Report

14 Sep 2025 – 13 Sep 2026 · vs previous period: 14 Sep 2024 – 13 Sep 2025

Today Yesterday 7 days 28 days This month Last month 90 days 12 months

What the gate came to: how much was checked, how much was right the first time, which rules actually caught something and who sent the cleanest work. Counts of rules, never a grade for anybody's design.

Files checked

The gate

4,214

▲ 22.3%vs previous period

Passed first time

Computed

65.9%

▲ 2.9 ptvs previous period

Nothing broken on the first round

Issues per file

The gate

0.47

▼ 0.04vs previous period

1,995 findings in all

Hours to a decision

The gate

3.9 h

▼ 0.2 hvs previous period

The gate takes under a minute. The rest is a person's diary.

Sent back

The gate

1,435

▲ 12.5%vs previous period

From outside

The gate

630

▲ 10.3%vs previous period

Agency, printer and supplier files, through the same door

The period, in short

Files passed the first round 66 per cent of the time, against 63 per cent in the window before it2.9 pt.
The book grew 6 times inside this window — v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7. The fortnight after a new section is written is the fortnight everything fails it, which is the dip on the chart rather than a bad month.
33 per cent of everything caught came from three rules — a shape the surface takes, headline clear of the platform's own furniture, body type reaches 4.5:1 against its ground. A book with a long tail and a short head is a book that is mostly teaching three things.
30 of 58 rules caught nothing at all. That is not an argument for deleting them: a rule nobody breaks any more is usually a rule everybody has learned, and the year after it is deleted is the year it comes back.

Files checked

Everything that came through the gate, inside and outside, against the same length of time before it.

The gate

This period Previous period1v2 · 10 rules · 16 Feb2v3 · 10 rules · 6 Apr3v4 · 7 rules · 11 May4v5 · 5 rules · 29 Jun5v6 · 3 rules · 20 Jul6v7 · 6 rules · 3 Aug

The hairlines are the days the rulebook grew a section — v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7. The fortnight after each of them is the fortnight everything fails it, and the recovery afterwards settles above where it started. That is what writing a rule down costs and what it pays.

Who sent it

Files through the gate in this period, by whoever put them there.

The gate

Content Studio
2,65363%
In-house designer
53413%
The web store
3979%
The agency
2827%
The label printer
1995%
A packaging supplier
1494%

The three outside senders are a small share of the files and most of the round trips. An agency has the brief and the deadline and not the type licences; a printer changes artwork to make it print, which is its job and is also what the press rules are for.

Which part of the book caught it

Findings in this period, by the shelf of the rulebook the rule sits on.

Brand rulebook

The surface it is going to
80941%
Colour
38819%
The mark
23512%
Type
21411%
The words
1879%
The press
1126%
The law, on a label
503%

A shelf catching nothing is not a shelf doing nothing. The law section is quiet most months and it is the one where a miss is a recall rather than a reprint.

What actually caught things

Every row is a rule in the book, by its own key. Add a rule and it appears here; delete one and it goes.

The rules that fired

The twelve rules that caught the most, 1,515 findings between them. The share is of everything caught in the period, so these do not add up to a hundred.

The gate

Rule	Shelf	How it is tested	Caught	Share	vs before
A shape the surface takes	The surface it is going to	Measured	253	13%	+35
Headline clear of the platform's own furniture	The surface it is going to	Measured	214	11%	+16
Body type reaches 4.5:1 against its ground	Colour	Measured	198	10%	+22
Clear space of one H on every side	The mark	Measured	171	9%	+22
Product fills the frame the channel asks for	The surface it is going to	Measured	123	6%	+16
Nothing written on a marketplace main image	The surface it is going to	Measured	121	6%	+27
Origin named, never implied	The words	Read	93	5%	+22
No near misses of a brand colour	Colour	Measured	79	4%	−3
Inside the text the surface carries	The surface it is going to	Measured	76	4%	+9
Licensed for where it is going	Type	Measured	71	4%	−22
Mandatory text at 1.2 mm x-height or more	Type	Measured	59	3%	+18
Never printed under 18 mm wide	The mark	Measured	57	3%	0

Every rule in this table is one that is measured or read, and that is not a coincidence: a rule a vision model raises is a question rather than a finding, and it is not counted here until a person has agreed with it. The same goes for the lines on the checklist. What is left is arithmetic and matching, which is exactly why these are the rules allowed to stop a file on their own.

The period, against the one before it

14 Sep 2025 – 13 Sep 2026 · against 14 Sep 2024 – 13 Sep 2025

Computed

Files checked
Everything that came through the gate, inside and outside.
4,214▲ 22.3% from 3,447
Passed first time
Nothing measured or read came back broken on the first round.
65.9%▲ 2.9 pt from 63.0%
Sent back
Each one with the findings and the rule behind them attached.
1,435▲ 12.5% from 1,275
Issues per file
Counted over every file, not only over the ones that broke something.
0.47▼ 0.04 from 0.52
Hours from arriving to a decision
The gate finishes in under a minute; this is how long the answer waited on a person.
3.9 h▼ 0.2 h from 4.1 h
Rules that caught something
Out of 58 in the book. This is how much of it earned its place this period.
28no change
Rules that caught nothing
Not the same as rules doing nothing. Most of these are the ones everybody has already learned.
30no change

Rule

Shelf

How it is tested

Caught

vs before

A shape the surface takes

The surface it is going to

Measured

253

13%

+35

Headline clear of the platform's own furniture

The surface it is going to

Measured

214

11%

+16

Body type reaches 4.5:1 against its ground

Colour

Measured

198

10%

+22

Clear space of one H on every side

The mark

Measured

171

+22

Product fills the frame the channel asks for

The surface it is going to

Measured

123

+16

Nothing written on a marketplace main image

The surface it is going to

Measured

121

+27

Origin named, never implied

The words

Read

+22

No near misses of a brand colour

Colour

Measured

−3

Inside the text the surface carries

The surface it is going to

Measured

Licensed for where it is going

Type

Measured

−22

Mandatory text at 1.2 mm x-height or more

Type

Measured

+18

Never printed under 18 mm wide

The mark

Measured

The period, against the one before it

14 Sep 2025 – 13 Sep 2026 · against 14 Sep 2024 – 13 Sep 2025

Computed

Files checked
Everything that came through the gate, inside and outside.
4,214▲ 22.3% from 3,447
Passed first time
Nothing measured or read came back broken on the first round.
65.9%▲ 2.9 pt from 63.0%
Sent back
Each one with the findings and the rule behind them attached.
1,435▲ 12.5% from 1,275
Issues per file
Counted over every file, not only over the ones that broke something.
0.47▼ 0.04 from 0.52
Hours from arriving to a decision
The gate finishes in under a minute; this is how long the answer waited on a person.
3.9 h▼ 0.2 h from 4.1 h
Rules that caught something
Out of 58 in the book. This is how much of it earned its place this period.
28no change
Rules that caught nothing
Not the same as rules doing nothing. Most of these are the ones everybody has already learned.
30no change