Claude Design: How to Create On-Brand Visuals With AI

Want to create professional-looking slides, websites, and animations without hiring a designer or learning complex software? Wondering how to keep every piece of visual content on-brand across platforms?

In this article, you'll discover how to use Claude Design to build a design system, create on-brand visuals, and automate content workflows that used to take hours.

What Is Claude Design?

When most people hear “AI” and “design” in the same sentence, they immediately think of generative AI tools like Midjourney or ChatGPT that create images from a prompt. Claude Design does not do that. It does not generate images at all.

Instead, Claude Design is a layout and front-end design tool built by Anthropic. Think of it more like Adobe InDesign than an image generator. It handles the arrangement of fonts, colors, spacing, and visual elements that make a page or a slide look polished and professional.

The layout side of design is what most creators actually struggle with. Anyone can generate an image with a prompt, but composing that image alongside text, white space, and branding elements in a way that looks intentional is a different skill entirely. Claude Design handles that composition.

For solopreneurs and small teams without access to a professional designer, Claude Design serves as an on-demand front-end designer. A front-end designer's job is to design the look and the feel of something, whether that's a website, a slide deck, a PDF, or a landing page. The careful selection of colors, fonts, images, and white space that makes a website look beautiful rather than cluttered is exactly what Claude Design produces.

The platform is accessible through claude.ai by clicking the design button at the bottom left of the screen. The desktop app has the same entry point. The tool is still in Anthropic's labs, so the interface continues to evolve. When Claude Design first launched, it had its own separate usage limits, and users would frequently time out. Now it ties into the general Claude credits, so there is no separate usage meter to monitor.

#1: How to Build a Design System With Claude Design

The single most important step before creating anything in Claude Design is building a design system. A design system is essentially a standard operating guide for how a brand or product should look. It includes fonts, colors, swatches, logos, spacing rules, animation styles, and any other visual element that defines a brand's identity.

Many creators are familiar with Canva's brand kit, which stores a logo and fonts that get pulled into new designs. Claude Design takes that concept further. Rather than just storing assets, the design system considers how those assets should be used across different contexts. It adjusts usage depending on whether the output is a website, a slide deck, or a client-facing PDF.

Because the design system is stored as code, specifically as a Markdown file called design.md, the system is portable. That design.md file can be plugged into any AI model or platform. If the AI landscape shifts and a new tool becomes dominant, the design system can be transferred without starting from scratch.

What’s more, Claude Design supports multiple design systems within a single account. A creator who runs two shows or works with multiple clients can maintain a separate design system for each one, switching between them depending on the project.

Jeff creates design systems for his clients based on their logos and podcast artwork. When he sends a report or even an email template using the client's own design system, the result looks so professional that clients ask how he did it. Building design systems for clients is also a service that can be offered as a paid deliverable.

Building a design system takes about 10 minutes or more. The process begins with providing materials. Logos, color swatches from Pinterest, screenshots from websites, podcast artwork, or any visual reference that represents the desired look can be dragged directly into the interface.

Claude Design will ask clarifying questions during setup. This is by design, as visual preferences are personal and the tool needs specific input to get the system right. The setup process in Claude Design asks design-specific questions that go beyond what Claude Code or Claude Cowork would ask when prompted to build something visual.

Jeff Sieh recommends skipping the one-click answer buttons during setup and instead using the open text fields to provide more context. Voice input through a tool like Wispr Flow works especially well here because speaking naturally provides far more detail than clicking preset options.

Providing a website URL during setup is also valuable. Claude Design will scrape the site and pull in not just visual style but also written tone, giving the system a fuller picture of the brand.

The design system doesn't just store colors and fonts. It stores understanding. The more context provided during setup, the more intelligently the system applies that understanding across every output.

When Jeff was building his own design system, he wanted to capture a 1950s and '60s retro-futurism aesthetic, something like The Jetsons meets Fantastic Four. Through workshopping the concept back and forth with Claude Design, he discovered the style was called Googie architecture.

Once he added that term to his design system, Claude Design understood the entire architectural style and began applying it throughout his work, from background elements in layouts to the image prompts it generated for ChatGPT.

