Design Mastery

Learn from Saul Bass, Dieter Rams, and the masters -- through code

A comprehensive design knowledge plugin that brings timeless design wisdom to AI-assisted development. Learn from legendary designers, apply fundamental principles, and build professional brand identities.

What This Is

Design Mastery is a Claude Code plugin that transforms how you approach visual design. Instead of vague aesthetic requests, you'll have access to:

• Deep knowledge of design principles (Gestalt, hierarchy, color theory)
• Wisdom from masters (Saul Bass, Massimo Vignelli, Dieter Rams, Paula Scher)
• Historical context (Bauhaus, Swiss Style, Memphis, and beyond)
• Practical commands for brand building and design evaluation

Installation

Install from Claude Code

/plugin marketplace add HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code
/plugin install design-mastery@design-mastery

The same thing from a terminal:

claude plugin marketplace add HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code
claude plugin install design-mastery@design-mastery

Or from a clone of this repository, run ./setup.sh. It registers the checkout as a marketplace and installs the plugin through the Claude Code CLI (./setup.sh --list shows what it installs, --scope project installs for one project only, --uninstall removes it). Restart Claude Code after installing so it loads the plugin.

Manual Installation

Copy the agents, commands, and skills into a project's .claude/ folder for project-specific use:

git clone https://github.com/HermeticOrmus/design-mastery-claude-code
cp -r design-mastery-claude-code/agents design-mastery-claude-code/commands design-mastery-claude-code/skills your-project/.claude/

What's Included

Agents

Commands

Skills (Knowledge Bases)

Each knowledge skill ships reference files that Claude reads on demand: a profile for every master (Bass, Vignelli, Rams, Scher, Müller-Brockmann, Carson, Rand), a file for every movement in the design-movements lineage, and deep dives on Gestalt, hierarchy, composition, color, typography, logos, palettes, type pairing, and brand voice.

Usage Examples

Get Design Guidance

"Make this hero section more impactful"

→ Design Master applies Saul Bass's simplification principles,
  suggests specific Tailwind changes with reasoning

Build a Brand

/brand-identity

→ Walks you through Discovery → Strategy → Visual Identity →
  Guidelines, outputting actionable design tokens and documentation

Evaluate a Design

/design-audit [screenshot or description]

→ Scores across 8 dimensions (hierarchy, typography, color, etc.)
  with specific fixes rooted in design theory

Understand History

"Why does this feel 'retro'?"

→ Visual Historian traces the aesthetic to its historical roots,
  explains the cultural context, suggests intentional application

Design Philosophy

This plugin is built on the belief that:

1. Design is not decoration — it's communication
2. Principles trump trends — fundamentals outlast fads
3. History illuminates — understanding origins enables intentionality
4. Specificity beats vagueness — "shadow-lg" works better than "make it pop"

The Masters

Learn from designers whose work has shaped visual culture:

• Saul Bass — "Symbolize and summarize"
• Massimo Vignelli — "If you can design one thing, you can design everything"
• Dieter Rams — "Less, but better"
• Paula Scher — "It's through mistakes that you actually can grow"
• Josef Müller-Brockmann — "The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee"

Structure

design-mastery-claude-code/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   ├── marketplace.json        # the design-mastery marketplace
│   └── plugin.json             # the design-mastery plugin (repo root)
├── agents/
│   ├── design-master.md
│   ├── brand-architect.md
│   └── visual-historian.md
├── commands/
│   ├── brand-identity.md
│   ├── design-audit.md
│   ├── premium-landing.md
│   └── style-guide.md
├── skills/
│   ├── design-principles/
│   │   ├── SKILL.md
│   │   ├── assets/
│   │   └── references/
│   ├── design-masters/
│   │   ├── SKILL.md
│   │   └── references/
│   ├── design-movements/
│   │   ├── SKILL.md
│   │   └── references/
│   ├── brand-systems/
│   │   ├── SKILL.md
│   │   ├── assets/
│   │   └── references/
│   └── premium-saas-design/
│       └── SKILL.md
├── evals/                      # cases for `claude plugin eval`
├── setup.sh
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Evals

evals/ holds cases for claude plugin eval: a design audit of a flawed dashboard, a brand request that should start with positioning questions, a movement identification, and a Dieter Rams simplification. Run them from a clone with:

claude plugin eval . --no-publish

Each case runs the plugin and a no-plugin baseline, so the report shows what the plugin adds.

Feedback

Starred this? Tell us what worked and what is missing: open a feedback issue. Every piece of feedback gets an answer, and changes that come from it are credited in the release notes.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Especially:

• Additional designer deep-dives
• More design movement coverage
• Reference documents for principles
• Real-world case studies

License

MIT License - See LICENSE

Acknowledgments

• Built for Claude Code
• Inspired by the timeless work of design masters
• Part of the LibreUIUX ecosystem

Design is thinking made visual. — Saul Bass

Part of the Libre Open-Source Stack for Claude Code

This repository is part of a growing family of open-source toolkits for Claude Code.

Libre suite — comprehensive plugin bundles

• LibreUIUX-Claude-Code — UI/UX development (152 agents, 71 plugins, 76 commands, 74 skills)
• LibreArch-Claude-Code — Software architecture and system design
• LibreCopy-Claude-Code — Technical writing and documentation engineering
• LibreDevOps-Claude-Code — DevOps engineering and infrastructure automation
• LibreEmbed-Claude-Code — Embedded systems, firmware, and IoT development
• LibreFinTech-Claude-Code — Financial technology development
• LibreGEO-Claude-Code — AI-search optimization (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews)
• LibreGameDev-Claude-Code — Game development across Godot, Unity, Unreal
• LibreMLOps-Claude-Code — ML engineering and AI operations
• LibreMobileDev-Claude-Code — Mobile app development (Flutter, React Native, native iOS, native Android)
• LibreSecOps-Claude-Code — Security operations

Skills mini-repos — single CLAUDE.md drop-ins

• vibe-engineer-skills — Direct AI codegen well (hypothesis → scope → validate → reject working-but-wrong)
• markdown-discipline-skills — Strip AI-slop from markdown (no em dashes, no marketing fluff)
• shell-safety-skills — set -euo pipefail discipline + 15 failure-mode examples
• commit-standard-skills — Ormus Commit Standard v1.0 + commit-msg hook + commitlint
• unwoke-skills — Strip AI theater (ten sins to eliminate, symmetric engagement)
• python-conventions-skills — Modern Python 3.11+ (types, pathlib, async, ruff, mypy, uv)
• typescript-conventions-skills — TypeScript strict mode, discriminated unions, Result types
• hermetic-laws-skills — Seven Hermetic Principles applied to engineering
• riper-workflow-skills — Research / Innovate / Plan / Execute / Review systematic dev
• six-day-cycle-skills — Sustainable shipping cadence with mandatory rest
• token-optimization-skills — Claude Code token + context optimization
• osint-skills — OSINT research methodology (multi-wave investigative spiral)
• calcinate-skills — Stage 1 of the Magnum Opus (burn project bloat)
• claude-md-overhaul-skills — Audit CLAUDE.md and MEMORY.md against caps
• session-handoff-skills — Session handoff + pickup discipline
• naming-skills — Product naming methodology (mine the brand's vocabulary)
• magnum-opus-skills — Seven-stage alchemy applied to project transformation

Template source

• andrej-karpathy-skills — the canonical single-file CLAUDE.md pattern (fork of jiayuan_jy's original)

Star the family, not just one — that's how the suite stays coherent.