Turn a Client Brief Into an AI Image Prompt

A client brief is written for people. It says 'modern, warm, premium, for our spring launch' and trusts a human designer to fill the gaps. An image model cannot fill gaps the way a designer does: it fills them with the most average guess. The work between the brief and the prompt is translation, and it is mostly subtraction.

This post is a repeatable routine for that translation. It is about reading a brief, not about prompt syntax; for the syntax itself see our guide to writing prompts.

Step 1: Underline five things in the brief

Read the brief once with a pen and mark only what can appear in a picture. Everything else is background.

1. 01Subject: the one thing the image is about. If the brief names three, you have three images.
2. 02Setting: where it is, in plain nouns. 'Our brand world' is not a setting.
3. 03Mood: the feeling, turned into something visible such as light, weather or colour.
4. 04Format: where the picture will live, which decides the shape. See aspect ratios.
5. 05Constraints: what must be there (a product, a colour) and what must not (a competitor's look, certain objects).

Adjectives like 'premium', 'fresh' and 'authentic' go on a separate list. They are the client's taste, and you will turn them into concrete choices in step 3.

Step 2: Write the prompt in order

Put the five pieces into one sentence group in a steady order: subject first, then setting, then light and mood, then style. The reasons are in our note on word order. Leave the format out of the words; set it as the ratio in the studio.

Step 3: Turn taste words into choices

'Playful' can mean a bright colour, a tilted angle, a splash or a toy-like prop. Pick one and say it. If you cannot decide, that is a sign the brief needs an answer from the client, which brings us to step 4.

• Premium becomes one material and one calm light, not the word 'luxury'.
• Fresh becomes a colour and a time of day.
• Authentic becomes imperfect, ordinary surroundings.
• Modern becomes clean shapes and a plain background.

Step 4: Ask the three missing questions

Almost every brief leaves the same holes. Ask these before you generate anything beyond a first draft; they save more rounds than any prompt trick.

1. 01'Show me one picture you like and one you hate.' Two references tell you more about taste than a page of adjectives.
2. 02'Where will this appear, and what goes on top of it?' The answer sets the ratio, the empty space and the crop.
3. 03'What must stay exactly as it is?' A logo, a real product shape or a brand colour. Say honestly that a model can approximate a real product but will not copy it exactly; for that, start from the real photo with an edit.

Send the three questions in one message, with your first draft attached if you have one. Clients answer a picture faster than a question.

Step 5: Keep a one-line brief-to-prompt log

For each job, keep one line per round: the brief phrase, the prompt change you made because of it, and the client's reaction. It takes ten seconds and it ends two arguments: 'I never asked for that' and 'why did the second version look different'.

The log also feeds your budget. If you count the rounds a brief usually needs, you can quote with confidence; the method is in estimating the cost of an image project.

What this routine will not do

• It cannot rescue a brief with no subject. Go back to the client.
• It does not make the model draw a real logo or readable text correctly; add those afterwards in your design tool.
• It does not remove the need to review each picture. Check hands, small print and edges on every result.

When the prompt is ready, open the studio, run a quick first draft and show it to the client. You can compare the available options on the models page.