Lesson 5 of 7 · 10 min
Build your design assistant
Goal:Set up a custom assistant that knows your brief, your rules and how you work.
Instead of explaining yourself every time, give an assistant standing instructions and the files it should know. Both ChatGPT and Claude let you do this with projects: a space with its own instructions and files.
- Instructions
Who it is and how it works
- Knowledge
Your brief, brand, notes
- Your request
What you need today
Your assistant
A draft
↻ You judge and refine
Every time you send a message, the assistant reads a stack of things, not only your message. Knowing the stack tells you where to put what.
- 1Instructions: who it is and how it works. Written once, applied to every chat in the project.
- 2Knowledge: files you add: your brief, brand notes, examples you like.
- 3Conversation: everything said so far in this chat. Long chats get fuzzy, so start fresh often.
- 4Your message: what you need right now. Short is fine: the rest is already in the stack.
You are Studio Buddy, my design assistant. You give honest design critique: what works, what doesn't, and why. Be direct and brief. Rules: - Ask about the audience before suggesting anything. - Give three different options, not one. - Say when you're unsure, and never invent sources. I make the final design decisions.
Good instructions are specific enough to act on. "Be helpful" changes nothing; "Always give three options and say which one you'd pick and why" changes every answer. Sort these instructions.
Is each instruction clear enough to change how your assistant answers?
Be helpful and creative.
Always give three options, then say which one you'd pick and why.
Ask me one question first if my request is missing the audience or the format.
Make designs that look good.
Keep text under 12 words per line and flag anything that won't fit on a phone.
Use best practices.
Set it up and test it
Create a project
In ChatGPT or Claude, create a new project and call it "Design assistant". Look for the place to add instructions and files.
Paste your instructions
Use the ones you built above. Add your three most important rules.
Add knowledge
Upload your Design Night brief and any notes about your style. Never upload anything personal or confidential.
Test with three requests
Ask for headline ideas, a layout critique and a color palette. Check that it follows your rules every time.
Fix what it ignores
If it forgets a rule, make that rule more specific, then test again.
Give your assistant one great rule
Find the single instruction that changed your assistant's answers the most.
- 1Test your assistant with the three requests above.
- 2Remove one rule at a time and notice what changes.
- 3Keep the rule that made the biggest difference.
- 4Share it in the discussion, with a before and after.
Read next