What it is

A visual style guide is where you define how your images should look, so the ones Austen makes for you match your brand. You set the medium (photography, illustration, flat graphics, or another style), the palette your brand uses, the mood you want pictures to carry, and reference images that show the kind of result you are after.

Once it is in place, every image Austen generates follows it. The hero image on an article and the picture on a social post draw from the same rules, so your visuals hang together instead of looking like they came from three different sources.

How it helps you

Generic imagery is one of the quickest ways for content to feel cheap. Stock photos that anyone can buy, colours that clash with your site, a mood that does not fit your message: each one chips away at how polished your brand looks. Fixing it by hand means a designer in the loop for every single picture, which does not scale.

The visual style guide solves this once. You decide how your brand should look, and that decision is applied automatically from then on. You get images that fit your site and your audience without commissioning each one.

A few concrete benefits:

Visuals that match your brand colours and style rather than generic stock.
A consistent look across articles, social, and other assets.
Less back and forth with designers for routine images.
Reference images that pin down your taste better than a written description alone.

Who it's for

The visual style guide helps founders who want professional-looking content without hiring a design team. It helps marketing teams who need a repeatable look across a lot of output. It helps agencies who maintain a separate visual identity for each client and need a fast way to keep them apart.

If your writing is on-brand but your images keep letting the side down, this is the part that closes the gap.

How it fits the rest of Austen

The visual style guide is the rulebook that On-brand image generation follows. You set the look here once, and every image you create draws from it, so you are not redefining your style each time you need a picture.

It sits alongside Brand voice as the visual half of your brand. Voice keeps the words consistent, the style guide keeps the imagery consistent, and together they make published content feel like one coherent brand.

Common questions

What do I need to set up? You choose your medium, palette, and mood, and you can add reference images that show the style you want. The more you provide, the closer the results.

Can I change the style later? Yes. Update the guide whenever your brand evolves, and new images will follow the updated rules.

Do reference images get copied? No. They guide the look and feel of what Austen creates so new images sit in your style. They are direction, not a source to reproduce.

Ready to make every image look like yours? Start free with 5 articles, no card required.