Design Studio

Create documents and presentations from a brief and your sources, refine them with Lumen, save versions, export and share.

Design Studio is where you create and refine designed work with specialist agents, without leaving the app. You describe what you want in plain language; Design Studio produces a structured design you can preview, keep improving, save to your Library and export. Lumen, the design expert, is the resident. This page shows you how to start, refine, save and share.

Before you start#

• Open Build › Design Studio. The page asks What are we making today?
• Click Ask Lumen at any time to shape a brief, choose the right form, or critique and improve a result.

Pick a family#

The grid shows the families you can start:

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Each family is marked live or soon on the grid, because a workspace can have one switched off. The grid also lists Website mockup, marked soon.

Click Start on a family. All templates brings you back to the grid.

Your brand kit#

Your logo, colours and contact details, set once. Designs made in Design Studio can carry them.

Under What are we making today?, the Brand kit strip names two kits:

• Workspace kit — your company's brand. Everyone in the workspace can edit it and use it.
• My kit — your own brand, for freelance or consulting work. Only you see and use it, and its logo can stay private.

1. 1

   Click Create your brand kit, or click a kit in the strip. The editor opens right under it.

2. 2

   Fill in what you have:

   Logo

   Choose from Library. The workspace kit needs a picture everyone in the workspace can see. Colours from your logo suggests the main colour.

   Name

   shown in mastheads, footers and as the brand mark on posters.

   Main colour and Second colour. If the main colour is too light to read on a white page, a note offers a deeper shade.

   Typography, Address, Website and Social profiles.
3. 3

   Check the Live preview: a slide, a newsletter masthead and a one-pager footer, as designs use the kit today.

4. 4

   Click Save kit.

To use it, choose under Brand kit in the brief: Off (the default), Workspace kit or My kit. Only a kit that has been saved is offered.

The kit is copied into a design when the design is made: changing the kit later does not change designs already made. The typography is kept with the kit but no design uses it yet, and logos do not appear on slides.

Create a blog post or one-pager#

1. 1

   Start Blog post / one-pager, and pick the format under What we're making.

2. 2

   Under Sources, search and tick Library documents, or Upload a document.

3. 3

   Write the Brief: what it should say, and for whom. Optionally, add Tone & style.

4. 4

   Click Generate artifact.

   The page reads your sources and composes the artifact.

5. 5

   Read the Artifact preview. It is saved to your Library.

   Edit opens the editor, with a live preview. Click Save changes.

   Open in Library opens the saved document.

   Generate again creates a new one.

Create a presentation#

1. 1

   Start Presentation.

2. 2

   Choose a Format:

   Deck

   16:9 slides, one idea per slide.

   Flipbook

   A4 facing pages that turn like a book.

   Scrollytelling

   a vertical scrolling story.

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3. 3

   Describe it in the Brief for Lumen, for example "An 8-slide presentation of three packaging directions for Oceanic Teas, for the client's marketing team."

   The brief alone is enough, or you can anchor it to Library documents.

4. 4

   Optionally, set Deck type, Audience, Tone, Density, Language, Length and Anchor to documents.

5. 5

   Click Generate the outline.

   Lumen proposes an outline. This is your control moment: edit the Title and Subtitle, move, add or remove slides, re-link the sources, or Regenerate outline.

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6. 6

   Click Generate the deck, or Generate the booklet or Generate the scrolly.

   Lumen renders it, one idea per slide, with speaker notes drafted.

Edit a presentation#

The workspace has Slide view and Lightboard, with Undo, Save, Export and Present. The inspector has four tabs:

• Slide — Edit text, Regenerate with Lumen, Simplify, Expand, Rephrase, Translate, plus layout, background, alignment, title size and transition.
• Theme — change the skin and accent. Every slide re-renders without regenerating the text.
• Notes — speaker notes drafted by Lumen, with AI rewrite and Presenter tips. Notes travel with the deck in Present mode and the export, never on screen for the audience.
• Sources — each slide stays anchored to its source.

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After a Lumen rewrite, nothing is kept until you click Save. Present opens Present mode, with Notes and Exit.

Edit in the Document Editor#

1. 1

   Start Document Editor and type the Document name.

2. 2

   Use Tools: Text, Structure, Alignment, Insert for highlights and images, and Page for page numbers in the PDF export.

3. 3

   To bring in a saved document, use Sources. It is added below what you have.

4. 4

   Get help from Lumen:

   Select text, click Ask Lumen, read Original and Proposed, then Accept or Reject.

   Edit this section with Lumen, or Ask Lumen to insert a block.

   For the whole document, write a Brief for Lumen, click Update document, review the sections that would change, then Accept all or Reject.
5. 5

   Click Save to the Library.

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Shape a Thinking Framework#

1. 1

   Start Thinking Framework and write or paste your thoughts as they come. Messy is fine.

2. 2

   Optionally, link sources. Click Shape it.

   Lumen proposes a document type and structure. Change the type, reorder or remove, then click Build the document.

3. 3

   Edit the sections with Ask Lumen and quick asks such as More concise or Add a risk, then Apply to document.

4. 4

   To get a colleague's view, click Invite to the Board. To ask for a review, click Submit for review: the reviewer gets a Pending Action.

5. 5

   Save and Export.

Other families#

• Newsletter — marked soon on the grid: it is not open yet.
• Smart Capture — drop photos or scans (.jpeg, .png, .pdf), put the pages in reading order, then Read the pages. Review each page against its original. The result is saved as a draft in your Library, linked to its originals; Refine in Document Editor continues from there.
• Data Study — pick a spreadsheet from the Library and the sheet, write The question, choose The readers, then Begin the reading. Readings end in proposals you Confirm or Decline. A Data Study is visible only to you until you share it.
• Workflow Design — pick a written source, ask The question, then Derive the structure. Answer, or leave open, the questions the source leaves open, then Render the map.

Versions and save conflicts#

Every save is a new version. Open the document in the Library: its History tab lists every version.

If someone else, a colleague or an assistant working as you, saved the same document after you opened it, your save is refused. The page says Saved elsewhere after you opened it — your save did not overwrite it. Choose:

• Reload — see the latest version.
• Keep mine as a copy — your version is kept as a new copy in your Library.

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Export#

1. 1

   Click Export. For a presentation, it reads Export or share.

2. 2

   Choose the format:

   Documents: PDF or Word.

   Thinking Framework: Word, PDF or Markdown.

   Deck: PDF · one page per slide. Flipbook: PDF · facing-page spreads. Scrollytelling: Web link · scrollytelling.

PowerPoint export is not offered.

Share a presentation or Data Study as a public link#

1. 1

   In Export or share, choose the link option, for example Presentation link.

   If the document already has an open link, it is shown.

2. 2

   With no link yet, read the confirmation: anyone with the link can read this version until the date shown, without signing in, and you can revoke it at any time. Click Create link.

3. 3

   Then:

   Copy

   copy the link.

   Copy social link

   copy an address to paste in a social post.

   Update link

   publish the newer saved version at the same address.

   Revoke

   the link no longer opens for anyone.

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A public link is read-only and opens without signing in, until it expires after 30 days or is revoked. Only people who may share the document can create its link; the others are told why.

A Workflow Design saved in your Library is shared the same way: click Share on the map. Its link opens the map read-only, with its open questions and the answers given, and no agent names.

What you will see#

Good to know#

Related#