Marketing · Imagery

Character Directory

The recurring cast, their matching keywords, and the cover art every video pulls from. Recovery Horizon moves from navy night and injury toward yellow sunrise and restored agency; identity, vehicle, camera, skyline, and composition stay locked so the change feels earned—not generated.

Injury depiction is capped. Every character, adult and child, shows visible supports only — crutches, an arm sling, a cast, light scratches. No graphic gore, no blood, no open wounds. The campaign sells a recovery arc, and an image that makes a viewer flinch is not one they read the question on.

Anatomy is a release gate. Every visible person must have exactly two shoulders, two arms, and two hands. Lauren’s earlier output was rejected; the references below are the corrected set.

Character registry

9 fictional North Carolina residents anchor repeatable campaigns. Faces, vehicles, clothing, city, and injury support remain consistent across every derivative.

Carlos

Hispanic man, 44

Vehicle: Silver sport-touring motorcycle
City: Raleigh
Before: Left arm and shoulder

Leslie

Hispanic woman, 43

Vehicle: Silver midsize sedan
City: Durham
Before: Right knee and leg

Dan character and vehicle specification sheet

Dan

White man, 47

Vehicle: Silver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer
City: Durham
Before: Right shoulder and neck

Susan

White woman, 46

Vehicle: Silver minivan
City: Cary
Before: Left wrist and shoulder

Darryl

Black man, 45

Vehicle: Silver modern roadster motorcycle
City: Raleigh
Before: Left leg and hip

Lauren

Black woman, 42

Vehicle: Silver full-size SUV
City: Cary
Before: Right arm and shoulder

Cliff

White man, 35

Vehicle: Warehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle)
City: Durham
Before: Right arm and shoulder, in a yellow sling

Billy character and vehicle specification sheet

BillyMinor

Hispanic boy, 11

Vehicle: Bicycle and family vehicle passenger
City: Durham
Before: Right forearm, in a cast

Sally character and vehicle specification sheet

SallyMinor

Hispanic girl, 11

Vehicle: Silver kick scooter
City: Cary
Before: Left ankle, on crutches

Required reference views: front and profile face close-ups; full-body before and after wardrobes; vehicle front, side, rear, and top. Full-body views use full-length pants and closed-toe shoes, keep both hands visible, and never overlap or hide an arm. After wardrobe is a bright-yellow jacket over a cream shirt with navy pants.

Video cover slots

Four thumbnails per character: before and after, each composed separately for desktop and mobile. These are the images a video pulls for its cover.

No burned-in text. Every slot is image only. The video studio draws the question itself in Oswald and sizes it to fit, so a headline baked into the photograph would collide with the one it renders. Mobile is composed, never centre-cropped from the desktop master — the same rule the pairs below already follow.

Character	Desktop · 16:9	Mobile · 9:16	Status
Carlos	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Leslie	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Dan	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Susan	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Darryl	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Lauren	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
Cliff	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	2/4 published
BillyMinor	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published
SallyMinor	`beforeafter`	`beforeafter`	4/4 published

Billy and Sally carry the same four slots. A post about a child hurt on a bicycle or a scooter needs a child on the cover, so they run the same before/after arc as the adults, inside the injury cap above.

Matching keywords

What an automated producer scores narration against when it picks whose cover to pull. Vehicle, body part, city, and collision type are the axes that actually tell these people apart.

Keywords are matching vocabulary, not description. A word earns its place only if a script about that subject would plausibly contain it — which is why no character lists “worried”: every before state is worried, so it separates nobody. Billy and Sally are matched the same way; a child's vocabulary and an adult's barely overlap, so the scoring separates them without a flag.

Character	Keywords
CarlosSilver sport-touring motorcycle	`motorcyclemotorcyclistriderhelmetsport-touringarmshoulderraleighwakelanesplittingvisibility`
LeslieSilver midsize sedan	`sedancardriverkneelegwalkingmobilitydurhamrear-endintersectionseatbelt`
DanSilver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer	`trucktractortrailertruckingcommercialcdlshoulderneckwhiplashdurhamhighwayunderridecargo`
SusanSilver minivan	`minivanvanfamilypassengerchildrenwristhandshouldercaryparkingschoolcarpool`
DarrylSilver modern roadster motorcycle	`motorcycleroadsterriderbikerleghipfractureraleighleft-turnright-of-wayhelmet`
LaurenSilver full-size SUV	`suvcrossoverdriverarmshoulderrotatorcarymergesideswipeairbaginsurance`
CliffWarehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle)	`warehousewarehouse workerconstructionjob siteworkplaceon the jobpalletpackingliftingforkliftdockshoulderarmslingdurham`
BillyBicycle and family vehicle passenger	`childchildrenkidminorbicyclebikehelmetcrosswalksidewalkpedestrianscooterforearmarmcastfractureschooldurhamguardianparent`
SallySilver kick scooter	`childchildrenkidminorschoolboosterseatrestraintpassengercarpoolanklelegcrutchesspraincarysettlementapprovalguardianparentscooterkick scooterscooter accident`

Approved desktop pairs

Hover or keyboard-focus a pair to reveal its after state. Before and after always ship together.

