AI Brand Guidelines: The One-Page Template Your Image Tools Can Actually Follow

AI brand guidelines are a short, written set of rules that an image tool can follow and a human can check: your colours, composition, text rules, people rules, banned depictions and who approves the result. Your existing brand book is usually too long and too vague for that. This guide gives you a one-page template you can paste into any tool, and explains why each line is there.

The template is a starting point, not a tested result. We have not yet published before-and-after outputs comparing images with and without the block, so treat the effect on output quality as something to measure on your own brand.

Why a normal brand book does not work for AI tools

A brand book is written for designers who can ask questions. An image model cannot. It needs the rules as short, concrete instructions it can act on every time, and a reviewer needs the same rules as a checklist. Commercial tools already treat this as a feature: Superside's pricing page says its software fee covers brand models and in-platform image generation, and Awesomic lists "brand memory" among the features of every plan. If a vendor stores your brand rules for you, you still need to write them first.

The one-page AI brand guidelines template

Copy this into a document, fill every line, and keep it under one page. Paste the "Style block" into the prompt or settings of whichever tool you use.

BRAND STYLE BLOCK (paste into every prompt or tool setting)
Brand in one line: [who we are, who we sell to, tone in three words]
Colours: primary [#hex], secondary [#hex], accent [#hex]. Background default: [#hex].
Colour use: primary on about [x] of the image, accent only for one focal element.
Image style: [photographic / flat illustration / 3D / line art]. Lighting: [soft daylight / studio].
Composition: leave the [left/right/top] third empty for copy. Subject centred or on thirds: [choose].
Aspect ratios we use: [1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9, 3:1].
People: [how we show people: ages, settings, no close-up faces, hands visible or not].
Never depict: [competitor names, logos of other brands, real people's likeness, flags, medical claims].
Text in image: [none / headline only]. Body copy is added in the design tool, never generated.
Accessibility: text on images must meet 4.5:1 contrast (3:1 for large text).
Reference set: [3 to 6 approved images; link]
Rights: tool and plan used: [name], commercial use confirmed on [date].
Review: owner [name], second reviewer [name], checklist [link].

Why each line is there

Colours with hex codes, and a usage ratio

Models respond to named colours loosely. Give hex codes in the block and still check the result with a colour picker in your design tool. The ratio line stops the common failure where an accent colour floods the whole image.

"Body copy is added in the design tool"

Text generated inside an image is the error buyers notice first. Keep headlines short if you generate them, and add body text, prices and legal lines in your editor. If you do generate text, check contrast: WCAG requires at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text at level AA, and the ratio should not be rounded, so 4.499:1 fails.

A reference set of three to six images

Reference images tell a model more than adjectives do. How many to use is something to test; we have not tested whether one, three or six references reduce drift, so start with three and compare against your own approved work.

"Never depict"

This is your brand-safety line. List what must never appear: other brands' marks, real people, medical or financial claims you cannot support, and sensitive symbols. Add a check for it in the review step rather than hoping the prompt prevents it.

Rights and tool line

Record which tool and plan produced an image and when you confirmed the terms allow commercial use. Rules differ by plan: Midjourney, for example, requires a Pro or Mega plan for companies above a revenue threshold, as described in its plans documentation (VERIFY the exact wording). The US Copyright Office has said that prompts alone do not provide enough human control to make the user the author of an output, so keep your logo and core brand marks human-made. We explain what that means in can you copyright AI-generated images.

A short review checklist to go with it

Give the reviewer a checklist that mirrors the block, and keep a log of what they rejected.

• Colours match the hex codes in the block (checked with a picker).
• Nothing on the "never depict" list appears.
• Text is spelled correctly, readable and meets contrast.
• Hands, faces and product details look right at full size.
• For edited product photos, the product and label are unchanged from the original.
• Tool, plan and date are recorded.

How to use the block across tools

Put the same block at the start of every prompt, then add the brief for the specific asset. When you compare tools, hold the block constant so the difference you see is the tool, not the instructions. Our guide to choosing an AI image generator for marketing and the ten-brief Midjourney, Nano Banana and ChatGPT test both assume you start from a block like this. For ad platforms that generate many versions at once, see AI ad creative tools.

What we have not tested

We have not measured how much the style block improves outputs, how many references are ideal, or how well each tool follows a named hex code. We also did not open the style-reference documentation of any tool for this guide, so it makes no tool-specific claims about reference features.

Frequently asked questions

Do AI brand guidelines replace my brand book?

No. They are a short working extract of it for tools and reviewers. Keep the brand book for designers and update the block when it changes.

Can I use a hex code in a prompt?

You can write one, but models may only approximate it. Treat the hex code as an instruction and check the result with a colour picker.

Who should own the document?

One named person, with a second reviewer. Put both names in the block and review it every quarter or whenever a tool changes.