Sanity Check / Ray Data Co — Sticker Pack v1

Generated 2026-04-24 via xAI Grok image API (grok-imagine-image). Recipe: pop-art / Murakami-influenced illustration + thick white die-cut border + slight black drop shadow, modeled on /tmp/founder-sticker.jpg (the original Ray mascot sticker).

Intended use: bento-grid tile overlays on the next iteration of sc.raydata.co. Drop on top of warm-cream tiles; the white die-cut border sells the “peeled off a sheet” feel against any background.

2026-04-24 Ray-mascot reissue

Founder flagged 5 stickers for drifting into Reddit-alien / anthropomorphized territory (round head + expressive eyes + mouth) instead of the canonical astronaut helmet + sealed reflective visor + blue earmuff bumps + antenna silhouette. Reissued:

ray-mascot-base.png — canonical portrait, sealed helmet, visor gradient, halftone body
ray-newspaper.png — masthead now renders cleanly as “SANITY CHECK” (two words, no hyphenation drift)
ray-laptop.png — helmet + visor preserved, at desk with laptop
ray-thinking.png — helmet tilted, red hand raised alongside sealed visor (no chin, no face)
hybrid-ray-doodle.png — ink-contour Ray with terracotta antenna bead on lavender field

Canonical Ray feature lookup (authoritative): ~/.claude/skills/ray-data-co-design/brand-spec.txt — see the RAY MASCOT — CANONICAL FEATURES section. Visual reference: ~/rdco-video-studio/public/ray-character/ray-original.jpeg. Any future Ray rendering must follow that spec — no face, no eyes, no mouth; visor is the only front surface.

Recipe

Per-sticker prompt template (substitute [SUBJECT]):

A die-cut sticker illustration of [SUBJECT]. Style: bold pop-art with halftone
accents, Takashi Murakami-influenced, vibrant flat colors with subtle shading.
Wrapped in a thick white die-cut border (about 10 pixels wide) hugging the
silhouette. Slight black drop shadow behind the white border for a "physical
sticker peeled off a sheet" feel. Color palette: bold reds, yellows, pinks,
blues, white, black. Square aspect ratio. NO scene, NO background elements,
NO text unless explicitly part of the sticker.

Verdict on recipe fidelity: white die-cut border + drop shadow renders reliably on every generation (12/12). Pop-art + halftone treatment is strong on most, less consistent on the multi-color-gradient mascot variants (which lean candy-glossy rather than flat-Murakami). Text inside badges renders cleanly when the prompt commits to a single short word.

Catalog

Characters

Slug	Use case	Notes
`ray-mascot-base.png`	Hero / about / “Ray says” tile	Confirms recipe — round multi-color swirl head, antenna with red ball, abstract gradient body. Glossier than the reference; halftones largely absent. Standout.
`ray-newspaper.png`	”Latest issue” / “Reading list” tile	Newspaper masthead reads “SANITY CHECK” with one letter dropped (“SANTY CHECK”). Charming if you don’t zoom in; reissue if used at large size.
`ray-laptop.png`	”Behind the scenes” / “How it’s built” tile	Laptop screen is intentionally blank — open canvas for overlay text. Strong silhouette.
`ray-thinking.png`	”Editorial” / “Take a beat” / opinion tile	Rodin’s Thinker pose nailed — concentrated brow + chin-on-fist. Most editorially expressive of the four.

Animals (RDCO-themed)

Slug	Use case	Notes
`stingray.png`	Brand mark / footer / “About Sanity Check”	Rainbow gradient + halftone accent. Beautiful but more iridescent than Murakami-flat — closer to a vaporwave fish. Reissue candidate if you want the bolder treatment.
`owl-glasses.png`	”Wise take” / editorial column / archive tile	Pop-art treatment is on-point — bold flat color planes, halftone belly, prominent reading glasses. Standout.
`fox.png`	”Quick clever” / “Field notes” / shorts tile	Classic alert-fox pose, bold red with halftone shadow on flank. Standout.

