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- Drop the Design Brief. Build a Brand with Prompts.
Drop the Design Brief. Build a Brand with Prompts.
Create your product’s identity - logo, colors, tone - using ChatGPT and zero design tools.
Faisal Shariff
April 25, 2025
Hi, and welcome to The Atomic Builder!
This is where product managers, founders, and non-tech creators learn to master AI-powered software building.
This is the third and final part of our trilogy on visual creation in the AI era.
It’s a corker.
No agency. No style guide. Just smart prompts, good taste, and a bit of swagger…
Got this from a friend? Join other product managers, founders, and creators staying ahead of AI-powered product building. Subscribe to get The Atomic Builder every week.
🎯 Why Brand Before You Build?
Because people don’t remember specs.
They remember how something feels, whether it excites.
A strong brand helps your product punch above its weight from day one. Even if you’re still pre-launch.
A clear visual identity:
Builds trust in images
Signals intent and quality
Gives your MVP real-world presence
Makes you look like you mean business
You just need a good prompt to get started. I shared a formula in part 1, but luckily for you, I’m here to help you with that again!
Let’s dive in…
🧠 Meet ‘Dropkick’: Our Fictional Brand
Today, we’ll create a fictional brand, a brand with attitude, a brand so bad ass you’ll want to create it for real…maybe.
Meet ‘Dropkick’, a bold, fast, no-fluff productivity tool for creators.
What does it stand for?
💬 Clear over clever
🧨 Loud over polite
🛠️ Grit over polish
It’s designed to punch through chaos - not whisper about it and help you get s**t done.
Let’s build Dropkick’s brand identity from scratch - and do it all in ChatGPT.
🛠️ Step 1: Set the Brand Energy
The first thing you want to do is establish your brands vibe to best guide AI in crafting the right assets for you…
📥 Prompt:
“Help me define a visual brand for a productivity app called Dropkick. It’s bold, fast, and built for creators who are tired of overthinking. Think attitude, simplicity, and strong opinions. Visual inspiration: Liquid Death meets Superhuman.”
That’s pretty clear. Here’s what we get back from ChatGPT. It’s nailing the vibe I’m after. Let’s go with it:
🔥 Brand Core
Name: Dropkick
Tagline Option: Productivity that punches back. Strikes Hard.
Core Vibe: High-velocity, sharp-witted, anti-fluff. Think: less “flow state,” more “get s**t done.”
For: Creators, solopreneurs, designers, makers - people who ship fast and don’t want to waste time on tools that feel like chores.
Positioning: Dropkick is the productivity app for creators who don’t need another “zen workspace.” They need action. This is not a journal. It’s a weapon.
🎯 Brand Personality
Voice: Blunt, clever, and energetic. No passive voice. Minimalistic but not minimalist.
Values: Momentum over perfection. Simplicity with edge. Hustle, move fast.
🎨 Step 2: Visual Identity
Let’s use some of that identity in creating a color palette that is relevant to our new brand. Remember, we want swagger.
📥 Prompt:
“Create a color palette for Dropkick using the brand identity above. Include:
-1 primary color that feels aggressive but clean
-1 accent color for energy
-1 background color”
We want something punchy and bold. Remember, if you’re output isn’t quite resonating, question the output, go back and forth. I like what we get back from ChatGPT:
A clean, aggressive red that signals urgency, action, and strong opinions - but it’s not messy or chaotic. Like a decisive punch, not a brawl. It draws attention without overwhelming. Think: red pill energy, not red tape. | 🟢 Accent - | ⚫️ Background – Ultra BlackPure, deep black. It gives Dropkick the punk, Liquid Death, anti-fluff attitude. It lets your bold type and neon accents punch through, and gives everything a cinematic edge. |
🧠 What This Color Palette Says About Dropkick
Color | Emotion / Role | Brand Message |
|---|---|---|
Combat Red | Aggression, urgency, confidence | We don’t wait. We act. |
Electric Acid Lime | Speed, energy, innovation | We move fast and stand out. |
Ultra Black | Authority, attitude, clarity | We’re not afraid to take up space. |
🔷 Step 3: Design the Logo
Such an important part of the process - it’s how you and your brand will be identified. The description here is pretty key - you want to guide it as much as possible but still seek that creative license that it deserves.
