How To Create Your Brand Kit With AI (Using Claude Design)
One prompt and four steps to your colours, fonts, logo and voice in Claude Design, built the way designers do it, without the generic AI look.
Short answer: gather a few screenshots of brands you like, open Claude Design, and paste one prompt. Claude interviews you first, then shows you three different brand directions with colours, fonts, a simple logo and your voice. You pick one, tweak it on the canvas, and save it so every future post comes out on brand. One prompt, four steps, about an hour.
Most AI branding looks the same.
Same cream background. Same fancy serif. Same “warm, approachable, premium” mush.
AI can do better. It just needs the bit designers never skip… the thinking before the pretty part.
So the prompt below makes Claude do that thinking with you first.
How designers build a brand
The standard textbook is Alina Wheeler’s Designing Brand Identity. It splits the work into five phases:
AI slop happens when you jump straight to phase 3. The one prompt in this guide runs phases 1 to 3 in order, in a single conversation. Steps 3 and 4 cover the rest.
What you end up with
- Colours: 4 to 5, with hex codes and a job for each
- Fonts: one for headings, one for everything else, both free
- Logo: a main version, a small square one and a one-colour one, as SVG files
- Voice: three words and a few “say this, not that” examples
- One page that holds it all, saved inside Claude so you never explain your brand again
What works on which plan
| Feature | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Design (designs on a canvas) | Yes | Yes |
| Projects (to save your kit) | Yes | Yes |
| Saved design systems | No | Yes (beta) |
| Anthropic’s design Skills | No | Yes |
From Anthropic’s help centre, October 2026. Menus move, so if something isn’t where I say, it’ll be one menu away.
Paid plan? Switch one thing on first: Settings, then Capabilities, then under Skills turn on frontend-design. It’s Anthropic’s own set of instructions for design that doesn’t look templated, and Claude will use it automatically.
Step 1: Grab your references (10 minutes)
No prompt yet. Just screenshot:
- 3 to 5 brands you love the look of. Any industry.
- 2 or 3 competitors. Their website or Instagram.
- Anything you’ve already got. Your current logo, website, a few posts.
This is the research designers do first, and it’s the single biggest thing that stops the generic look. AI copies the average when it has nothing to go on.
Step 2: Paste the one prompt into Claude Design (30 minutes)
- Open Claude and start a new chat.
- In the message box, open the Output menu and choose Design. Claude will now build on a canvas next to the chat.
- Attach your screenshots.
- Paste this, fill in the two lines, and send:
The only prompt you need:
You're a brand designer building a brand kit for my small business. I've attached brands I like and my competitors.
My business: [e.g. "I'm a VA for coaches and course creators, mostly UK, mostly women"]
Where it shows up most: [e.g. "Instagram, my website and invoices"]
Work like a designer, in this order:
1. Look at my screenshots and tell me in a few lines what the brands I like have in common, and what all my competitors look like.
2. Interview me, one question at a time: who I'm for, three words for how people should feel, what I'd hate to look like, and one thing particular to me or my business you could draw from. Push back if I say vague things like "clean" or "professional".
3. Then design a page with three really different directions. Each one gets: a name, 4 to 5 colours with hex codes, a heading and body font (free, from Google Fonts or Fontshare), a simple wordmark logo, three voice words, and a mock Instagram post. Under each, one line on why it suits me.
Rules: avoid the usual AI design look (cream with serif and terracotta, dark with one neon accent, identical rounded cards, decorative gradients) unless my answers point there. Text must pass 4.5:1 contrast. Never copy a real brand.
Ask me your first question now.Easier than typing: hit the microphone and answer its questions out loud, like you’re telling a mate about your business.
Step 3: Pick one and make it yours (15 minutes)
Now play with it on the canvas:
- Big changes, use the chat. “Go with direction 2, but the green’s a bit hospital.”
- Small changes, click the bit you want changed and leave a comment on just that part. Or drag, resize and recolour it directly.
- Tweaks: some designs give you little switches to flip between options. Use them.
When you’re happy, send one more message:
Make my final brand kit: a one-page brand board with my logo versions, colours and their jobs, fonts, voice and 5 do’s and don’ts, plus the logo as SVG files (main, square and one-colour).
Then hit Export (top right) and save it as a PDF, or send it to Canva.
Quick checks with free tools designers use:
- Paste your colours into Realtime Colors to see them on a real website layout
- Double-check your text colour in the WebAIM Contrast Checker
- Type your business name into your fonts on Google Fonts or Fontshare
Honest bit about logos: Claude draws logos as code. It’s great at wordmarks, monograms and simple badges. It can’t make photos or detailed illustrations. Loads of well-known brands are just their name in a good font, so for most small businesses a wordmark is plenty.
Step 4: Save it so you never explain it again (5 minutes)
Pick whichever fits:
- Paid plan: type “Create a design system from this brand kit.” Check what it pulls out, then switch on Published. Every new design starts on brand from then on.
