---
id: "3.11"
title: "Character usage, Scoop"
dept: design
status: draft
owner: Param
branded: true
direction: raccoon
last_verified: 2026-10-26
sources:
  - "brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js"
  - "brand-directions/raccoon/system.md"
  - "brand-directions/docs2/data/dirs.json"
  - "brand-directions/_shared/product-model.md:129-142, 207"
  - "brand-directions/_shared/kit-contract.md:19-27"
  - "brand-directions/_shared/ia.md:83-131"
  - "brand-directions/_shared/no-ai-look.md:7-18, 52-58"
  - "brand-directions/_kit/render.js:47-54"
  - "brand-directions/_kit/screens.js:83-536"
  - "brand-directions/BRIEF.md:241-276"
  - "brand-directions/_shared/surface-map.md:463, 473, 475"
  - "memory: brand-directions-2026-10-25, brew-sounds"
---

# Character usage, Scoop

## Answer

Scoop, a nosy raccoon who goes through everything said about your store and comes back with the gossip, is Brew's one character in this direction, and it lives only in seven fixed slots, narrating the week around the brand's work and never sitting on a control, a card or a brand photo.

## Today

Checked 26 October 2026.

| Fact | Source |
|---|---|
| The live product has no character. It shows five agent faces and colours, which go; only the area dots stay | [src: brand-directions/_shared/surface-map.md:463] |
| Logo stickers sit in the feed today and go from view | [src: brand-directions/_shared/surface-map.md:475] |
| The live app plays sound unless switched off, with 8 synthesized and 29 recorded cues | [src: brand-directions/_shared/surface-map.md:473] |
| Five directions are in audition; Param picks one and everything is redone around it | [src: memory brand-directions-2026-10-25] |
| Scoop's art: every pose derives from one master, raccoon/art/master.svg, with the face drawn once in raccoon/_src/master.py | [src: brand-directions/raccoon/system.md:86-99] |
| Owned colour tangerine #ff7a1a on the notepad, pencil and three tail stripes, with fur grey #8e8f99 and mask ink #17171c | [src: brand-directions/raccoon/system.md:86-99] |
| Anatomy that never changes. A bean body, two small round ears, one straight ink bandana mask knotted on the right with two short tails, big white eyes, thick ink brows, and an S curve tail with exactly three tangerine stripes and a grey tip. | [src: brand-directions/raccoon/system.md:86-99] |
| Signature. The sly smile: lids lowered, eyes glancing aside, one brow up, a smirk lifting on one side. | [src: brand-directions/docs2/data/dirs.json] |
| Illustration treatment, books and marketing only: a two ink tabloid print: ink #17171c and tangerine on paper, every grey a 45 degree halftone of ink dots, one traced line weight and a fine paper cut line around the figure | [src: brand-directions/raccoon/system.md:91] |
| The kit gives Scoop these poses: corner raccoon/char-icon.svg, idle raccoon/char.svg, wait raccoon/char-read.svg, celebrate raccoon/char-heart.svg, error raccoon/char-oops.svg, empty raccoon/char-yes.svg, caught raccoon/char-sleepy.svg, reveal raccoon/char-gasp.svg, handoff raccoon/char-handoff.svg | [src: brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js:21-31] |
| Below 120 px the kit swaps any pose for the small mark, raccoon/char-icon.svg, the master head with the sly face, band and knot on a tangerine disc | [src: brand-directions/_kit/render.js:52-54] |
| No raw generated image may appear; every character image is a flat traced SVG in the direction's palette | [src: brand-directions/_shared/no-ai-look.md:52-58] |

## Tomorrow

Scoop arrives in v1 as an add on layer behind its own off switch. Remove it and every control still works. [src: brand-directions/_shared/product-model.md:131, 152] v1, New.

### The slots

| Slot | Model size | Kit size | Pose | File drawn | Screens | Words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Today header corner | 40 to 56 px | 44 px phone, 56 px laptop | corner | raccoon/char-icon.svg | t1, d1 | "Morning. Fresh week, fresh pages. Here is what people said." on Monday, "Back for more? Your picks are where you left them." other days |
| Sign in corner | small corner | 48 px | corner | raccoon/char-icon.svg | f2 | "Your work email tells me which store is yours." |
| Reading your store | 120 to 180 px | 140 px | wait | raccoon/char-read.svg | f4 | "Reading your public pages. About 3 to 4 minutes." |
| The reveal | 160 px | 160 px | celebrate | raccoon/char-heart.svg | f7 | "Gasp. Here is one thing I overheard." |
| Empty states | 96 px | 96 px | empty | raccoon/char-icon.svg | w2, f6 | "Empty desk. Suspicious. Open a pick and make something." |
| Celebrations | 120 px | 120 px | celebrate or caught | raccoon/char-heart.svg; caught up raccoon/char-sleepy.svg | h2, t5 | "All dished out." |
| A heart | celebration, small | 40 px in the toast | celebrate | raccoon/char-icon.svg | t6 | "Keep digging, noted. More like it are coming." |
| Errors and cap reached | 96 px | 96 px; 56 px inside Make it | error | raccoon/char-icon.svg | f3, f5, m5, x1 | "Tripped over my tail. Try that again." |
| Long waits | wait pose | 64 px making, 96 px offline | wait | raccoon/char-icon.svg | m2, x2 | "Scribbling. You can leave, it will be here." |
| Your store header | idle | 56 px | idle | raccoon/char-icon.svg | y1 | "Everything everyone says about your store, in one place." |
| Brief page sign off | 32 px | 32 px | corner | raccoon/char-icon.svg | h3 | "Read by Scoop. Shipped by you." |
| Monday email sign off | small | 28 px | corner | raccoon/char-icon.svg | e1 | "Morning. I went through what people said this week." |

Scoop appears in 18 of the 45 screens. [src: brand-directions/_shared/ia.md:131] [src: brand-directions/_kit/screens.js:83-536] [src: brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js:42-88]

### Never

- On buttons, inside the thing being made, on tables of numbers, in Need your yes decisions, over a brand's own photos. [src: brand-directions/_shared/product-model.md:142]
- On a card. Cards belong to the brand; Scoop speaks around them. [src: brand-directions/_shared/product-model.md:207]
- As a second character. Scoop never names a rival and says what the read looks at: public pages, and read only connections if any.
- In money, privacy, apologies or anything a person must sign.