📥 Prompt:
“Design a logo for Dropkick. Use a strong sans-serif typeface. Add an abstract icon - either a drop, a fist, or a kinetic shape. Use the color palette. Keep it bold and scalable.”
BOOOM! This is good. Swagger…
A brand not to be trifled with
🔠 Step 4: Choose Fonts That Match the Attitude
You can ask ChatGPT to suggest specific fonts to match your vibe. Use them in your future visuals. Ask ChatGPT to explain why it chose them.
📥 Prompt:
“Suggest two Google Fonts for Dropkick. One for headlines - loud, condensed, clean. One for body text - simple, readable, no-nonsense. Match the brand tone we defined. Explain your selections.”
We’re going to skip creating images with these fonts for today - consider it if you are setting up a brand from scratch!
🖼️ Step 5: Create Sample Visuals Using the Brand
This is where it gets fun!! Bring your whole identity together in assets that feel like the real thing.
⚡ Prompt 1: Homepage Hero
“Create a homepage hero image for Dropkick. A phone mockup shows a clean UI with task blocks. Add a gritty, high-contrast background. Include the tagline: ‘Plan Fast. Strike Hard.’ Use the logo we created and brand colors.”
✅ Output: Your first product page mockup - raw but resonant.
Raw but resonant?
📢 Prompt 2: Ad Visual
Let’s take our evolving brand and create some ad options for social media platforms.
“Instagram ad for Dropkick. Stark white text on black background. Big bold type. Include hand-drawn underline elements. Show a mobile app screenshot. Add the tagline: ‘The Calm App Can’t Help You Now.’”
✅ Output: Ready-to-test creative that speaks your brand’s language.
What calm app…
 You can also create pitch deck options… |  …with charts going in the right direction. |
📲 Prompt 3: App Icon
We want an app icon that will stand-out on a crowded smartphone home-screen.
“Create a square app icon for Dropkick. Use the abstract icon from the logo and the primary brand color. Add texture or shadow to give it weight.”
✅ Output: Maybe the red on red is a bit much, but something that could sit next to Notion or Figma - and hold its own.
A bit matchy matchy perhaps…
🧩 Optional Bonus: Your Brand Starter Guide
What I love about this process isn’t just the assets you can generate from a few cohesive prompts - but you can also create something that acts a your guiding star for the brand going forward.
📥 Prompt:
“Summarize Dropkick’s brand into a 1-page guide. Include tone of voice, logo usage, colors, typography, and sample do’s/don’ts.”
Rules of the road
This gives you a portable brand system. Screenshot it. Use it. Share it with collaborators.
🧪 Your Turn
Pick your own side project - even if it lives in your Notes app.
Use the starter prompt I shared above and create your own brand identity.
How far do you get? Tell me if you find the process useful. Tag it with #AtomicBuilder or reply to this issue - I’d love to feature a few next week! I really would!
💬 Final Thought
I really enjoyed this series exploring image generation and how it can positively impact the product process. It’s not software building per se, as I have been focused on, but is certainly product building, it’s really exciting to see the direction this goes in.
If you followed this 3-part series, you now have everything you need to bring your next idea to life - in pixels, tone, and attitude.
So the only question left is: How will you use this new superpower?
Until next time, keep experimenting, keep building, and as always - stay atomic. 👊
Faisal
You don’t need funding to look funded…
This Week’s Build Beats 🎵
Each issue, we pair the newsletter with a track to keep you inspired while you build.
This week, because ‘Dropkick’ is perfect for a brand that says "The Calm App Can’t Help You Now."
🎧 “POWER” – Kanye West
Grab the playlist on Spotify - I add to it each week!
Kanye’s back…
 | Thanks for Joining! I’m excited to help usher in this new wave of AI-empowered product builders. If you have any questions or want to share your own AI-building experiences (the successes and the failures), feel free to reply to this email or connect with me on socials. Until next time… Faisal |
P.S. Know someone who could benefit from AI-powered product building? Forward them this newsletter!
Pssst…
Are you still here?
Loving that Dropkick energy are you?
You want more?
I got a little bonus for you…
Dropkick phone wallpaper! What else...
The real question is, are we going to make this app or what..?
Wallpaper. No messy glue required