As a designer, I’m reallll picky about anything that touches my brand.

You kind of have to be when branding and web design is the whole business, but I think also as business owners, we naturally have this protective energy over our brand. It is our baby afterall.

So when a new tool promises to make on-brand emails for you, my first instinct was to be doubtful. We all know the capabilities of AI and design is not one of it’s strengths. At least not unique, stand-out design. AI can make something that looks highlight templated, and let’s be real, just AI coded.

But through my partnership with Flodesk, I was able to test their new platform they’ve been working on before it was released the the public.

For anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, Flodesk recently launched Flodesk Studio, a brand-new email design app, built by real human designers, accelerated by AI, and finished by you. You describe what you want, then Studio brings it to life, keeping things on-brand. (Which we love)

You can then refine it in chat or pixel by pixel. You can use it right inside Flodesk or export the HTML and drop it into whatever email platform you already use.

So instead of just telling you about it, let me walk you through exactly what I made, from start to finish.

Step One: I Picked a Real Email I Actually Wanted to Create

One of the most powerful things I can show a potential client is the transformation of working with me through before and afters, testimonials, and real results from my client’s experience.

A client case study newsletter does exactly that and that’s what I wanted to create inside Flodesk Studio.

Step Two: What I Typed In

My prompt was simple: I told it I needed a newsletter for my brand and website design studio, and that I wanted to highlight a recent project as a case study, showcasing the client wins and their feedback.

The first thing that surprised me was that it didn’t just spit something out, it asked me questions first.

So I answered all the questions in the chat and waited for the next response.

Step Three: What It Kicked Out

Flodesk Studio created three full newsletter options.

And I was bracing for it to give me generic, lifeless, templated design. But the three options were actually good.

They were fully templated layouts where I could drop in my own images, and they were already structured to carry a reader through a journey.

The design was also perfectly on-brand as it pulled from my fonts and colors that were already in my Flodesk brand kit. The strategy was pretty good too and the layout moved people through a real system, introducing the client, building toward the wins, landing on the feedback.

Step Four: How I Tweaked It

Now I do want to be real with you that it does not deliver a finished email you send as-is and I’d be suspicious of any tool that claimed it was.

The copy and brand voice that came back sounded pretty AI-generated to me. It was fine, but it didn’t have my rhythm, my warmth, or the human behind the brand. And honestly, no AI-generated version of anything does.

But what it gave me was a foundation to work with so I didn’t have to start from a blank page. I was able to go in and quickly add my own flare, swap in my real project photos, and tighten up anything.

And I want to say something about this part, because I think it’s the whole point. AI should never be the sole creator. It shouldn’t be doing everything for you. The best version of this is AI giving you a strong foundation, a real starting point, a template you can build from, and then you bringing the actual magic.

Step Five: The Result

I ended up with a case study newsletter that looks like my studio made it, because it did. The structure did the strategic heavy lifting and gave me a foundation to start with and then I was able to go in tweak the copy, the photos, and pivot some of the design choices.

Flodesk Studio got me roughly eighty percent of the way there. The remaining twenty was mine to shape, which is exactly how I want it. Because after all, human design will always be better than that of a robot. 😉

My Takeaways

If you’ve ever stared at an empty email and felt your brain go completely flat, you know how much time and energy that can cost you. Flodesk Studio hands you a structured, on-brand, strategically sound starting point so you’re editing instead of inventing from nothing. That gives you the momentum you need, especially during a creative block.

For someone who guards her brand the way I do, I honestly was impressed. The design came out strong and genuinely mine because it pulled from the brand assets I fed it. As always with AI, it does really come down to the prompt so be specific!

If you’ve been sitting on emails you keep meaning to make and never do, this is a really good way to break the seal. Especially while it’s free in beta. (And if you’re wondering what it’ll cost later, the honest answer is they’re still using the beta to figure that out.)

You can design right inside Flodesk, or export the HTML and send it from whatever platform you already use, which is a first as far as I know!

Start creating today at studio.flodesk.com →

If you’re interested in working with Solbrite Studio for brand and website design, fill out the contact form linked here →