Badges / labels

Slug	Use case	Notes
`badge-new.png`	”NEW!” overlay on hero tiles	Comic-book starburst, yellow + red + halftones. Text crisp. Standout.
`badge-vol-ii.png`	Issue volume markers / archive ribbons	Diagonal banner, terracotta + cream, serif “VOL II” perfectly legible. Most magazine-masthead-feeling badge. Standout.
`badge-draft.png`	Internal / pre-publish / “WIP” tiles	Distressed rubber-stamp aesthetic, faded ink red. The ONE non-pop-art sticker — intentional, reads as a paper artifact. Standout for its category.

Data-domain characters

Slug	Use case	Notes
`pipeline-character.png`	”Data engineering” / pipeline / DAG topic tiles	DAG of colored nodes with two smiling face nodes, arrows as connections. Halftones on every circle. Standout.
`microscope.png`	MAC / verification / testing / “We checked” tiles	Smiling microscope body + companion test tube. Strongest pop-art treatment of the entire pack — bold flat planes, strong halftone shadows, classic primary palette. Top standout.

Standout vs. miss summary

Top standouts (use these freely, no rework needed):

microscope.png — strongest Murakami-flat treatment in the set
badge-vol-ii.png, badge-new.png — text rendered cleanly, badge silhouettes hit
owl-glasses.png, fox.png — animals nailed the bold-flat pop-art recipe
ray-thinking.png — best editorial expressiveness of the mascot variants
pipeline-character.png — DAG-as-character concept worked

Slight misses (usable but reissue candidates if quality bar tightens):

stingray.png — too iridescent, missed the Murakami-flat treatment
ray-newspaper.png — “SANITY” rendered as “SANTY” (typo); text inside scene-style stickers is a known weak spot
ray-mascot-base.png — glossier than the reference; halftones absent on the head swirl

Recipe verdict: white die-cut border + drop shadow is bulletproof (12/12). Pop-art / halftone treatment is consistent on single-subject stickers and on objects, less so on multi-color-gradient organic shapes. For v2: tighten the prompt’s flat-color language (“NO glossy gradients, NO airbrush shading — flat color planes only, halftone dots for shading not blends”) for the mascot variants and the stingray.

Hybrid samples (Branch B — Doodle + Sticker, 2026-04-24)

Second batch after the founder confirmed the doodle aesthetic on the article hero (“this doodle is strong… pen style and pop of color is really nice”). Recipe defined in brand-spec.txt as Branch B (DOODLE+STICKER HYBRID): hand-drawn doodle illustration on a lavender field (#d6d3f0), dark charcoal strokes (~3-4px), ONE yellow-or-terracotta accent element, then wrapped in the universal sticker die-cut border + drop shadow.

Intent: pair the pop-art branch (bold characters/badges) with a quieter infographic/scene branch. Where pop-art is personality, hybrid is craft.

Slug	Use case	Notes
`hybrid-pen-notebook-scene.png`	”Sat down to write” / editorial / about / article hero fallback	One-line-ink feel, fountain pen + open notebook + terracotta-accent coffee. Extremely close to the founder’s native doodle hand. Top standout.
`hybrid-data-quality-pass.png`	”Test passing” / data quality / RDCO MAC tiles	Checkbox + squiggle-arrow chart inside a hand-drawn box. Yellow accent on the check reads as “pass.” Standout.
`hybrid-pipeline-with-alert.png`	RDCO data-engineering topic tiles / “pipeline broke” / alerting	3-stage pipeline with a terracotta alert dot on the middle box. Clean, readable, on-brand. Standout.
`hybrid-mac-framework.png`	MAC positioning anchor / Scope × Basis framework explainer	2×3 grid with checkmark (covered) + question mark (gap). Yellow on check. Reads as the literal MAC matrix — this is the single most useful hybrid in the set. Top standout.
`hybrid-test-tube-model.png`	Verification layer metaphor / “we checked”	Test tube with terracotta liquid connected by thin line to a small model box. Abstract but reads cleanly. Decent.
`hybrid-ray-doodle.png`	Comparison piece — doodle-stroke Ray vs. pop-art Ray mascot	Loose ink contour, unfilled body, terracotta antenna ball. Softer/cuter than the pop-art base; different personality register. Interesting as a paired variant.

