Templates that just work
Build a layout an agent can refill without breaking it, or spending much to do it.
A good braaand template is a container, not a finished picture. You set up how the pieces relate, the agent pours in copy and images, and BrandFit keeps it tidy. Get this right and an agent can turn out a hundred on brand variations without ever doing pixel math.
A simple test: could you double the length of every headline, swap every photo, and flip to a tall story format, and still get a clean layout with no manual nudging? If yes, the template just works.
Set up the container
When an agent edits a template, you want the layout to settle on its own (that's BrandFit, free and instant) rather than have the agent reason about coordinates (slow, expensive, and unreliable). Every fix BrandFit can make is one the agent doesn't have to think about, so it spends its budget on the message and the creative, not on moving boxes a few pixels.
The recipe
- Stack related text into a cluster. A heading, subheading, and button as one cluster is the biggest single win. The cluster holds the arrangement, so new copy just reflows inside it.
- Set roles, not fonts or colors. A text element carries a role like heading, body, or cta, and the brand supplies the typeface and color when it renders. Hardcode a color on a text element and you're fighting the cascade.
- Don't pin heights. Let text size itself. Drop stale heights and Fit to content keep the box matched to the words, so longer copy never clips.
- Anchor to guides, not coordinates. Anything that has to hug an edge or a baseline should anchor to a guide, or live in a cluster that does, so it holds across copy lengths and formats.
- Switch on the rules that match the template's risks (see the table below).
Which rules to turn on
| The risk | Turn on |
|---|---|
| Copy length varies a lot (agents rewrite headlines) | Overflow, Widow killer |
| A tall or condensed brand font reflows the stack | Cluster layout and Drop stale heights (both on already) |
| Text has to hug a safe margin | Edge crowding, Anchor snap |
| Headlines should fill the space | Underutilized text |
| Highlighted or knockout headlines | Knockout collision |
| Photos with a clear subject | POI alignment |
Start small. Add a rule when you see the problem it solves, not before.
Common situations
- An agent rewrites the headline twice as long. The cluster stacks it again, Overflow shrinks it to fit, and Widow killer cleans up a dangling last word. The agent changed the text and ran BrandFit once.
- A brand ships a tall, condensed display face. The lines stack differently from the neutral default. Cluster layout and Drop stale heights space the column out to the new font on their own.
- The same template across square, portrait, and story. Set the cluster up once, then let per format settings and auto scaling cover the rest. The cluster anchors to the right guide on each format.
- An agent swaps the hero photo. POI alignment frames the new subject so it stays where the template wants it, with no manual cropping.
What to avoid
- Fixed heights on text. They clip longer copy. Let text size itself.
- A color typed straight onto a text element. It breaks color schemes and dark or light. Use a role.
- Designing to one exact copy length. It looks perfect once and breaks on the first edit.
- Two rules set up to fight the same element. If BrandFit ever reports that rules are conflicting, that's the signal, usually a placement rule switched on against a cluster. Turn one off; the cluster should win.
Why this keeps cost down
BrandFit is deterministic and it settles. It stops as soon as the layout is stable and bows out safely if rules ever conflict. So an agent's loop stays short: change the words, run BrandFit once, done. No vision pass to reposition boxes, no back and forth, no runaway. The template does the layout thinking so the agent doesn't have to.