A Guideline is a reusable creation template that captures your preferred model, pose, background, and style settings — all in one place. Instead of reconfiguring every shoot from scratch, you create a Guideline once and generate images with a single click.
Why Guidelines Matter
If you're shooting a product range — say, 50 SKUs for a new summer collection — you don't want to pick the same model, pose pack, and background 50 times. A Guideline locks in those decisions. Every image generated from the same Guideline looks visually consistent, which matters for:
Catalogue consistency — all products shot in the same style look cohesive on a listing page
Brand standards — locking in your brand's preferred aesthetic so every image is on-brand
Speed — skip the multi-step creation flow; generate directly from a Guideline in seconds
Team scale — anyone on your team can use a Guideline without needing to know your preferred settings
Example: A brand shooting 200 products for their new winter line creates one Guideline — "Winter Editorial 2025" — with an outdoor snowy background, a specific model, and a full-body standing pose. All 200 products are generated through that one template. Every image matches.
Types of Guidelines
Custom Guidelines
Guidelines you build yourself from scratch. Every setting — model, pose, background, styling, and output type — is configured by you and saved as a reusable template. Custom Guidelines give you the most control and are the best way to lock in your brand's specific aesthetic.
Custom Guidelines can be in one of two states:
Active — visible in your library, available for generation
Archived — hidden from the main library but preserved for future use
Standard Guidelines
Pre-built templates created by the Whatmore team. Ready to use out of the box — they cover common styles like studio white, outdoor lifestyle, and urban editorial. A good starting point if you're new to AI Studio or want to test a style before building your own.
What a Guideline Captures
The Guideline form is organised into two areas — Setup and Output Types.
Setup
Section | What it controls |
Model References | Which model to use — choose from 95+ presets, upload your own reference media, or describe via text |
Dimensions | Output aspect ratio — Square (1:1), Cinematic (16:9), Vertical (9:16), Broadcast (4:3), Album (3:4), Reel (2:3), or Panoramic (3:2) |
Styling Accessories | Props and styling elements — choose from 29+ presets, upload references, or describe via text |
Do's | Things to include or emphasise in every creation |
Don'ts | Things to avoid in every creation |
Output Types
Section | What it controls |
Poses and Framing (Images) | Pose, angle, and framing — 291+ presets, references, or text instruction |
Aesthetics and Background (Images) | Background environment — 295+ presets, references, or text instruction |
Videos | Video-specific generation settings |
A+ Content Images | Enhanced content image settings |
Hanger Rack Images | Product-on-hanger output settings |
Floor Display Images | Floor display output settings |
Note: You can toggle between Product and Banner guideline types at the top of the form — each has its own configuration options.
Guidelines vs Creating from Scratch
| Create from Scratch | Create from a Guideline |
Speed | Multi-step flow | 1 step — product upload only |
Control | Full, per-run | Pre-set at template level |
Consistency | Varies per run | Locked in |
Best for | Exploration, one-offs, new styles | Bulk generation, consistent campaigns |
Use Create from Scratch when testing a new style or when you need to tweak settings for a specific product. Use Create from a Guideline once you've found a setup that works and want to apply it at scale.