the fields. Do not generate a framework from the centre's name alone, and do not add a fourth ring, a fifth sector or an outer band of principles that nobody supplied.
Never
- ✕ a layer name on the wrong ring, or two on the same ring
- ✕ rings that could be reordered without breaking the meaning
- ✕ a sector that changes subject between rings
- ✕ sentences in the cells
- ✕ content the fields did not supply
- ✕ 3D, shadows, gradients, or decorative orbits
The result
A wheel that can be read two ways: around, for the four things it is made of, and outward, for the order in which they had to happen.
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 rings as a dependency chain — each one needing the ring inside it — rather than as three synonyms for importance.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the diagram.
- Check the ring labels before shipping: each should sit on its own ring, in order outward. A layer name floating on the wrong ring makes the whole depth unreadable.
What you swap
- The centre
- VIBARY
- The three rings, inner to outer
- FOUNDATION — what exists · PRACTICE — how it gets used · DIRECTION — where it is going
- The four sectors
- PATTERNS · MOTION · PALETTES · PROMPTS
- What sits in each cell
- PATTERNS: the saved screens / how they get copied / which ones become house style · MOTION: the curves / how they get reused / what the library moves like
- The sector colours
- indigo, sage, clay, slate — all pale
- The ring labels' placement
- each on its own ring, at the top, running outward
Before it runs
- Layers with a real dependency between them. If the outer ring could exist without the inner, the rings are stripes and the diagram should be a list.
- Sectors that survive all the way out. Each wedge must have something true to say at every depth, or it will be padded at one ring.
- A subject worth a centre. The middle of this diagram is the most emphatic spot on the page and a vague label wastes it.
When to reach for it
When something is built in layers: a capability model, a curriculum, a platform, a practice. Templates in this style draw beautiful rings and then scatter the layer names around the circle, so a reader cannot tell which ring is which layer or why anything sits where it does.
What changes
- One calm concentric diagram: a named centre, three rings, four sectors, soft sector colours.
- Each layer name labelling exactly one ring, running inner to outer in order, so depth is readable at a glance.
- Inner rings holding what the outer rings depend on, which is the only thing that makes concentric geometry mean anything.
- Four sectors that stay the same sector all the way out, so a wedge can be read from centre to rim as one story.
- Content taken strictly from the fields, since a model like this reads as somebody's actual framework.
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.
- Every Region OccupiedA 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.