Merch for people who hold the risk: a brief for an image model

Date: 25 September 2026 · Author: @website-agent · Status: ready to hand to the image model, by link

Trigger: the lead, 25 September 2026 (D28): "write a brief for ChatGPT image generator and designer to create funny designs for merch … that I can put on Amazon On Demand … interesting enough for somebody that is not from RiskMandate that would almost buy it because it has some funny taglines to do with risk … a play on words … some could have infographics, some could not … with, of course, the RiskMandate logo there … people will buy it not because they care about RiskMandate … they buy it because it's a funny thing or they are into risk, or a Christmas gift."

Reads against: site/brand.html (the mark, the tokens, the five things not to do, the assets); the home page's line Know what your agents can do. Not what they did. What they can.; the articles the jokes come from (acceptable.html, article-what-is-an-abp.html, article-approval-prompts.html, article-calendar-edits-cannot-be-undone.html, article-who-owns-what-in-ai.html); CLAUDE.md's rules, which hold on a shirt as on a page. Amazon Merch on Demand's artwork specification is stated as the lead knows it and is to be confirmed on the account before anything is uploaded.

1. What this is for

Shirts and hoodies that a stranger buys. The buyer does not know RiskMandate and does not need to. They buy it because the line is funny and true about risk, or because somebody they know holds the risk at work and will laugh, or because it is December. The mark is on it the way a brewery's mark is on a good beer shirt: present, small, and the reason a second person asks what it is.

So the order of work is: the joke first, the truth under the joke second, the mark third. A design that needs RiskMandate explained is a failed design for this brief.

2. What RiskMandate is, in one paragraph you may use

RiskMandate.ai helps organisations know what their AI agents can do. Its line is Know what your agents can do. Not what they did. What they can. Its product is an Agent Behaviour Policy (ABP): a short record, for one AI agent in one deployment, of everything the agent can reach, what the business authorised it to do, and the gap between the two. Around it sits a way of thinking about risk that the shirts borrow from: a risk exists the moment the exposure does; nobody can deny it, only accept it for a stated interval, fund the work that ends it, or fix it; silence is not a decision, it escalates to the boss; every risk has a holder and every path ends at the board; a rule in prose is a hope, and only a boundary the agent cannot reach is a control. RiskMandate is UK-based, early-stage and founder-led. It is not an insurer, and nothing it makes is a score.

3. Who buys it

Buyer	Why they buy	What lands
The person who holds the risk at work	It is their week, on a shirt	acceptance jokes: Risk holder (temporary), Who accepted this, and until when?
Security, GRC and platform people	The in-joke is exact	Hope is not a control, the barrier ladder, Documented ≠ Measured
Somebody who is "into risk"	Poker, climbing, startups, markets: the words carry	There is no deny button, Accepted ≠ Acceptable, The interval is the decision
The gift buyer	It is funny and they know who it is for	the seasonal family, I am the plug, Blast radius: yes
The person who runs an AI agent	Recognition	It can do 340 things. You authorised 12., Read-only, they said.

The first and last columns are the test for every line below: it should land with at least two of these without a footnote.

4. The brand kit

Everything is on https://riskmandate.ai/brand.html, and the files are public.

The mark is a seal: a stamp with the monogram RM inside a ring, registration ticks on the axes, and a quiet inner ring. It signals a counter-signature. Files: https://riskmandate.ai/assets/brand/riskmandate-mark.svg (the containered mark, the default), riskmandate-mark-knockout.svg (no container, for dark garments), riskmandate-mark-small.svg (the simplified cut for anything under 24px, which on a shirt means a sleeve or a hem), riskmandate-mark-512.png, and the EPS cuts for a printer. The lockups with the wordmark are riskmandate-lockup-light.svg and riskmandate-lockup-dark.svg.
The colours are tokens: green #1A7F5A; the mark's container #161615; ink #0D0D0C; paper #F7F6F2; gold #B45309; red #C0392B; warm greys between. On a shirt, use green and ink on paper-coloured garments, and the knockout mark with paper and green on ink-coloured garments. Nothing else is on-brand, and the mark is never recoloured.
The type: the site uses the system sans and the system mono on purpose. For print, any clean grotesk (Inter, Helvetica, Archivo) for the line, and a mono (JetBrains Mono, IBM Plex Mono, Courier) for anything that should read as machine output: labels, counts, dates, the small print. The mono is where a lot of the humour lives.
Five things not to do with the mark: do not recolour it; do not use the detailed cut small; do not stretch, rotate or add effects; do not redraw the monogram; leave clear space of half its width on every side.
The voice: plain, dry, British spelling (behaviour, authorise, licence), no exclamation marks, no dash in a line. The joke is in the truth, not in the font.

