AI Guides › Workbench
By Nigel Guy · 8 min read
The usual way people build a brand with AI is one piece at a time: a logo from one tool on Monday, a homepage from another on Wednesday, a batch of social posts from a third at the weekend. Each piece looks fine on its own, so it feels like progress. Then you put them side by side and you have three shades of "sort of teal", two typefaces that were never introduced to each other, and a voice that is chatty on Instagram and stiff on the website. The pieces never shared a source of truth.
The rule: make the system first, then make every piece from it, in one place. A single prompt can start a brand kit, but only if it produces a written brand system you check before anything gets built.
These are the three tools worth knowing for this job today. Prices and availability move often, so check the linked pages before you pay for anything.
| Tool | What it does for a brand kit | Cost at time of writing | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Design (Anthropic Labs) | Builds a design system (colours, type, components, layout patterns), then designs, prototypes, slides and one-pagers that use it. Exports to PDF, PPTX, standalone HTML and Canva, or hands off to Claude Code | Included with paid Claude plans (Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise). Anthropic's pricing page lists Pro at US$20 a month; UK checkout shows a pound price I could not confirm | Starting from nothing and wanting a website mock-up, one-pagers and a deck in the same style | Research preview. Uses your normal Claude usage limits. No version history yet. Not a vector logo tool |
| Pomelli (Google Labs) | Reads your existing website into a "Business DNA" profile (voice, fonts, colours), then proposes campaigns and generates editable social, web and ad assets. Photoshoot turns product photos into styled shots | Free experiment. Available in the UK in English since 21 April 2026 | You already have a website and need social posts and ads that match it | It copies the brand you have, flaws included. Experiment status means features can change or vanish |
| Canva (Brand Kit + Brand Kit Builder) | Stores logos, colours, fonts, brand voice and templates; Brand Kit Builder fills a kit from your website URL or a PDF of guidelines; Canva AI uses Brand Templates to stay on brand | Free plan gets one limited Brand Kit; Brand Kit Builder needs Pro, Teams, Enterprise, Education or Nonprofit. Check the UK pricing page for current £ prices | Posters, print, video edits and the long tail of everyday assets | It keeps you consistent once the kit is good; it will not tell you the kit is bad |
/design. Enterprise accounts need an admin to switch it on first.This is the prompt to start with. Fill in the six bracketed fields; leave a field as "not sure" rather than inventing an answer.
You are a brand designer setting up the visual and verbal system for a
small business. I will use your system to make a website, posters, a
logo, social posts and short videos, so every rule you set must work
across all of them.
Business name: [BUSINESS_NAME]
What it does, in one concrete sentence: [WHAT_YOU_SELL_AND_TO_WHOM]
The specific people it serves: [NAMED_AUDIENCE, e.g. "independent
physiotherapists in Leeds", not "health professionals"]
Three words for how it should feel: [TONE_WORD_1], [TONE_WORD_2], [TONE_WORD_3]
Anything to avoid (colours, styles, clichés, competitors' looks): [AVOID_LIST]
Existing assets I am attaching, if any: [ASSETS_OR_"NONE"]
Work in this order and stop after step 3 for my approval:
1. List every assumption you are making about the business, audience,
price point or location, each marked "assumed". Ask me about any
required field above that is missing or vague instead of guessing.
2. Propose one brand system: a colour palette with hex codes and the job
of each colour, a heading and body typeface pairing, spacing and
corner style, photo and illustration direction, and five voice rules
with one example sentence each.
3. Show that system applied to one small sample: a website hero section
and one square social post, side by side.
Constraints: one system only, not a menu of options. Choose text and
background colours with readable contrast. Do not write slogans or
claims about results the business has not given you.
Before you reply, check: does every later piece I asked for (website,
poster, logo, social, video) have a rule in the system it can follow?
If not, add the missing rule.
Once you approve the system, ask for one piece at a time and repeat a short instruction each time: "Use only the approved brand system; flag anything that needs a new rule rather than inventing one."
Run this on the finished pieces before anything goes public. Attach screenshots or exports of each piece.
You are reviewing brand consistency for [BUSINESS_NAME]. The approved
brand system is pasted below, followed by [NUMBER] finished pieces.
[PASTE_BRAND_SYSTEM]
For each piece, list: any colour not in the palette (give the hex if you
can read it), any typeface not in the pairing, any sentence that breaks
a voice rule, and any claim, price or fact that is not in the brief.
Output a table with columns: piece, problem, rule broken, suggested fix.
If you cannot read a colour or font from an image, say so rather than
guessing. End with a one-line verdict: ready, or fix first.