Before: Carlos injured beside the damaged silver sport-touring motorcycle at night in Raleigh — **Carlos**Raleigh · Silver sport-touring motorcycle

After: Carlos recovered beside the restored silver sport-touring motorcycle at sunrise in Raleigh — **Carlos**Raleigh · Silver sport-touring motorcycle

Before: Leslie injured beside the damaged silver midsize sedan at night in Durham — **Leslie**Durham · Silver midsize sedan

After: Leslie recovered beside the restored silver midsize sedan at sunrise in Durham — **Leslie**Durham · Silver midsize sedan

Before: Dan injured beside the damaged silver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer at night in Durham — **Dan**Durham · Silver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer

After: Dan recovered beside the restored silver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer at sunrise in Durham — **Dan**Durham · Silver sleeper-cab tractor and box trailer

Before: Susan injured beside the damaged silver minivan at night in Cary — **Susan**Cary · Silver minivan

After: Susan recovered beside the restored silver minivan at sunrise in Cary — **Susan**Cary · Silver minivan

Before: Darryl injured beside the damaged silver modern roadster motorcycle at night in Raleigh — **Darryl**Raleigh · Silver modern roadster motorcycle

After: Darryl recovered beside the restored silver modern roadster motorcycle at sunrise in Raleigh — **Darryl**Raleigh · Silver modern roadster motorcycle

Before: Lauren injured beside the damaged silver full-size suv at night in Cary — **Lauren**Cary · Silver full-size SUV

After: Lauren recovered beside the restored silver full-size suv at sunrise in Cary — **Lauren**Cary · Silver full-size SUV

Before: Cliff injured beside the damaged warehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle) at night in Durham — **Cliff**Durham · Warehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle)

After: Cliff recovered beside the restored warehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle) at sunrise in Durham — **Cliff**Durham · Warehouse pallet racks and packing floor (no vehicle)

Mobile is separately composed

A desktop master is never center-cropped and called mobile. The 3:4 pair keeps Lauren, the SUV, and the city readable in both states.

Before: Lauren beside her damaged silver SUV at night, mobile composition — Before · 3:4

After: Lauren beside her restored silver SUV at sunrise, mobile composition — After · 3:4

Pair production contract

Acceptance is binary. A failed anatomy or continuity check rejects the asset instead of becoming a documented exception.

Property	Before	After
Person	Frame right, looking left, visibly burdened but never graphic.	Same identity, frame left, looking right, hopeful rather than celebratory.
Wardrobe	Navy and dark blue with one yellow medical-support accent.	Bright-yellow jacket, cream shirt, navy full-length pants.
Vehicle	Badly damaged silver vehicle.	Exact same make, model, position, perspective, and wheel centers; fully restored.
Setting	Cool night grade, clear asphalt, one city skyline.	Radiant sunrise, same city and asphalt geometry.
Geometry	Vehicle edges within 1% of the canvas, wheel centers within 0.5%, horizon within 0.5°, and no focal-length change.

Interaction contract

The image is full-width when the composition needs it; copy remains inside the standard content container. The component never changes layout geometry during a state change.

Purpose	Show a restrained move from crisis to recovery without promising a legal outcome.
When not to use	Do not use for evidence-heavy calculator content; use a contextual tool scene. Do not use an unmatched “sad” image by itself.
Variants and states	Hover/focus crossfade, keyboard slider, scroll reveal, explicit toggle, static diptych, reduced-motion instant reveal, and separately composed mobile media.
Accessibility	Both images receive state-specific alt text. Visible Before/After labels accompany every interactive variant. Slider announcement: “Recovery view, slider, 0 to 100 percent.”
Tokens consumed	`--ground`, `--on-ground`, `--on-ground-muted`, `--on-ground-accent`, `--on-ground-line`, spacing, focus, and motion roles.

Mobile behavior: tap the whole widget to reveal after. Scroll reveal waits until at least 42% is visible, holds Before for 1.4 seconds, then crossfades. Reduced motion preserves the same geometry and uses a near-instant opacity change.

Where this cast is used

This directory is shared. Marketing composes these characters into campaign stills and page imagery; Video resolves the same people into cover art. One registry, so a character cannot exist in one system and not the other.

Video rules moved. Workflow taxonomy, the Character Story production rule, dashcam footage, and thumbnail selection now live in Video DS.

Last verified: September 4, 2026 · Owner: Wallace Pierce Design System