#2: How to Interact With Claude Design

The most effective way to interact with Claude Design is to speak to it. Using a voice-to-text tool like Wispr Flow, designers can dictate instructions naturally rather than typing requests or clicking through menus.

Claude Design is essentially a chatbot that also happens to be a designer, so instructions like “I want more white space between the headline and the body text” or “Show me this in a darker color palette” work exactly the way they would if spoken to a human designer.

Requesting Multiple Iterations

One of the strongest techniques for achieving good results is to ask for multiple options at once. Rather than requesting a single landing page design and iterating from there, asking for five different versions at once works far better. Claude Design will generate all five, and then the refinement conversation becomes more productive.

Direct Click-and-Drag Editing

Once a design is generated, elements can be edited directly by clicking and dragging. Text can be retyped, headlines can be repositioned, and spacing can be adjusted manually. These direct edits do not consume any credits, which makes them the most efficient way to handle small tweaks.

#3: Using Skills and Templates in Claude Design

Using Skills Inside Claude Design

Claude Design supports skills, which are reusable instruction sets that modify how the tool operates.

Jeff uses an anti-AI slop skill that ensures all generated text avoids common AI tells, such as excessive hyphens, generic phrasing, and emojis. This skill runs directly inside Claude Design, so the text in every layout is cleaned up during creation rather than in a separate editing pass.

He also uses a voice-matching .md file that has analyzed his emails and writing style, so Claude Design produces text that sounds like him.

Using Built-In Templates

Claude Design includes built-in templates for mobile app design, slides, documents, wireframes, animation, user interface, mockups, resumes, 3D objects, research, HTML emails, color and type pairing, diagrams, and filler. These templates serve as starting points, but the real flexibility comes from combining them with a custom design system. Any template can be generated using any design system, so the output always matches the brand.

The built-in templates shouldn't be treated as boundaries. Anything that can be imagined can likely be built, even if no template exists for it. When a specific capability, such as a camera push-in effect, isn't available, Claude Design can build the tool to create it.

Creating Custom Templates

Claude Design stores projects, design systems, and templates in separate tabs. Templates can be created for any repeating format.

Jeff has built templates for landing pages and even for Ecamm Live scenes, the live-streaming software he uses for Creator News Live. When he needs a new scene layout, the template gives the design system a starting point that already matches his show's visual style.

#4: Creating Assets and Media With Claude Design

Building Websites, Landing Pages, and Software Mockups

Claude Design can produce complete web pages, landing pages, and website mockups. The output is functional HTML that can be deployed directly or handed to a developer for integration.

Jeff uses Claude Design to build web pages for clients and for his own projects. When his link-in-bio service shut down, he pointed Claude Code at the broken tool, referenced his design system, and it built a custom WordPress plugin that automatically pulls in his latest YouTube videos and blog posts, all styled to match his brand.

For software teams, Claude Design opens up a mockup workflow. For the NoteGo app, Mike’s team created a design system specifically focused on software user interfaces. New features and functions can now be mocked up in Claude Design and reviewed before any code is written. Previously, the developer would build the full feature in Claude Code, only to learn the design needed changes. The mockup step catches those changes before development time is spent.

Creating Animations and Motion Graphics

Claude Design includes animation capabilities that go beyond simple transitions. The tool can produce After Effects-style motion graphics, the kind of high-end animations that traditionally take days to create manually.

The animations Claude Design creates are vector-based and rendered in code rather than as video files. This means they take up almost no storage space and can be embedded directly into websites or other digital content without the file size concerns that come with video.

For a practical example, a five-step instruction process can be animated within the design system. Claude Design figures out how to draw each step using vector animations that render on screen, creating a polished walkthrough without ever generating a video file.

The animation tools can also be used to build custom effects. When a standard slow push-in or pull-back camera move wasn't available, Claude Design offered to build the tool to create that specific effect. It's limited primarily by imagination rather than by a fixed set of capabilities.

Pairing With ChatGPT for Image Generation

Because Claude Design handles layout and composition but not image creation, pairing it with ChatGPT fills that gap.

Claude Design can write image generation prompts that include the exact hex codes from the design system. Those prompts are copied to ChatGPT, which generates images that match the brand's color palette. The images are then dragged back into Claude Design and placed into the layout.