5. The print rules

The usual Merch on Demand artwork: PNG, 4500 × 5400 pixels, transparent background, sRGB, under 25 MB, one file per design per colourway. Confirm on the account before uploading; Amazon changes it.
Two colourways of every design: one for dark garments (paper and green on transparent), one for light garments (ink and green on transparent). Never bake a garment colour into the file.
Keep the artwork inside the middle of the canvas with a margin; a front print is smaller than it looks on screen. Text smaller than about 6 mm high on the garment will not print cleanly, and lines thinner than about 2 px at full size will vanish. Big type, few words.
A hoodie front reads higher on the chest than a t-shirt; the same file works, but check the mock-up.
Legal, before anything goes on sale: no other company's name, logo or product name; no characters, memes or fonts owned by somebody else; no real person's face; nothing that reads as a certificate, a badge of compliance or a rating; and a trade-mark search on each line that will be sold. There is no deny button and Hope is not a control are ours to check first.

6. What a design must never carry

These are the site's rules, and they hold on cloth.

No score, rating, level, traffic light or verdict. A count is fine (340 / 12); a grade is not.
Never "ADP". The acronym is ABP, and on a shirt the words are better than the acronym anyway.
Never "the policy" alone, because on this site policy is also the insurance instrument. The behaviour policy or the ABP.
No conformity language: not certified, compliant, conformant, accredited, aligned.
No named third party. No vendor, no insurer, no standard's text.
**Never rung.** A ladder has steps here.
No claim the shirt cannot carry: nothing about cover, nothing about being insurable.

7. The taglines

Forty-two lines in six families. Each carries the joke explained, because the model designs better when it knows why the line is funny, and a note on who it lands with. Every line is a play on something the site actually says, so a buyer who looks us up finds the line is also true.

A. Acceptance: nobody can say no

Line	The joke	Lands with
There is no deny button.	The whole model in five words. Also true of most software.	everyone
Accepted ≠ Acceptable	Two words people use as one; they are different acts.	risk people, everyone
Silence is not a decision. It is an escalation.	Do nothing and the risk goes to your boss.	anyone with a boss
The interval is the decision.	Accepting for four hours means an incident; six months means waiting.	risk people
Accepted for four hours. Which is an incident.	Same joke, sharper.	risk and ops people
Who accepted this, and until when?	The two questions asked of any register. Works on a shirt as a question to the wearer.	everyone
Risk holder (temporary)	Set as a name badge. Everybody holds one until it moves up.	everyone, gift
Every risk has a holder. Today it is you.	The rule, addressed.	everyone
Critical for whoever holds it.	An unaccepted risk is critical for the person nearest.	risk people
Nobody decided. It is still there.	You cannot vote a fact out of existence.	everyone
Accept, fund or fix.	The three doors. Reads like a motto.	risk people

B. Agents: what it can do, not what it did

Line	The joke	Lands with
Know what your agents can do. Not what they did.	The site's own line, cut to fit.	everyone
It can do 340 things. You authorised 12.	The gap, as arithmetic. Big numerals.	everyone
Mandate: read and draft. Grant: everything.	The Gmail policy in one line.	people who run agents
~~It only does what we tell it.~~	Struck through. The reassurance that describes the mandate and not the grant.	everyone
An approval prompt is not a human in the loop.	A title from the site. Everybody who has clicked Allow gets it.	people who run agents
Ask me about my unbounded excess.	A term of art that sounds like a confession.	risk people, gift
Blast radius: yes.	The answer to a question nobody asked precisely.	everyone
Read-only, they said.	The consent screen's third line was Read, compose and send.	people who run agents
I read the consent screen. All three lines.	Nobody does.	everyone

C. Controls: hope is not one

Line	The joke	Lands with
Hope is not a control.	The barrier vocabulary's first lesson.	security people, everyone
Trust me, I am an expectation.	An expectation is a rule in prose enforced by nobody.	security people
None · Expectation · Setting · Boundary	The four barriers, weakest first; the small print says only the last one is a control.	security people
Documented ≠ Measured	Two evidence tiers that people treat as one.	security and audit people
Do not manufacture assurance.	A rule from the site's own instructions.	audit people
Residual risk: me.	After every control, somebody remains.	everyone, gift

D. Records: established by facts

Line	The joke	Lands with
Risk register: perfectly maintained, entirely wrong.	A row typed by a person and connected to nothing.	risk people
Established by facts. Ended by facts. Argued by everyone.	The model, plus the meeting.	risk people
Signed. Dated. Interval stated.	What an acceptance is. Reads like a stamp.	risk people
This shirt carries its provenance.	With a mono hem line: Read on 25 September 2026. Nothing was tested.	everyone
Rolled up to the board.	Where every path ends.	everyone with a board

E. The plug, and undo

Line	The joke	Lands with
Can you pull the plug? Honestly, no.	One of the model's answer options, verbatim.	ops people, everyone
I am the plug.	For the person who is.	ops people, gift
Delete is recoverable. Edit is forever.	A deleted meeting comes back; an edited one does not.	everyone who uses a calendar
Some changes are forever.	Another answer option. Doubles as a wedding shirt.	everyone
Minutes. Under an hour. Don't know.	The three answers to how long would stopping take.	ops people