Hybrid recipe fidelity

White die-cut border + drop shadow: 6/6 rendered correctly. Lavender field color: 6/6 correct. Dark stroke weight: 6/6 correct. Single-accent-element discipline: 6/6 respected (no accent bleed). No-text-inside rule: 6/6 respected.

The doodle aesthetic survives the sticker wrap cleanly. The white border doesn’t swallow the hand-drawn quality because the doodles live on the lavender field, which gives them their own inset stage. The border reads as stage frame, not competing line work.

Prompt template for Branch B (bake into skill)

A hand-drawn doodle illustration of [SUBJECT SCENE]. Light lavender
background field, hex color #d6d3f0. Dark charcoal/marker stroke lines,
thick weight about 3 to 4 pixels, casual hand-drawn quality, NOT
polished vector — the line work should look like real ink on paper,
slight wobbles, varied pressure. Subtle [yellow #f0d048 | terracotta
#a64f3a] accent ONLY on [ONE named element]; everything else is dark
stroke on lavender. Object/symbol-based composition, NO characters,
NO faces [OR, for character variants: doodle-stroke contour, NOT
pop-art Murakami treatment]. Then wrap the entire finished doodle in
a thick white die-cut sticker border (about 10 pixels wide) hugging
the rectangular outer silhouette of the lavender field, with a slight
black drop shadow behind the white border for a 'physical sticker
peeled off a sheet' feel. Transparent background outside the white
sticker border. Square aspect ratio. Hard NOs: NO 3D rendering, NO
photorealistic, NO gradient mesh, NO iridescent, NO glossy shading,
NO text or words inside the illustration, NO additional background
scenery beyond the lavender field.

2026-04-24 Securitron bitmap expressions

Third batch after the founder flagged the sealed-visor reissues as “too childish / baby astronaut.” Solution: keep the helmet sealed (no hand-drawn face), but render an expression as a bitmap/pixel readout on the visor — the visor IS a CRT screen, not a window. Modeled on the Fallout Securitron. Recipe codified in brand-spec.txt under RAY MASCOT — EXPRESSION MODE (Mode B: Expressive / Bitmap-Display).

Adds state-signaling capability (loading, success, surprise, error) without anthropomorphizing. Helmet + earmuff bumps + antenna + blob body all stay static across frames — only the bitmap pattern changes, which is animation-ready for Lottie / sprite-sheet workflows.

Slug	Expression	Use case	Notes
`ray-bitmap-smile.png`	`:)`	Neutral-happy / default expressive tile / “Ray approves”	Cream CRT visor, black pixel smile. Minor artifact — small ghost pixel mouth to the right of the main smile — but primary expression reads clean. Canonical helmet + body preserved.
`ray-bitmap-happy.png`	`^_^`	Success / celebration / “passed!” / completion states	Strongest of the set. Arched pixel eyes read unmistakably as cheerful squint. Pixel resolution is the most convincing. Top standout — strongest proof of concept.
`ray-bitmap-surprise.png`	`:O`	Alert / “new issue” / surprise / celebratory announcement	Two rectangular pixel blocks (read as brows/eyes) + clean pixel `O` ring for open mouth. Lost transparent background (solid white), recoverable downstream.

Verdict on the Securitron recipe

The bitmap-face-on-visor framing escapes the baby-astronaut read cleanly. The CRT screen inside a sealed helmet reads mechanical/persona — Ray as a polite robot readout — rather than anthropomorphized cute mascot. This is the pattern going forward for any state-signaling Ray surface; the neutral sealed-visor variant stays as the brand-mark default.

ray-bitmap-happy.png is the single strongest proof of concept — use it as the reference frame when extending the set (e.g., :| neutral, :( disappointed, >:| focused, CRT-green phosphor variants).

