`docs/SUB-BRAND-PROPOSAL-SCENIC-VS-STUDIO.md`

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# wallco.ai — sub-brand proposal: Scenic + Studio

Drafted 2026-05-21 by the panel review (interior-designer + ui-ux-designer + debate-team-fast).
Status: **❌ KILLED 2026-05-28** (DTD verdict, 1–1 tiebreak on argument strength → A: kill).

> **Why it was killed:** Steve spent 2026-05-28 pruning the catalog hard
> (5,761 soft-deletes including the entire 2,032-design `designer-scenic`
> family that WAS to be the Scenic base). The DTD panel concluded that
> adding sub-brand machinery (nav, copy, positioning) on the same day as
> a catalog cut contradicts the cutting posture; the surviving mural
> families (cactus-pine-scenic, cactus-11ft-mural, tree-mural,
> monterey-mural — ~728 designs) stay as **standalone lines under core
> wallco branding**, not under a Scenic umbrella.
>
> **Revisit when:** purchase-pattern data shows the murals behaving as a
> distinct cohort vs the tile catalog; or Steve explicitly asks. Do not
> re-propose Scenic without that signal.

Original proposal preserved below for reference.

---

## The problem

The wallco.ai catalog now has **97 mural-class designs** in three internal categories:

| Category | Count | Aesthetic | Generated by |
|---|---|---|---|
| `cactus-11ft-mural` | 58 | Photoreal Sonoran landscape | SDXL alone |
| `tree-mural` | 32 | Photoreal scenic landscape | SDXL alone |
| `cactus-pine-scenic` | 7 (Pass-3 + redo) | Flat hand-painted-silk (luxury hand-painted scenic register) | SDXL → Gemini image-edit |

The original wallco.ai pitch was "AI-generated luxury wallcovering" with an implicit aesthetic anchor on **flat hand-painted scenic register** (panoramic-scenic / luxury hand-painted scenic). The Pass-3 batch nailed that aesthetic; the other 90 designs landed as **photoreal landscape murals** that LOOK luxurious but are functionally a different product class.

The interior-designer panel was clear: **photoreal at 11ft is a commodity** (Phillip Jeffries, Calico, Rebel Walls all do it better). **Flat hand-painted at sub-$1,500/panel is a moat** (nobody under luxury hand-painted scenic is shipping it).

Three reads of the situation, per the debate-team:
- Catalog diversity (different aesthetics for different rooms)
- Brand confusion (undermines the hand-painted pitch)
- Stealth strategy shift (photoreal is where the model is strongest)

Conclusion: **all three reads are simultaneously true.** The honest fix is to NAME the two product lines so customers and trade designers can tell them apart.

---

## The proposal

### wallco / **Scenic**

The photoreal hospitality mural line.

- **Subject:** Photoreal landscape — cactus, redwood, joshua tree, cypress, oak, eucalyptus, agave
- **Aesthetic:** Photoreal SDXL, atmospheric depth, sunset gradients allowed
- **Form factor:**
  - 7.5 ft × 11 ft single-panel (Sonoran single-subject hero) — *was `cactus-11ft-mural`*
  - 12 ft × 11 ft 4-panel full-room scenic — *was `tree-mural`*
- **Target install:** Boutique hospitality lobbies, hotel dining rooms, corridor accent walls, residential dining/family-room accents
- **Buyer:** Interior designer specifying a "view-through-a-window" trompe-l'oeil mural; hospitality procurement
- **Price tier:** $12-22/sq-ft installed list ($150-250/panel residential)
- **Competitive frame:** Phillip Jeffries Indigo, Calico Wallpaper "Wonderland," Rebel Walls — but at a fraction of the price
- **Count today:** 90 designs
- **Generator pipeline:** SDXL only

