AI image creation starts with a clear visual job
Decide what your image should communicate before choosing a style. Build a brief, select a suitable starting point on 11Labs AI and judge the result against the work it needs to do: explain a concept, set a mood or support a message.
Plan your imageExplore visual possibilities
Style and composition inspiration. These images are separate from this guide's worked examples.
Are you creating something new or changing a photo?
New visual
Use a written brief to explore an illustration, imagined setting or concept. Describe the subject, surroundings and arrangement before decorative details.
Existing image
Start from your own photo when a particular object or person matters. Choose an available editing operation and list the details that must remain recognizable.
Finished communication
Plan the space for headings, labels or a logo. Keep important information in an editable layout so corrections do not depend on regenerating the entire image.
These are different jobs. An attractive generated product concept is not a faithful photo of an item for sale. A reference image can guide a visual direction, but exact shapes, faces and lettering still need review.
From brief to selected image
Write the message in one sentence
For example: invite neighbors to help at a community garden. Name the audience and destination so you can decide what belongs in the picture.
Translate the message into visible choices
Choose a main subject, a setting, a viewpoint and a treatment. Say where you need empty space. Select a supported aspect ratio in the workspace to fit the intended layout.
Make the first version easy to assess
Keep the scene simple enough to tell whether the idea works. If you supply a reference, state what it should guide: composition, palette or the appearance of an object.
Review, then change one decision
Check the focal point and visual hierarchy before small details. Keep a useful version and adjust one issue, such as crowded framing, instead of rewriting the whole brief at once.
Worked brief: a community-garden invitation
Editorial illustration of two neighbors planting seedlings in a raised wooden garden bed. Eye-level view, with a watering can in the foreground and a few simple buildings behind them. Fresh green and warm terracotta palette, flat shapes with subtle paper texture. Place the activity on the right and leave an uncluttered pale area on the left for a heading. No lettering inside the illustration.
The acceptance test is practical: can a viewer understand “people gardening together” at a small size, and is the left side usable for event details? If tools and plants overwhelm the people, reduce those details. Add the date and meeting point in your layout after selecting the illustration, then check the final message for accuracy.
Use references to make visual decisions
The rider and bull give this frame a clear subject and action, while backlit dust separates them from the barn interior. Those are concrete choices you can describe: subject, gesture, setting and light direction. Use that kind of observation to write your own brief rather than asking for an unexplained “same style.”
AI image questions
What should I put in my first prompt?
Start with the main subject and action, the setting and the composition. Add a visual treatment after those decisions are clear. Remove details that do not help the image's purpose.
Can I rely on generated text or factual diagrams?
Read every label and verify every fact. For exact dates, measurements, branding or accessible reading order, use an editable layout and check it separately from the illustration.
When should I stop generating alternatives?
Stop when a version meets the brief and passes your review. If the remaining issue is a precise crop or a line of text, a conventional layout edit may be more appropriate than another generation.