Validation scorecard

Check	smile	happy	surprise
Bitmap face INSIDE visor (not on helmet)	Y	Y	Y
Pixels are low-res/blocky, not smooth curves	Y	Y	Y
Canonical helmet + earmuffs + antenna + body	Y	Y	Y
NO hand-drawn face on helmet	Y	Y	Y

No retries triggered. 3/3 on first pass.

2026-04-24 Lava-lamp swirl-body samples (CANONICAL going forward)

Fourth batch after the founder pointed at ray-newspaper.png and said verbatim: “the color swirl with the newspaper. This is like ray. Clearly AI with his colorful knowledge swirling around. Lava lamp blob form. Moldable between images but still recognizable.”

This supersedes prior Ray-body framing. Prior batches correctly locked the helmet (sealed visor + earmuff bumps + antenna + rigid silhouette) but under-specified the body as a “fixed blob torso.” The canonical Ray’s body is actually a lava-lamp color swirl — fluid, molten, moldable between renders, with pop-art colors (red + yellow + pink + blue + black) flowing into each other. The helmet is the stable anchor; the body is the expressive, ever-shifting element that carries the “clearly AI with his knowledge swirling around” read.

Spec update: ~/.claude/skills/ray-data-co-design/brand-spec.txt feature #5 revised to LAVA-LAMP COLOR-SWIRL BODY.

Slug	Body shape	Visor state	Notes
`ray-swirl-tall.png`	Tall, drippy vertical swirl extending downward	Bitmap `:)` smile on cream CRT	Strong lava-lamp swirl with drippy bottom edges; silhouette retained arms/legs but the swirl IS the body surface. Happy-Ray default.
`ray-swirl-wide.png`	Wide, spreading horizontal puddle below helmet	Sealed reflective visor (neutral)	Most radical departure from “fixed torso” — helmet floats atop a molten puddle. Best proof the swirl body carries personality alone. Visor rendered sealed-matte rather than expected cream/gradient — acceptable, reads as polite robot.
`ray-swirl-action.png`	Asymmetric swirl with round pop-art hand(s) extruding	Bitmap `^_^` happy-eyes on cream CRT	Generated two hands instead of one — still reads as mid-motion. Demonstrates limb extrusion from the swirl.

Verdict on the lava-lamp swirl-body recipe

The recipe lands. All three samples show colors flowing and blending (not segmented), halftone texture threaded through the bands, and the helmet remaining rigid as the stable anchor. Ray stays recognizable across three very different body shapes — which is the whole point of “moldable between images but still recognizable.”

Strongest canonical reference frame: ray-swirl-wide.png. It’s the most radical demonstration of the moldable-body principle — the body bears no resemblance to the prior “torso” framing, yet Ray is instantly recognizable from the helmet + antenna alone, and the swirl reads as his knowledge pooling beneath him. Use this as the reference when extending the set into new contexts.

ray-swirl-tall.png is the strongest “default happy Ray” — Securitron bitmap mode + swirl body combined, walking humanoid silhouette retained.

No retries triggered. 3/3 on first pass.

Class tagging — label vs character (added 2026-04-24, v6 founder rule)

Founder feedback Apr 24 2026 on the v5-coral preview: “be intentional about which image is placed where. The new sticker looks good, but the volume 2 sticker doesn’t make much sense where it is at. There’s stickers that are good for flair, like ray doing something or the owl or fox. But the labels should be used with intention.”

Every sticker is tagged here. Both classes ride the same die-cut recipe; what differs is placement discipline:

label: stickers are SEMANTIC. They MUST sit on the thing they label. NEW only on the actual newest piece. VOL II only on a Vol II opener/anchor. DRAFT only on a draft: true post.
character: stickers are FLAIR. Place freely at any tile/hero/section corner BUT NEVER overlap text content — corners over the visual asset (doodle plate, hero image), not over the text column.