### How Scoop behaves

- Errors are Scoop tripping over its own tail. It never mocks a customer or a reviewer.
- One motion at a time in the product, at real moments only, all inside the reduced motion check.
- Voice: Talk to you about your store. Scoop talks about itself for four words at most. One idea per line, two sentences at most. Shorter as the relationship grows. Say what the read looks at whenever reading happens: public pages, and read only connections if any.

| Pose | Motion in the product |
|---|---|
| idle | still in the kit; the rig inside char.svg sways 3.4 s and blinks every 5.2 s |
| wait | sway, 1.1 s loop |
| celebrate | hop, 0.7 s, twice |
| error | still |
| caught | still |

[src: brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js:32-41]

### Lines Scoop may say and never says

| May say | Never says |
|---|---|
| Pop your store link in. For your read, I only look at what's public. | I posted it for you. |
| Going through everything people say about you. Give me three or four minutes. | Your sales went up this week. |
| Fresh week, fresh gossip. Five picks, and the second one is spicy. | I looked through your inbox. |
| Ooh, you liked that one. Noted. I will dig up more like it. | Your rival, named, is losing customers. |
| Copied. Slip it to whoever ships it. My lips are sealed. | This reviewer clearly has no taste. |
| That is all the gossip for this week. Back Monday with more. | You missed another week. |
| Oops. Tripped over my own tail. Give me a second and try that again. | Only two hours left to claim this. |
| Four candle ads in your category open on rain sounds this month. I will not say whose. | Trust me, this will sell. |
| Notepad full for now. Each read costs real time, so we keep a cap while we build. | I am watching your store. |
| This number is from your store page. If it looks off, confirm it first. | Psst, upgrade for more. |

[src: brand-directions/docs2/data/dirs.json]

### Areas as props

| Area | Scoop's prop |
|---|---|
| Social posts | an instant camera |
| Ads | binoculars |
| Website | a magnifying glass |
| AI search | a tin can telephone |
| Email and WhatsApp | postcards tied with tangerine string |

Scoop's own props are a plain tangerine notepad with nothing written on it and a tangerine pencil. Files: none drawn yet as separate files. Props show in marketing, the reveal and celebrations; in the product the area is a small dot and a word. [src: brand-directions/raccoon/system.md:88]

### Growing with the product

| Version | What Scoop gains | File | Tag |
|---|---|---|---|
| v1 | the slots above, as adviser | raccoon/char.svg | New |
| v2 | not yet defined in the system file | not drawn | New |
| v3 | not yet defined in the system file | not drawn | New |
| v4 | running within rules: no prop defined yet | not drawn | New |

New abilities arrive as new props or poses, never a new character. [src: brand-directions/BRIEF.md:241-249]

### Sound

Six cues, off on a first visit, one switch in Settings: logo raccoon/snd/logo.mp3, heart raccoon/snd/cue-heart.mp3, ready raccoon/snd/cue-ready.mp3, handoff raccoon/snd/cue-handoff.mp3, error raccoon/snd/cue-error.mp3, caught raccoon/snd/cue-caught.mp3. The longer line files are for books, the site and marketing and never play in the product. [src: brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js:90-97]

## How we do it

1. Need a new moment? Add the prop, pose or line to brand-directions/raccoon/system.md first.
2. Draw it from the one source: every pose derives from one master, raccoon/art/master.svg, with the face drawn once in raccoon/_src/master.py. Never redraw the body by hand, never use a raw generated image.
3. Add the file to the art key in brand-directions/raccoon/kit-skin.js and any words to the words key, 12 words at most.
4. Place it only in a named slot from the table above, at its size.
5. Check it at the slot size; under 120 px it must read as the small mark.
6. Switch the character layer off and check the screen still works.
7. Turn on reduced motion and check Scoop holds still.

## Numbers

| Number | Definition | Today | Where measured | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screens with Scoop | of 45 kit screens | 18 | _kit/screens.js | Measured |
| Slots | named places Scoop may sit | 7 in the model, 12 placements in the kit | product model, kit | Measured |
| Scoop over a control | instances where Scoop covers a control | not measured | headless audit with the layer on and off | Proposed |
| Character switch off rate | share of people who turn the layer off | not measured | product event | Proposed |

## Open

1. The system file says the small mark is for anything under 48 px, the kit swaps at 120 px. Which? Proposal: Follow the kit: under 120 px, so the 96 px empty and error slots show the mark.
2. Scoop has a gasp pose for the reveal, but the kit draws the reveal with the celebrate pose. Switch? Proposal: Yes, use char-gasp.svg at 160 px on the reveal.
3. No props are drawn yet for doing and reporting. Which ones? Proposal: A rubber stamp for doing in v2 and a tally card for reporting in v3, drawn from the master.
4. The model puts the first heart in a 120 px celebration; the kit draws it at 40 px inside the toast. Which? Proposal: The first heart at 120 px once, later hearts in the toast.
5. Should the character layer start on or off for a new brand? Proposal: On, with sound off, since the slots never block a control.