F. Seasonal, and gifts

Line	The joke	Lands with
All I want for Christmas is a mandate.	Christmas	gift
Ho, ho, hope is not a control.	Christmas	gift, security people
Accepted for the festive interval.	Christmas: the office closes and every risk is accepted until January.	gift, risk people
Keep calm and accept for an interval.	The old poster, corrected.	gift
I survived the six weeks.	The article's six weeks; also true of any project.	gift
Explorer. Villager. Town planner. Risk holder.	Wardley's three, and the fourth job nobody applies for.	founders, gift

8. Twelve concepts

Six carry a small figure, six are type only. A figure on a shirt is a diagram with fewer than eight elements, drawn in two colours; anything busier is a poster.

#	Concept	Figure	Line
1	The barrier ladder. Four short steps, weakest at the bottom, the top one filled in green.	yes	None · Expectation · Setting · Boundary / small: only the last one is a control
2	Two circles. A red circle with 3 and a black circle with 8, side by side, like the figure's badges.	yes	One red is enough. or How many reach you?
3	340 / 12. Two numerals, the second much smaller.	no	It can do 340 things. You authorised 12.
4	One red path. A small org chart, five boxes, one red line from the bottom box to the top.	yes	Rolled up to the board.
5	The deny button. A dialogue with Accept and a greyed-out Deny.	yes	There is no deny button.
6	Three ticked lines. A consent screen with three checkboxes, all ticked.	yes	I read the consent screen. All three lines.
7	The bin and the edit. A bin icon with 30 days and a pencil icon with forever.	yes	Delete is recoverable. Edit is forever.
8	The name badge. HELLO, I hold / RISK HOLDER (TEMPORARY) in badge form.	no	Risk holder (temporary)
9	The seal, large. The mark alone on the chest, the size of a stamp, and on the back in mono: Counter-signed.	mark only	Counter-signed.
10	Typewriter block. Three lines in mono, left-aligned, like a printout.	no	Hope is not a control. / Trust me, I am an expectation. / Documented ≠ Measured
11	The interval ladder. Four rows: 1 h · need data, 4 h · incident, 1 month · funded, 6 months · a named decision to wait.	yes	The interval is the decision.
12	The provenance hem. Any line from §7 large, and along the hem in mono: Read on 25 September 2026. Nothing was tested.	no	any

9. The prompt to paste

Give the image model this brief's link, then the prompt below, one design at a time. Replace the parts in brackets.

You are designing a t-shirt and hoodie print for Amazon Merch on Demand. Read the brief at https://riskmandate.ai/admin/briefs/merch__funny-designs-for-people-who-hold-the-risk/index.md first, and follow its sections 4, 5 and 6 exactly.
Design: concept [number and name from section 8]. Line: "[the line, exactly as written in section 7]". [Figure: describe it in one sentence, or "type only".]
Style: plain and dry. A clean grotesk for the line, a mono face for any small print, counts or dates. Two colours plus the garment: green #1A7F5A and ink #0D0D0C for a light garment; green #1A7F5A and paper #F7F6F2 for a dark garment. No gradients, no drop shadows, no textures, no illustration of people. Big type, few words. The RiskMandate mark, small, below the design or at the hem, from https://riskmandate.ai/assets/brand/riskmandate-mark.svg (use the knockout cut on the dark version), never recoloured, never stretched, with clear space around it.
Output: (1) the artwork as a PNG, 4500 by 5400 pixels, transparent background, for the light garment; (2) the same for the dark garment; (3) a mock-up of each on a t-shirt and on a hoodie; (4) the line as typed, so it can be checked; (5) a listing title of at most sixty characters and three bullet points for the product page, in British spelling, with no claim about RiskMandate's product beyond what the brief's section 2 says; (6) the name of any font used.
Do not put a score, rating, level or traffic light anywhere. Do not use the words certified, compliant, conformant, accredited or aligned. Do not name any other company, product, insurer or standard. Do not write "ADP", and do not write "the policy" on its own. Do not use the word "rung".

10. What to send back, and what happens then

For each design: the two PNGs, the two mock-ups, the listing text, and the line. The lead chooses which go up. Before a line is listed, the trade-mark search in §5. The mark files are already public and need no permission; the taglines are RiskMandate's and may be used on RiskMandate's merchandise.

11. What this does not settle

Which lines sell. Amazon's tiering answers that, slowly; start with ten, not forty.
Prices, which are set on the account.
Whether the seal on its own (concept 9) is a shirt anybody outside the company buys. Probably not; it is the one design for insiders.
The second family the lead already sells, The Cyber Boardroom's: the same account, a different mark, and none of these lines.