Nothing Touches the Edge

Nothing Touches the Edge

Produce ONE image, 3:4 portrait: a vintage botanical-plate poster. 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 specimen: {the plant, and how it enters the frame} e.g. an oolong tea branch, entering from the lower left and climbing to the upper right
• The parts to show: {stem, leaves, buds, flower} e.g. a woody stem, leaves showing their attachment, two closed buds, one open flower
• The title, and the script word over it: {a title, and a word} e.g. SLOW HILLS, with Spring laid across it in pink script
• The three lines along the top: {three short phrases} e.g. NATURAL · FRESH · TEA — set inside the margin, not on it
• The footer band: {a colour, and what it carries} e.g. a pale pink band across the foot carrying one English line and a date
• The stock: {a paper colour} e.g. sage grey-green, matt, with fine paper grain

The margin law

Every element sits inside a margin. Nothing is clipped by the frame.

This layout puts small type along the very top of the sheet and a band along the very bottom, and that is exactly where it fails: a reference run of this style cropped its own top line into half-letters and cut the first word of its footer clean off. The poster was otherwise beautiful, and it had lost text at both ends without anything looking obviously wrong.

Hold a clear margin on all four sides — roughly a twentieth of the sheet — and place all type inside it: the top lines, the title, the script, the footer. The specimen may run to the edge; words never do.

Check every edge before finishing. A clipped letter is not a crop, it is a missing word.

The specimen

Drawn as a botanical plate, not as decoration. That means it shows how the plant is put together:

• a stem with its real character — woody, ribbed, hairy
• leaves attached visibly to the stem, with their veins drawn
• at least one bud and one open flower, so both states appear
• fine hatching for form, in the manner of an engraving

It enters from one lower corner and climbs diagonally, occupying roughly the upper two thirds, leaving the lower third for type. Grey-black line, with low-saturation colour laid gently inside the outlines — never a flat fill.

Faint white line-drawn leaves may sit in the upper corners as ghosts behind everything, at low contrast.

The type

Two registers, crossing:

• The title in a very heavy modern sans, pale, wide, sitting across the lower third.
• The script word oversized, in a soft accent colour, laid across the title so the two overlap and interleave — one passing in front, the other behind.
• Where they cross, both must stay readable: the overlap falls between letters or across their lower thirds, never over a whole word.

Three small phrases along the top in a spaced serif, inside the margin. A small caption block may sit beside the specimen naming it.

The footer

A band of pale accent colour across the foot, about a tenth of the sheet's height, sitting inside the margin with its own type inside that. One short line at the left, a date or number at the right. A small drawn sprig may cross from the artwork into the band.

Stock and colour

A low-saturation aged ground — sage, grey-green, oat, pale clay — with fine paper grain and a matt printed feel. Low saturation throughout: dusty pink, cream, pale yellow, soft blue.

Grain and softness, not damage: no heavy staining, no torn corners, no coffee rings, no burnt edges.

Never

• ✕ any word clipped by the frame, at any edge
• ✕ type placed outside the margin
• ✕ a specimen drawn as decoration rather than as a plate
• ✕ flat colour fills instead of line with colour inside
• ✕ heavy distressing, tears, stains or burn marks
• ✕ a title and script that obscure each other where they cross

The result

A sheet that looks pulled from a herbarium and set by a designer: one plant drawn well enough to identify, two kinds of lettering crossing without a casualty, and every word of it still on the paper.