What makes images belong together?
Open any website that feels off and look at the pictures. A sunny stock photo, a dark render, a cartoon icon, three different moods on one page. Nothing is wrong with any single image. They were not chosen by the same eye.
The style, not the single image. Put an Image style section in your brand book: light, palette, what the pictures show and what they never show. Then you can ask for ten images over a month and they look like they belong to the same company.
When do I use photos, and when illustrations?
- Your own photos where trust is the point: you, your work, your place, your clients (with permission).
- Illustrations for what is abstract: a flow, an idea, a process.
- Generated images for mood and background, but avoid faces and hands. They often come out wrong.
Your agent can also write simple illustrations as SVG, which is vector graphics. The files are tiny, sharp at any size and can use exactly your colours. That suits diagrams and icons better than photos.
How do I write a good image prompt?
The same formula every time: subject, setting, light, framing, colours, and what to leave out.
Image prompt builder
Same formula every time, so your pictures belong together.
Create three options for an image for [page or post]. Subject: [what]. Setting: [where]. Light: soft daylight. Framing: close-up. Colours: use the palette in BRAND.md. Leave out: text in the image, faces. Show them small first and ask which one I want in full size.
Draw a simple illustration as SVG that shows [flow or idea] in four steps. Use the colours in BRAND.md, rounded corners, the same line thickness everywhere and short labels. Show it before you save it.
How do I name and store the images?
- One images folder in the project, with subfolders per page or theme.
- Descriptive file names without spaces, like booking-flow-homepage.svg. Search engines read file names.
- Always alt text: one sentence that describes the image for someone who cannot see it.
- Photos under about 200 kB and no wider than about 1,600 pixels. Ask the agent to compress them.
Test: put six images side by side. Do they look like they come from the same company? If not, which one sticks out, and which line in Image style lacked an example?
What becomes possible?
With a style that holds, you can build a whole visual language, not just single pictures.
- An icon set for your services, eight or twelve icons in the same style.
- Diagrams that explain how you work, in your colours.
- Illustrated guides and checklists to hand out.
- Social cards that every week look like they come from the same house.
Create a set of eight icons as SVG for my services [list], in one style following BRAND.md: the same line thickness, rounded corners, two colours. Show them in a grid, then suggest three places where they would do the most good: on the website, in a proposal and in a post.
Questions people ask
May I use AI-generated images on my site?
Usually yes, but check the terms of the tool you use, and do not use people's faces or other people's work as a starting point.
Why do I get strange hands and text?
Image models struggle with details like hands and running text. Ask for images without text and with subjects where hands do not show.
Sources
Who is writing this
I am Nathaniel, a commercial operator. For twenty years, across four continents and more than fifteen ventures, I have taken research and young companies from idea to customer. Two KTH spin-offs reached joint development agreements with Fortune 500 partners. An indoor farm sold its full production within about ninety days and ended in a joint venture exit. This year I am a commercial expert for the European Innovation Council's Tech to Market programme. Now I build agents, because the hard part of new technology is rarely the technology. It is getting people to want it and use it.
Want to do this together?
In two hours I can build this with you: Images and illustrations.