The Design studio makes marketing material for you with AI, in your own colors and voice: Pictures from a few words, Presentations written from a brief, and Short videos shot by shot. It lives under Marketing, in the Design tab, beside the Studio, Mailers and Social. Everything it makes lands among your pictures, so a flyer, a post, an email or a slide finds it there.
It is an add-on. Each month comes with an allowance of credits; what the Design studio costs on your plan is in Admin, under Billing, and so is the meter: "214 of 500 credits used this month".
Switching it on
Open Marketing, choose Design, then Pictures, Presentations or Short videos. The first time, the screen says what the studio does and what a credit buys, and an owner or an admin chooses Switch on the Design studio. From then on the Design studio counts as an add-on in use: Admin, Billing says what it costs on your plan, and Bring the plan up to date bills it from then on. A designer's login works in the studio as in the rest of Design, but does not switch it on.
Studio settings, at the top right of each studio screen, is where you allow extra credits past the allowance when your plan prices them, and where the studio is switched off again. What it made stays among your pictures either way.
Credits
A credit is the studio's unit. To start, a picture is 1 credit, a second of video is 2, and a presentation is 3; BookNovi can change those weights, and the screen always says what something costs before you ask for it. Your plan gives you so many credits a month, counted in your own time zone; the allowance starts again on the first of the month. A business on no plan yet, or on a plan that prices no allowance, gets the platform's free number.
- Within the allowance, what you ask for is made.
- Past it, the studio asks first: "This will use 3 extra credits past this month's allowance, at $0.50 each." Say yes and it goes ahead; the extra credits go on your organization's next invoice as one line. Extra credits need to be allowed in Studio settings, and your plan has to price them; otherwise the studio says when the allowance starts again.
- Something that is not made gives its credits back. A failed job says why in a sentence, and Try again asks for it again.
The meter on the Design tab and in Admin, Billing shows this month's credits against the allowance, and Studio settings lists each job's credits.
Pictures
- Under Pictures, say what the picture should show: the subject, the setting, the mood. Your colors and your brand voice from the knowledge boards go along with it. Words inside a picture rarely come out right; add them afterwards in the Studio.
- Pick its shape (square, portrait, story, landscape or a banner) and how many variants, up to four. Each variant costs a credit.
- Choose Make the picture. The card under it goes from Waiting its turn to Thinking to Done by itself; nothing to reload.
From any picture you made, or any of your pictures: Change a picture (say what should change and the rest stays), Take the background away (the subject on plain white) and Make it larger.
Tap a picture to open it: Download it, send it For an email or For a social post (it joins those designers' pictures), or Put it on a piece of the content plan. Flyers, mailers and posts in the Studio find it among your pictures already.
Presentations
- Under Presentations, choose New presentation and write the brief: what it is about and for whom. Set how many slides, from 3 to 40.
- Write it for me has the studio write every slide in your brand voice from your knowledge boards, laid out in the app's own slide layouts (a title slide, sections, points, two columns, a picture with words, one big statement, a closing slide) in your colors. Lay it out myself starts a blank one.
- Open it and edit any slide: its layout, the small line on top, the title, its points one a line, a picture from your pictures or one made for it (say what it should show and choose Make it; it lands on the slide when done), and speaker notes.
- Under Look, pick the main color, the accent, the paper, modern or classic lettering, and whether your logo sits on every slide.
Present shows it full screen from the slide you are on; the arrow keys, a tap on either side or the buttons move through it, and speaker notes can be shown under it. Download PDF gives one page a slide, drawn by the app in the same layouts. Share switches on a private link anyone can watch at; switch it off and the link opens nothing.
Short videos
A short video is a storyboard: a few shots, each a sentence of what happens and how long it runs, 2 to 15 seconds a shot, up to eight shots. A shot can start from one of your pictures.
- Under Short videos, choose New short video, name it, pick its shape (landscape, portrait for reels and stories, or square) and write the shots.
- Save, then Make the clips. The studio makes one clip a shot; each shot shows its clip as it comes, and a shot that did not work says why with Try again. A second of video is 2 credits, so a 20-second video is 40.
- Download the clips: one file with the clips numbered in order and a note of the sequence. Join them in your editor or your posting tool.
The studio makes the clips; it does not join them into one film. Video providers make clips of a few whole seconds, so a clip may run a little shorter or longer than asked, and the screen says how long it really is.
Best practices
- Fill the Brand voice board under Memory first: every picture and every slide is written with it.
- Ask for one picture, then variants of the one you like, rather than four of everything.
- Keep words out of pictures; put them on in the Studio, where your fonts and sizes hold.
- Save a presentation before you download its PDF, so the file has your latest changes.
- Watch the meter; a plan that prices extra credits lets you go past the allowance when a launch needs it.
Questions
Why does it say the studio answers with placeholders? No design provider is set up for the app yet. The owner of the app sets its key; until then every picture and clip is a placeholder, so the screens still work.
Why can a presentation not be written? Its words come from the assistant, which needs its own key. The screen says so before any credit is spent.
Where did a picture go? Among your pictures: the Studio, the email designer, social posts and the content plan all pick from them. The Pictures view lists everything the studio made, newest first.
Who sees a shared presentation? Anyone with its link while sharing is on. The link shows the slides and nothing else of your business.