# The brief versus what we built

**Source:** `docs/brief/` — two documents Chloe sent by WhatsApp on Sunday 2026-08-30
at 15:50 and 15:51. They were on Oleg's phone and were not opened until 2026-09-03,
after the work was built. Everything below follows from reading them.

---

## 1. EPlug — the brief settles it, in writing

The System document closes with a section titled **"One note on Eplug"**:

> "This template system is for the main Energy Plus brand (compliance, insulation,
> rebates, envelope). Eplug — the EV-charging sub-brand — already has its own separate
> competitive-analysis-driven plan and voice (Williamsburg build series, #EplugNYC).
> Keep the two visually distinct: Energy Plus leans on the compliance/rebate color
> system above; Eplug should keep its own accent color so followers can tell the two
> apart at a glance even though both live under the same parent brand."

The exclusion of EPlug is not an assumption the studio made. **It is an instruction in
her own brief**, with a reason and a named alternative plan. The question is closed.

---

## 2. What we built does not match the brief

This is the uncomfortable half. The brief is specific, competent and detailed — it even
contains finished post copy for all eight categories. We built to a different spec on
almost every axis, because nobody opened it.

| | Brief says | We built | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Canvas** | **1080 × 1080 square** primary, plus 1200 × 628 landscape for link posts | 1080 × 1350 portrait | **Fundamental** — every artboard is the wrong shape |
| **Deliverable** | **Editable Canva or Figma source file**, plus PNG/PDF of each variant | HTML pages in a repo | **Fundamental** — the client cannot open or edit what we made |
| **Taxonomy** | **8 named content categories** | 4 post types + 9 service chapters | **Fundamental** — neither of ours is the brief's |
| **Copy** | Ready-to-post copy already written for all 8 categories | We built a content bank from the brochure | High — the work was already done for us |
| **CTA** | One fixed CTA on every post: **"Let's Discuss Your Project"** | Per-post CTAs, e.g. "Book a roof insulation audit" | High |
| **Palette** | Green / charcoal / white + the neon green accent. **"No new colors outside this palette"** | Added `#F2FF00` yellow and nine chapter hues | High — though see the contradiction below |
| **Safe margin** | 60 px | 72 px | Trivial |
| **Type minimums** | Headline ≥36pt, body ≥24pt equivalent | 52–208 px display, 26 px body | Compatible |
| **Cadence** | 2–3× per week | 3–5× per week | Minor |

### The eight categories the brief names

1. Rebates & Incentives · 2. Clean Heat · 3. Building Envelope & Insulation ·
4. Local Law Compliance · 5. Benchmarking · 6. **The Vue** (tool spotlight) ·
7. Project Spotlight · 8. Milestones & Recognition

Two of these we never touched at all: **Benchmarking** and **The Vue**. The Vue is a
LL97 performance-tracking product at `bes-efficiency.com` — a whole product surface
absent from our design system and content bank.

### A real contradiction inside the brief itself

The two documents disagree on colour, and this is worth raising with her rather than
guessing:

- **Designer Brief:** "No new colors outside this palette. If a category needs visual
  distinction, use icon + label + tint of the existing green — not a new hue."
- **System document:** assigns each of the eight categories its own accent —
  Green, Orange, Blue, Red, Teal, Purple, Charcoal, Gold.

One says never introduce a hue; the other introduces eight. This is the single question
that most needs answering before any template is rebuilt.

---

## 3. What survives

Not everything is lost, and the parts that survive are the expensive ones.

- **The research holds.** Carousel dwell time, the 5.6× personal-profile reach gap,
  cadence, the sameness problem — none of that depends on canvas or taxonomy.
- **The brand audit and the design system hold.** Logo masters, the sampled palette,
  the DIN/Inter pair, the ten layout devices, the contrast arithmetic.
- **The content bank holds**, and is worth more than the brief's copy for Explainer-type
  posts, because it covers all nine services rather than eight categories.
- **The legal findings hold** — 179D, the FTC position on "up to", the Con Edison
  contractor-agreement limits, and the BERDO/BEPS/Title 24 jurisdiction problem.
- **The layout thinking holds.** The stepped panel, the notched photograph, the module
  system, the tone alternation — all of it re-cuts to a square.

What has to be redone: **the canvas, the category taxonomy, and the deliverable format.**