Banner Design

Generate on-brand banners for every placement — social media, display ads, email headers, and website heroes.

What This Skill Does

The Challenge: Marketing teams need banners in dozens of sizes for different platforms. Manual design is slow, inconsistent, and expensive. AI-generated visuals lack brand cohesion without structured guidelines.

The Solution: Banner Design skill combines AI image generation (Midjourney, DALL-E, Ideogram), brand token application, copy overlay patterns, and multi-format export. Produces campaign-ready banners with consistent typography, colors, and messaging hierarchy.

Activation

Implicit: Activates when user requests banners, ad creatives, hero images, or social media visuals.

Explicit: Activate via prompt:

Activate banner-design skill to create [banner type] for [platform/campaign]

Capabilities

1. Platform Size Presets

Pre-configured dimensions for every major placement.

Social media:

PlatformSizeFormat
LinkedIn cover1584×396pxPNG
Twitter/X header1500×500pxPNG
Instagram post1080×1080pxPNG
Facebook ad1200×628pxPNG

Display advertising:

  • Leaderboard: 728×90px
  • Medium rectangle: 300×250px
  • Half page: 300×600px
  • Billboard: 970×250px

2. AI Image Generation Prompts

Structured prompt templates for brand-consistent visuals.

Prompt structure:

[Subject] in [style], [mood], [color palette from brand],
professional marketing visual, high quality, [negative: text, watermarks]

Style presets: Photorealistic, flat illustration, isometric, abstract, gradient, dark/light mode.

3. Copy Overlay System

Hierarchy rules for headlines, subheads, CTAs on banners.

Banner anatomy:

  1. Visual (60% of space)
  2. Headline (large, high contrast)
  3. Subhead or benefit statement (optional)
  4. CTA button (bottom right or centered)
  5. Logo (corner, 10% of width)

4. Brand Token Application

Apply brand colors, fonts, and spacing automatically.

Brand variables: assets/brand/tokens.md

Prerequisites

  • AI image API key: OPENAI_API_KEY or GEMINI_API_KEY
  • ImageMagick for local compositing (optional)
  • Brand guidelines in assets/brand/

Best Practices

1. Design for smallest size first If 300×250 looks good, scale up. Reverse rarely works.

2. Keep copy to 5 words or fewer Banner viewers have 1.5 seconds. Short wins.

3. Test dark and light versions Many placements appear on varied backgrounds. Create both.

Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Product Launch Ad Set

Scenario: Create full ad set (5 sizes) for Google Display Network campaign.

Workflow:

  1. Generate hero visual with AI (1200×628 base)
  2. Write headline using copywriting skill (5 words max)
  3. Export to all display sizes using size presets
  4. Apply brand tokens (colors, logo placement)
  5. Save to assets/campaigns/product-launch/banners/

Use Case 2: Social Media Campaign Covers

Scenario: Update LinkedIn + Twitter covers for quarterly campaign.

Workflow:

  1. Select campaign color from brand palette
  2. Generate abstract background with AI
  3. Overlay company tagline and logo
  4. Export LinkedIn (1584×396) and Twitter (1500×500)

Troubleshooting

Issue: AI-generated visuals don’t match brand style Solution: Add brand reference images to prompt. Use style transfer or img2img with existing on-brand assets.

Issue: Text illegible on busy backgrounds Solution: Add semi-transparent overlay (60% black or white) behind text. Increase font weight.

  • /ckm:design - Design task routing
  • /ai-artist - Generate AI visuals