### wallco / **Studio**

The flat hand-painted scenic line. *The moat.*

- **Subject:** Flat silhouette scenic — cactus, Monterey pine, agave, ocotillo, mountains, sky
- **Aesthetic:** Single-layer hand-blocked silkscreen, 2-tone flat register, hard razor-sharp silhouette edges, no gradient, no atmospheric perspective
- **Form factor:**
  - 60 ft × 11 ft wraparound (20 panels × 36" × 132") — *was `cactus-pine-scenic`*
  - 12 ft × 11 ft 4-panel single-wall scenic *(future, when we render some)*
  - 11 ft single-panel accent *(future)*
- **Target install:** Luxury hospitality (Four Seasons, Auberge, Aman), high-end residential dining rooms, corporate boardrooms, design-forward retail
- **Buyer:** Senior interior designer; Designers Today reader; specifier on a $1M+ project
- **Price tier:** $40-80/sq-ft installed list ($800-1,200/panel)
- **Competitive frame:** panoramic-scenic & Cie, hand-painted-silk, a luxury hand-painted scenic house — at 60-70% of their price point
- **Count today:** 7 designs (the Pass-3 cactus-pine-scenic batch + the 6 colorway variants being rendered right now)
- **Generator pipeline:** SDXL → `gemini-2.5-flash-image-edit` 2-pass (the recipe in `feedback_wallco_gemini_edit_recovers_sdxl_aesthetic.md`)

---

## What needs to change

### 1. PG categories
Rename `category` column values:
- `cactus-11ft-mural` → `scenic-cactus-11ft`
- `tree-mural` → `scenic-tree-fullroom`
- `cactus-pine-scenic` → `studio-cactus-pine-scenic`

OR add a new `product_line` column to `spoon_all_designs` populated as `Scenic` | `Studio` | NULL. Less invasive — old category strings stay valid for any external references.

### 2. Catalog URL structure
- `/scenic` → photoreal hospitality landing page
- `/studio` → flat hand-painted hospitality landing page
- `/designs` → unified browse, both lines, with a sub-brand chip filter
- Per-design URL stays `/design/:id` (already canonical); add a `data-product-line` attribute the rendered HTML so the page chrome can theme accordingly

### 3. Page copy
Lead headline on `/scenic`: *"Photoreal hospitality murals — Phillip Jeffries quality, AI-scale catalog, sub-$250 per panel."*
Lead headline on `/studio`: *"Hand-painted-silk scenic wallcovering in the luxury hand-painted scenic register — at 60% of their price point."*

### 4. Trade gates
Studio products gate pricing behind "Contact for trade pricing" (the luxury hand-painted scenic convention). Scenic products show the public price.

### 5. Image-edit pipeline as default for Studio
Per the debate-team consensus on Q1 — `--two-pass` flag, mandatory for Studio batches, opt-out only with explicit reason. Cost ($0.04/design) is priced into the Studio tier.

---

## What does NOT need to change

- Existing customer-facing URLs (`/design/:id`) stay live
- Existing 97 designs stay published — no deletion
- The mural-stepper + room-setting preview stay as-is (already mode-aware)
- The SDXL Pass-1 + Pass-2 history rows stay in DB as unpublished — internal record of how we got here

---

## Open questions for Steve

1. Are the names right? Steve has veto on "Scenic" and "Studio" — alternatives include:
   - **wallco / Hospitality** + **wallco / Atelier**
   - **wallco / Vista** + **wallco / Plaster**
   - **wallco / Wide** + **wallco / Flat**
2. Trade-pricing gate on Studio — yes / no?
3. Should the existing 90 Scenic designs get a "Hospitality" sub-tag (Aman / Auberge / Four Seasons style packs), or is the single category enough?
4. Next-batch target: 12 more Studio designs at #39055 quality level? Or scale Scenic first?

---

## Memory entry summary

This proposal is paired with a memory entry at `~/.claude/projects/-Users-stevestudio2/memory/project_wallco_scenic_studio_subbrand.md` (creating now) that records the proposal as the canonical brand structure pending approval. Once Steve approves the names + the rename plan, that memory becomes the rule and the catalog UI follows.