- Free plan: make a Claude Project called “My brand” and upload the PDF. Anything you make in that project now knows your brand.
- Canva: the free plan includes one Brand Kit. Add your hex codes, fonts and SVG logo.
Why the prompt is built like that
Every line is there to stop a specific problem:
- Screenshots first: gives Claude something real to work from, instead of the average of the internet.
- One question at a time: you give better answers, and it can push back when you’re vague.
- “One thing particular to me”: distinctive design comes from the real stuff of your world. Anthropic’s own design skill makes the same point.
- Three directions: one option is a guess. Three is a choice.
- “Why it suits me”: if it can’t explain a colour, it picked a default.
- The “avoid” list: these are looks AI falls back on when nobody’s chosen anything. Anthropic lists them in its frontend-design skill as common tells of AI-generated design.
What it can look like
Say you’re a VA for coaches. Your answers say “calm, organised, quietly funny”, and the particular thing is that you work from a narrowboat. You could end up with:
- Colours: canal green #2F5D50, brass #C9A227 as a tiny accent, off-white #F7F5EF background, charcoal #2B2B2B text
- Fonts: a sturdy slab serif for headings, a plain sans for body, both from Google Fonts
- Logo: your name in the slab serif, with a small brass line under it, like a boat’s nameplate
- Voice: calm, clear, a bit dry. “Sorted” not “optimised”.
Every choice has a reason behind it. That’s what makes it yours.
Free design resources worth bookmarking
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Palette ideas | Coolors, Adobe Color |
| See colours in use | Realtime Colors |
| Contrast check | WebAIM Contrast Checker |
| Free fonts | Google Fonts, Fontshare |
| Open source icons | Lucide, Phosphor |
| A real brand guide | NHS identity |
| A real voice guide | Mailchimp Content Style Guide |
| How designers think about logos | Logo Design Love by David Airey |
| Example design systems for Claude | awesome-claude-design |
Where a designer comes in
AI is brilliant for getting clear on what you like and building a solid starter kit. Brand designers bring things it can’t: proper research, years of craft, illustration, and the eye to spot what’s not quite working.
Bring one in when:
- your brand’s going on a van, a shopfront or packaging (expensive to redo)
- you want to register it as a trade mark
- you’re in a market where looks win the sale, like beauty, food or interiors
- you’ve built the AI version and something’s still off, but you can’t say what
And when you do, your AI brand kit becomes their brief. They start from what you already know you like.
Top tips
- Fewer is better. Three colours you use every time beats eight you use randomly.
- Test it on real things. Ask for an Instagram post, an invoice header and an About page. If one feels off, fix the kit, not the post.
- Check it on a phone. That’s where most people will see it.
- Live with it for two weeks before you print anything.
The small print
- Ownership is a grey area. UK copyright in AI-made work has never been properly tested in court (Briffa’s explainer). If the logo really matters, a UK trade mark is the stronger protection. Registering one costs at least £205.
- Search before you commit. Google your name and logo idea, and check the UK trade mark register.
- Claude doesn’t make photos. It can describe your photo style and write a brief for a photographer.
- Design work uses your allowance like any other chat, and building files uses it faster. If it asks you to come back later, nothing’s broken.
The one thing to do tonight
Screenshot five brands you love. That’s it. Tomorrow, paste the prompt.
Already got a kit and want it on every slide? How to make branded slide decks with Claude picks up from here. And to make it sound like you as well, teach AI to write like you.
That’s your brand sorted in Claude. The Claude Kickstart sets Claude up around your actual trade, so everything it makes after this sounds and looks like you. £47, one weekend.
Quick answers
Can AI create a brand kit for my business?
Yes. Claude can interview you about your business, suggest colour palettes and font pairings, draw simple text-based logos, write your tone of voice and lay it all out as a brand board. You make the decisions, it does the legwork.
What is Claude Design?
Claude Design is Claude's design mode. You pick Design from the Output menu in the message box, describe what you want, and Claude builds it on a canvas next to the chat. You can comment on parts of it, edit it directly, share it, and export it as a PDF, PowerPoint, HTML or to Canva.
Is Claude Design free?
Making designs works on the free plan, and it uses the same allowance as your other chats. Saving a reusable design system is in beta on paid plans. On free, you can get the same effect by saving your brand kit into a Claude Project.
Can Claude design a logo?
Claude draws logos as code, so it's good at wordmarks, monograms and simple badges in your colours, and can give you SVG files. It can't make photos or detailed illustrated logos. For a mascot or a hand-drawn mark, work with a designer.
How do I stop AI designs looking generic?
Give it real references and answer its questions properly before it designs anything, tell it which AI design habits to avoid, ask for three different directions instead of one, and make it explain why each colour and font suits your business.
Do I own a logo made with AI in the UK?
It's a grey area. UK copyright in computer-generated work has never been properly tested in court, so don't rely on it. A distinctive logo can still be registered as a UK trade mark, which is the stronger protection. If it matters, ask an IP solicitor.