This same approach works with Midjourney. The design system's carousel skill produces two sets of prompts, one formatted for each image generator, so creators can choose whichever platform produces the best results for a given project.

#5: Automating Content Workflows With Your Design System

The real power of a design system emerges when it's connected to automated workflows. Three examples from Jeff's production process demonstrate how far this can go.

Automated Podcast Cheat Sheets

Jeff wanted to create a downloadable cheat sheet for every episode of Creator News Live, something inspired by Amy Porterfield's approach of offering a downloadable resource with each podcast episode. Before AI, this would have required a team and most of a day's work per episode. Now the entire show production takes 30 to 45 minutes, and the cheat sheet is part of that.

The automated system reads the episode transcript, pulls the relevant information, applies the design system to format the cheat sheet, generates a thumbnail, uploads it to Jeff's website, and publishes it as a draft kit ready to distribute. The entire process runs automatically after the show ends. The results can be seen at jeffsieh.com/cheatsheet.

The Carousel Automation System

The carousel workflow is a multi-step automated process built in Claude Code that turns an hour-long show transcript into finished carousel posts for Instagram and LinkedIn.

The system follows this sequence: it takes the transcript, identifies sections that would make strong carousel content using a specific formula (hook, two builds, payoff, and call to action), and then generates dual image prompts, one optimized for Midjourney and one for ChatGPT. Both prompts include the exact hex codes from the design system, so the generated images match the brand colors.

The only manual step is rendering the images in ChatGPT (or Midjourney) and placing them in a designated folder. Once the images are in the folder, the system detects them automatically. A Python script analyzes each image to determine optimal text placement, and then the system builds the complete carousel with alternating dark and light backgrounds.

The output includes the carousel images formatted as a PDF for LinkedIn since LinkedIn uses PDF format for carousel-style posts), individual images formatted for Instagram, captions written specifically for each platform based on the transcript, and the entire package delivered to Slack for the team to review and post.

Video Editing With ChatCut

A newer application pairs Claude Design with ChatCut, an AI video-editing tool (not to be confused with CapCut). ChatCut connects to either OpenAI or Claude Code and allows video editing through voice commands.

Because ChatCut can reference a Claude Design system, all motion graphics, lower thirds, and visual elements generated during the edit automatically match the brand. Jeff edited an entire episode of Creator News Live without touching a keyboard. Every visual element was spoken into existence and matched his design system.

YouTube Thumbnails

When a design system is loaded into a Claude Code project, Claude automatically references it whenever visual assets are needed. Jeff's thumbnail workflow inside Claude Code writes the image prompts with the correct hex codes for ChatGPT without being asked, because the design system is already part of the project. The thumbnails come back matching the brand colors, fonts, and overall aesthetic every time.

#6: Exporting the Design System to Other Tools

The design system can be exported from Claude Design to work across multiple platforms. Although Claude Design lives in its own environment, separate from Claude Code and Claude Cowork, several export options bridge that gap.

The export options available directly within Claude Design include PDF, project HTML (which packages all assets into HTML for developers), PowerPoint, and direct connections to Claude Code, Adobe, Canva, Gamma, and Google Slides. More integrations continue to be added.

The design.md Workflow

For creators who want to use their design system in Claude Cowork or Claude Code, the process is straightforward. Inside Claude Design, ask it to create a design.md file, a Markdown file that contains everything the design system needs. Download that file, then drag it into any project folder in Cowork. From that point forward, any design work within the project automatically references the design system.

The design.md file can also be shared with other AI systems. Because Markdown is a simple, widely understood format, the file works across different AI platforms without conversion or compatibility issues.

Working With Gamma for Slides

Gamma is an AI slide-generation tool that integrates directly with Claude. After building a design system in Claude Design, the system can be tied into Gamma. Slides built through Gamma then automatically use the correct colors, fonts, logos, and other brand elements.

The workflow for a presentation looks like this: outline the talk, have Claude help refine the hooks and structure, then send it to Gamma. Because the design system is already in place, the slides come back fully branded without any manual formatting.

Other Notes From This Episode

• Connect with Michael Stelzner @Stelzner on Facebook and @Mike_Stelzner on X.
• Watch this interview and other exclusive content from Social Media Examiner on YouTube.

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