Style Consistency & Brand Kits

One good image is easy. A set of images that clearly belong together is what clients pay for. That means the same character across scenes, the same look across a campaign, and the same mood across a brand. It is also where amateur AI work falls apart. This lesson is about consistency: how to lock down a style, keep a character recognizable and build a visual system you can repeat.

Build a style block

Write one reusable paragraph that describes the look. Cover the medium, lighting, color palette, line quality, texture and composition habits. Paste it at the end of every prompt. Keep the subject part variable and the style part frozen. Then, when you change one, you know which one caused the change.

STYLE BLOCK (frozen): soft gouache illustration with visible paper grain, limited palette of
cream (#F4EBD9), terracotta (#C8553D), deep teal (#1F4E5F) and mustard (#E0A83A), flat shapes with
slightly imperfect hand-cut edges, gentle top-left light, generous empty space, no outlines, no gradients,
no text.

SUBJECT (variable): {{scene_description}}

FORMAT: {{aspect_ratio}}

Consistency tools

• Style references: give the tool 2 to 5 images in your target look, and use a moderate strength. Too high copies the content. Too low ignores the style.
• Character or subject references: give it the character sheet as a reference, so the face, outfit and proportions stay the same.
• Seeds: useful for tiny variations of one image, and less reliable across different scenes.
• Fixed wording: describe the character in exactly the same way every time, with the same adjectives, in the same order, with the same clothing details.
• Fine-tuned or adapter models, in open-weight tools: train a small model on your own images to lock in a style or a character. This is powerful. It needs the rights to the training images and some technical effort.
• Edit instead of regenerating: change one part of an approved image with inpainting, instead of rolling the dice on a new one.

The character sheet

Before you put a character in scenes, make a turnaround sheet. It shows the front, three-quarter, side and back views in a neutral pose on a plain background. Add expressions and key props, and a labeled palette. Get the client to approve it. Every later image refers to this sheet. Test consistency early. Put the character in three very different scenes before you commit to a campaign.

Character turnaround sheet of {{character_description}}: front, three-quarter, side and back views in a neutral
standing pose, plus a row of four expressions (neutral, happy, surprised, determined) and a panel of
signature props: {{props}}. {{style_block}} Plain light-grey background, even lighting, identical proportions
across all views, labelled color swatches.

A visual brand kit

• A palette with hex values and the share of each color.
• The frozen style block, and 3 to 5 approved example images that show what on brand looks like.
• Do and don't examples, including the common AI failures to reject.
• Composition templates for formats you repeat, such as a social post, a banner, a story and a thumbnail, with safe zones for text.
• Naming and file rules, so that the team can find and reuse assets.

Stay on the right side of style and trademarks

• Do not name living artists or particular brands as style shortcuts in commercial work. Describe the qualities instead.
• Do not make or imitate other companies' protected characters, mascots or logos.
• If you train an adapter model, use images you own or have clear permission to use, and keep records.