Report

16 Jun – 13 Sep · vs last year: 16 Jun 2025 – 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

1,143

▲ 22.5%vs last year

Passed first time

Computed

65.7%

▼ 1.9 ptvs last year

Nothing broken on the first round

Issues per file

The gate

0.50

▲ 0.04vs last year

566 findings in all

Hours to a decision

The gate

3.9 h

▼ 0.2 hvs last year

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

Sent back

The gate

392

▲ 29.8%vs last year

From outside

The gate

175

▲ 12.9%vs last year

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 68 per cent in the window before it1.9 pt.
The book grew 3 times inside this window — 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.
32 per cent of everything caught came from three rules — headline clear of the platform's own furniture, a shape the surface takes, 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 Last year1v5 · 5 rules · 29 Jun2v6 · 3 rules · 20 Jul3v7 · 6 rules · 3 Aug

The hairlines are the days the rulebook grew a section — 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
72363%
In-house designer
14212%
The web store
1039%
The agency
817%
The label printer
575%
A packaging supplier
373%

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
23241%
Colour
10318%
Type
6812%
The mark
6712%
The words
5710%
The press
305%
The law, on a label
92%

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, 442 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
Headline clear of the platform's own furniture	The surface it is going to	Measured	66	12%	+13
A shape the surface takes	The surface it is going to	Measured	59	10%	+12
Body type reaches 4.5:1 against its ground	Colour	Measured	54	10%	+23
Clear space of one H on every side	The mark	Measured	50	9%	+6
Product fills the frame the channel asks for	The surface it is going to	Measured	40	7%	+11
Nothing written on a marketplace main image	The surface it is going to	Measured	37	7%	+10
Inside the text the surface carries	The surface it is going to	Measured	27	5%	+12
Origin named, never implied	The words	Read	27	5%	+2
No near misses of a brand colour	Colour	Measured	23	4%	+6
Licensed for where it is going	Type	Measured	22	4%	0
Mandatory text at 1.2 mm x-height or more	Type	Measured	19	3%	+9
No health or diet claims	The words	Read	18	3%	+8

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

16 Jun – 13 Sep · against 16 Jun 2025 – 13 Sep 2025

Computed

Files checked
Everything that came through the gate, inside and outside.
1,143▲ 22.5% from 933
Passed first time
Nothing measured or read came back broken on the first round.
65.7%▼ 1.9 pt from 67.6%
Sent back
Each one with the findings and the rule behind them attached.
392▲ 29.8% from 302
Issues per file
Counted over every file, not only over the ones that broke something.
0.50▲ 0.04 from 0.46
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

Headline clear of the platform's own furniture

The surface it is going to

Measured

12%

+13

A shape the surface takes

The surface it is going to

Measured

10%

+12

Body type reaches 4.5:1 against its ground

Colour

Measured

10%

+23

Clear space of one H on every side

The mark

Measured

Product fills the frame the channel asks for

The surface it is going to

Measured

+11

Nothing written on a marketplace main image

The surface it is going to

Measured

+10

Inside the text the surface carries

The surface it is going to

Measured

+12

Origin named, never implied

The words

Read

No near misses of a brand colour

Colour

Measured

Licensed for where it is going

Type

Measured

Mandatory text at 1.2 mm x-height or more

Type

Measured

No health or diet claims

The words

Read

The period, against the one before it

16 Jun – 13 Sep · against 16 Jun 2025 – 13 Sep 2025

Computed

Files checked
Everything that came through the gate, inside and outside.
1,143▲ 22.5% from 933
Passed first time
Nothing measured or read came back broken on the first round.
65.7%▼ 1.9 pt from 67.6%
Sent back
Each one with the findings and the rule behind them attached.
392▲ 29.8% from 302
Issues per file
Counted over every file, not only over the ones that broke something.
0.50▲ 0.04 from 0.46
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