The task
You’re launching a product and need consistent visual language across landing page, App Store screenshots, social posts, ads, and the inevitable PDF onboarding the founder will write. You want a one-page visual direction document before you generate a single AI image or hire a designer, because the alternative is 80 images later realizing the App Store screenshots look like a different company than the landing page.
Where AI helps — and where it does not
AI is good at synthesizing mood language into directional rules (“calm and precise” → palette ranges, typography pairings, layout constraints), suggesting anti-references that sharpen the brief, and producing the 3 “is this on-brand?” tests a designer can apply when you’re not in the room.
What AI cannot do: replace a designer’s execution, pick the right hex from “muted blue,” or know that your category visually clichés you don’t see (“every productivity SaaS uses 3D-rendered isometric illustrations now”). Always sanity-check against 10 real reference images from your industry. Open Mobbin or Brand New for 10 minutes before locking the brief.
A specific failure mode: AI defaults to “premium and modern” adjectives if your input is vague. Those words describe nothing. Push back with “use directional pairs like ‘cool over warm,’ ‘angular over organic,’ ‘space over density.’”
What to feed the AI
- Product type and 3 directional adjectives, paired against opposites (“calm-over-loud, precise-over-organic, dense-over-airy”)
- 2 brand references you do NOT want to look like — and one specific element from each that’s the trigger
- 1 brand you genuinely admire, with the specific element you want to borrow (not “the whole vibe”)
- The 3 surfaces this direction has to survive on (landing page, App Store, Twitter card). Different rules per surface
- Your target buyer’s visual literacy. A developer audience tolerates more density; a consumer audience needs more space
- The competitor cliché you must NOT fall into (every category has one)
- Existing brand assets if any (logo, font, primary color); direction must be compatible
- The platform constraints (App Store wants screenshots with text overlay; OG card is 1200x630; Twitter cards crop)
Copy-ready prompt
Write a one-page product visual direction document.
Product: {description}
Directional adjective pairs: {3, each as "X-over-Y"}
Avoid looking like: {2 anti-references + the trigger element of each}
Admire: {1 brand + the specific element to borrow}
Surfaces: {landing / App Store / social}
Existing brand assets: {logo, primary color, font if any}
Category cliché to avoid: {specific cliché}
Return:
1) Visual principles — 3 bullets, each paired with an anti-example specific to this product.
2) Color direction — 2 palette options with hex codes, plus one sentence on the mood each evokes.
3) Typography direction — 2 font-family pairings (display + body) with a note on usage.
4) Imagery rules — photography style, illustration style, and an explicit do/don't list (5+ items each).
5) Layout principles — density, spacing, one rule per surface.
6) The 3 on-brand tests — questions a designer can answer in 30 seconds without your input: "Does this... ? If no, it's off-brand."
7) Three reference URLs (real sites in your industry) that anchor the direction.Shorter variant — anti-brief sharpener
Below is my current visual brief. It's reading generic. For each principle, write the matching anti-example specific to my product/category — what off-brand actually looks like for us. Then mark which principles still feel like "premium and modern" wallpaper and rewrite them as directional pairs.
{paste brief}Sample output
A useful do/don’t line: “Do — clean product screenshots on solid pastel backgrounds, single accent color per surface, plenty of negative space. Don’t — lifestyle photography of people using laptops; that’s the SaaS-blog look we’re explicitly not, and the cliché our category is drowning in.”
A useful “on-brand test”: “Test 1: would this design feel out of place next to a Linear marketing page? If yes, we’ve drifted toward enterprise. Test 2: can you cover the logo and still tell it’s us from typography alone? If no, we’re using stock typography. Test 3: is there at least 40% negative space on this surface? If no, we’re cluttering.”
How to refine
- Replace mood adjectives with directional pairs: “Every adjective must be ‘X-over-Y.’ ‘Modern’ fails; ‘angular-over-organic’ passes.”
- Force anti-examples per principle: “Every principle must be paired with a concrete anti-example specific to our category — not ‘don’t be busy’ but ‘don’t use the isometric-character illustrations every productivity SaaS adopted in 2024.’”
- Make tests answerable in 30 seconds: “Each on-brand test must be a yes/no question with a clear visual referent, not a discussion question. ‘Does this feel calm?’ fails; ‘Is there at least 40% negative space?’ passes.”
- De-jargon: “Rewrite the doc so a non-designer (founder, marketing intern) could enforce it. No ‘kinetic typography’ or ‘editorial whitespace.’”
- Pin platform constraints: “Add per-surface deltas: App Store needs X, OG cards need Y, Twitter cards crop the bottom 20%. Direction must survive each.”
Common mistakes
- Choosing only positive references. Anti-references do more for clarity than admire-references; the brief is defined by what it excludes
- Using “premium and modern” as mood. Those words describe nothing and produce nothing; directional pairs are the only useful mood format
- Skipping the typography section because you haven’t picked fonts yet. Set the direction (serif/sans, weight contrast, all-caps usage) first; pick fonts later
- Setting the direction once and never updating after the first 3 months of execution. The brief should be a living doc, not a launch artifact
- Letting the brief get too long. Over one page and no one reads it; the discipline of one page is the value
- Skipping the on-brand tests. Without them, every design becomes a debate, and the loudest opinion wins
- Letting AI pick exact hex values. Use AI for direction (warm-amber palette), and pull actual hex from a color tool with accessibility checking
- Treating App Store screenshots as a stretch goal. They often get more impressions than your landing page; they need first-class direction, not afterthoughts
FAQ
- Can I use this as the actual brief to Fiverr / a designer?: Yes, but pair it with 5 reference images and one example deliverable (a draft screenshot or moodboard). Words alone are ambiguous; show + tell beats tell.
- How often should this be revisited?: After 6 months of execution. If you’re overriding the rules more than monthly, the rules are wrong — not the executions. Re-brief, don’t keep exception-handling.
- What if the founder has strong taste and overrides the brief weekly?: Make the brief reflect their taste explicitly: paste 5 examples of work they approved and 5 they rejected, have AI extract the pattern. The brief becomes their taste, externalized.
- Should this differ from the brand guide?: Yes. A brand guide is identity (logo, color, type). A visual direction doc is execution rules: how identity plays on real surfaces. You need both.
- Can AI generate the actual mood board?: It can generate sample images that match the direction (sanity check the brief), but use real industry references for the moodboard a designer uses.