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§ masterplan.md

Concrete Poetry Gallery

A brutalist gallery where poems are arranged as visual shapes using raw HTML and CSS experiments.

All ideas
Brutalist

01

App overview and objectives

A gallery for poems whose shape is part of the meaning: typography as sculpture, with each piece rendered exactly as its author intended and preserved that way at any screen size.

02

The problem worth solving

Concrete poetry cannot survive responsive reflow. Building a platform that guarantees fidelity gives a whole art form a home the web has never properly provided.

03

Target audience

  • Primary — Concrete and visual poets seeking publication.
  • Secondary — Readers, typographers and design students.

04

Roles and permissions

  • Visitor — read-only public pages, can sign up.
  • Member — owns their own records, cannot see other users' data.

05

Core features

  • Poem viewer that preserves exact spatial layout with zoom and pan
  • Author-controlled canvas: fixed dimensions, chosen typeface, precise placement
  • Submission tool that is itself the composition tool
  • Poet pages with statements and collected works
  • Workshops section with exercises and prompts
  • Export a poem as an image or print-ready PDF

Deliberately later

  • Animated and kinetic poems
  • Physical exhibition catalogues
  • Collaborative pieces

06

Technical stack

React with an SVG-based canvas so poems scale losslessly, static delivery of published works.

Why: SVG preserves exact spatial relationships at any size and remains real, selectable text for accessibility and search.

Alternatives: Fixed-size images (perfect fidelity, no text, inaccessible) or HTML with absolute positioning (searchable, fragile across fonts).

07

Conceptual data model

Poem — poet, title, canvas size, elements, typeface, published

Element — poem, text, position, rotation, size, colour

Poet — name, statement, portrait, works

Workshop — title, prompt, examples, submissions

Submission — poet, poem draft, status, editor notes

08

Integrations

  • Web font hosting with licensing
  • PDF export
  • Image rendering for social previews

09

UI design principles

  • Raw structure on display: visible grid, hard edges, black-on-white with one violent accent.
  • System or grotesque type at extreme sizes; no decoration that isn't structural.
  • Interactions are instant and blunt — no easing, no fades.

10

Security considerations

  • Font licensing verified per typeface offered in the editor.
  • Author retains copyright; terms stated on submission.
  • Editor sanitises text content and caps element counts to prevent abuse.

11

Development phases

Phase 1 — Prove the core

  • — Poem viewer that preserves exact spatial layout with zoom and pan
  • — Author-controlled canvas: fixed dimensions, chosen typeface, precise placement
  • — Submission tool that is itself the composition tool
  • — Static content and design system in place
  • — Basic analytics

Phase 2 — Make it real

  • — Poet pages with statements and collected works
  • — Workshops section with exercises and prompts
  • — Export a poem as an image or print-ready PDF
  • — Accounts, sign-in and password reset
  • — Empty, loading and error states everywhere

Phase 3 — Polish and launch

  • — Performance, accessibility and SEO pass
  • — Legal pages, contact route and 404 handling
  • — Wire up: Web font hosting with licensing
  • — Wire up: PDF export

Phase 4 — Grow

  • — Animated and kinetic poems
  • — Physical exhibition catalogues
  • — Collaborative pieces

12

Challenges and solutions

Risk — Fidelity on tiny screens

Solution — Zoomable viewport with a fit-to-width default rather than reflowing the poem.

Risk — Screen reader accessibility

Solution — Author-supplied reading order and a plain-text alternative for every poem.

Risk — Editor complexity scares poets

Solution — Start from templates and support paste-from-text with automatic placement.

13

Future expansion

  • Print anthology
  • Type foundry collaborations
  • Educational licensing

14

Page list (13 pages)

  1. 01 PUBLIC Gallery — Browse published poems.
  2. 02 PUBLIC Poets — Author pages and statements.
  3. 03 PUBLIC Submit — Composition tool and submission.
  4. 04 PUBLIC Workshops — Prompts and exercises.
  5. 05 PUBLIC About — Editorial policy and rights.
  6. 06 AUTH Sign up — Create an account with email or a social provider.
  7. 07 AUTH Log in — Return to the account, with error and lockout states.
  8. 08 AUTH Reset password — Request a reset link and set a new password.
  9. 09 APP (signed in) Account settings — Profile, email, password, language and delete account.
  10. 10 PUBLIC Contact — Contact form plus real address, phone and email.
  11. 11 LEGAL & SYSTEM Privacy policy — What data is collected, why, and how to remove it.
  12. 12 LEGAL & SYSTEM Terms of service — Rules of use, liability and account termination.
  13. 13 LEGAL & SYSTEM 404 not found — Friendly dead end with search and links back.

15

Page map

PUBLIC        AUTH               APP (signed in)      LEGAL & SYSTEM
────────────  ─────────────────  ───────────────────  ───────────────────
├─ Gallery    ├─ Sign up         └─ Account settings  ├─ Privacy policy
├─ Poets      ├─ Log in                               ├─ Terms of service
├─ Submit     └─ Reset password                       └─ 404 not found
├─ Workshops
├─ About
└─ Contact

key flows:
  Gallery ──▶ Poets
  Workshops ──▶ Submit
  About ──▶ Submit