Manifest:

Slug	Class	Placement notes
`badge-new.png`	label	ONLY on the actual newest piece in the rendered feed (sort by pubDate desc, slot 0). Never as decoration. If nothing is “new”, omit.
`badge-vol-ii.png`	label	ONLY on a piece that opens or anchors Volume II. NEVER inside a section already filtered to Vol II only — that’s redundant noise.
`badge-draft.png`	label	ONLY in dev/preview, on tiles where `post.data.draft === true`.
`fox.png`	character	Playful, top-corner safe.
`owl-glasses.png`	character	”Editorial / archive / library” connotation. Top-corner safe. DO NOT place over body copy — the v5-coral bug had it covering “dbt environmentalism, the kitchen-as-analytics metaphor…” on the Vol I card; v6 moved to top-right where the corner clears all text.
`microscope.png`	character	”Verification / data quality” connotation. Soft topic-match (data/test pieces) but flair placement is the hard rule.
`pipeline-character.png`	character	”Data pipeline / infrastructure” connotation. Used on the newsletter card mid-page as flair.
`hybrid-pen-notebook-scene.png`	character	Editorial / writing scene. Used in the hero negative space.
`hybrid-pipeline-with-alert.png`	character	Pipeline scene with alert iconography.
`hybrid-data-quality-pass.png`	character	Test-passing scene.
`hybrid-mac-framework.png`	character	MAC framework diagram.
`hybrid-ray-doodle.png`	character	Ink-contour Ray on lavender field.
`ray-mascot-base.png`	character	Canonical sealed-helmet Ray, portrait.
`ray-laptop.png`	character	Ray at desk, behind-the-scenes flair.
`ray-newspaper.png`	character	Ray reading the news.
`ray-thinking.png`	character	Ray in Thinker pose, editorial flair.
`ray-bitmap-happy.png`	character	Bitmap-visor expression (Securitron mode).
`ray-bitmap-smile.png`	character	Bitmap-visor expression (Securitron mode).
`ray-bitmap-surprise.png`	character	Bitmap-visor expression (Securitron mode).
`ray-swirl-action.png`	character	Lava-lamp swirl-body Ray (canonical).
`ray-swirl-tall.png`	character	Lava-lamp swirl-body Ray (canonical).
`ray-swirl-wide.png`	character	Lava-lamp swirl-body Ray (canonical).
`stingray.png`	character	RDCO sea-creature mark, brand-y flair.

Source-PNG hygiene: every sticker file in this folder MUST be true RGBA-transparent PNG. The Apr 24 batch arrived as JPEGs renamed to .png (white/colored backgrounds visible) which broke the die-cut look. Fix: rembg p <input-dir> <output-dir> then verify file *.png | grep RGBA. The white die-cut border itself is painted at runtime via CSS stacked drop-shadow (8 directions, 0 blur, ~3px offset, white) so the same source PNG works at any size and the border traces the alpha shape automatically. See ~/rdco-sc/src/styles/global.css .sc-sticker rule.

Generation log

Batch 1 (pop-art): 12 / 12 successfully generated — 2026-04-24
Batch 2 (hybrid doodle): 6 / 6 successfully generated — 2026-04-24
Batch 3 (Securitron bitmap expressions): 3 / 3 successfully generated — 2026-04-24
Batch 4 (lava-lamp swirl body — CANONICAL): 3 / 3 successfully generated — 2026-04-24
Total xAI spend: (12 + 6 + 3 + 3) × $0.20 = $4.80
Source reference: /tmp/founder-sticker.jpg (pop-art), article hero doodle (hybrid), Fallout Securitron + ray-original.jpeg (bitmap), ray-newspaper.png + ray-original.jpeg (swirl-body)
Prompts archive: prompts.json (pop-art batch), hybrid-prompts.json (hybrid batch)