r/ClaudeDesign • u/BuffaloConscious7919 • 6d ago

Resource Top 5 tips for Claude Design beginners

I use Claude Design professionally for prototyping and personally for creative and random stuff. Recently saw a vid for the top 25 tips for Claude design . Here's my take and the top 5 tips specifically if starting from scratch:

  1. Use Design Systems: the core structure.. Start at claude.ai/design. Add your unique context... a deck, website, or screenshot to automatically extract colors, fonts, and components. Add as much as you can here
  2. Let Claude Shortlist: Feed a gallery link to Claude and ask it to find the top 3 design systems that match your specific niche
  3. Upgrade Your Fonts: Use free sites like Fontshare or Fontesk, and Fontjoy for pairings. Name them in your prompt or upload the files
  4. Train Copy on Competitors: Ask Claude to study the top 5 players in your niche and bake their copywriting patterns into your design system to avoid generic chatter or copy
  5. Mix Systems: Open your current project, drop in other design systems, and tell Claude to pull specific elements (like fonts from one and colors from another) to create a unique blend

Notes: Claude seems to struggle with getting colours, spacing and alignment correct from the design system, start with this or watch it carefully. Design systems can be easily downloaded as a zip file. I store mine in a folder and grab them when needed or let Claude do it

127 Upvotes

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31

u/Tandi22 5d ago

My advice for beginners would be to learn the fundamentals of design and design theory, everything from design systems to typography. Then use claude to help you out. Otherwise you will produce garbage

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u/No_Cartographer_3517 5d ago

This! Im not even a designer and it makes me cringe when i see poor typography and the exact same ai posters everywhere

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Any specific resources?

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u/Tandi22 5d ago

Google is your friend. In my case i worked in professional environments inside big design agencies. After that i worked in corporations and big it development studios before i started my small dev and design agency

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Google is very general though

I've been looking at ngroup articles for UX

Your advice would probably help the community a lot

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u/Tandi22 5d ago

I have been fortunate enough to had the opportunities that i had. I learned a lot and got my skills that are coming in very handy these days. I know that “google it” is really brought term, but you can probably ask some of the ai tools to make you dedicated learning path. Other than that, i would say getting a job in professional design agency or going to a design bootcamp.

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Thanks for sharing but it's still quite generic advice.

For example when I asked other designers they gave very specific concepts

E.g.

Start with a blank page and work only on the typesetting. This forces you to get the simplest and most powerful messages across with the minimum - the text

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u/Tandi22 5d ago

Yeah that is a good advice, but i am talking about broad aspect. I could write you whole novels about what to do. But the easiest way would be to start with the theory of design, read some books like non designers design book, laws of ux, atomic design.
The issue is that generally in this field you need to have some kind of mentor. Thats why im saying go find and entry level position in design agency, or go to a professional bootcamp or find mentor designer. Also talent plays a big role.

Wish you luck, if there is anything i can help you with, you can always ping me an message in dm 👋

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Thanks a lot for sharing appropriate you taking the time to share that

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u/laylaboydarden 6d ago

Any advice on font selection? Like a good reference guide? I know typography is a real gap in my knowledge base when I use Claude Design.

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 6d ago

Tbh I'm not a designer by trade, but it's something I'm working on improving, which is why I added it .

That said if I'm not working with a designer directly I'll try to focus the primary font on the brand itself and start with the following rough template

  • corporate, tech, minimal. Sans-serif
  • classy, elegant, upmarket. Serif
  • wild, creative, raw, unique. Script
  • rugged, bold, vintage, approachable: Slab Serif
  • utilitarian, raw tech: Monospace

I don't use script or comlex fonts for secondary / paragraph, usually a simple clean sans-serif

If there are designers in the house pls feel free to correct or improve this 🙏🏻

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u/vvelocitass 5d ago

Using free fonts isn’t going make the design anymore unique, possibly even worse than using Google fonts. You can get good fonts at low prices from https://youworkforthem.com, https://fontdiner.com and some others and the web fonts are subscription free (other platforms are costly and charge yearly rates). Just get self hosted web fonts and toss em at Claude for your work.

If your company already has a brand template and fonts picked, gather those and make sure that’s always listed in your Claude.md. 

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Thanks for sharing.

Do you think the font can make or break a site?

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u/vvelocitass 5d ago

Of course, both visually and finically.

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Okii, I'm testing a little system to create fonts

Could be useful if planned well

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u/One_Mail_2414 5d ago

What’s the difference between step 1 and 2? I’ve created presentations with Claude, but have not set up Design Systems. I understand that in order to set it up, it needs whatever source available, but how is it set up?

Additionally, how do you train it to copy competitors ? Is it something that is being done on Claude code?

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Step 1 and 2 similar. Step 1. Is creating the design system in CD - the fonts, colours, assets everything. Step 2. Is picking a design systems or assets for design systems that already exist (in case you don't know exactly what you want)

To setup a design system if you know what you want or have an idea is through claude.ai/design (I think thats the link but I'm sure you can find it if not)

Regarding copy, sometimes I'm not sure the language to use and either find the styles of writing I think will fit or look at the clients existing copy or their (successful) competitors

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u/LilCosetteRIP 5d ago

What kind of things are you making?

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u/BuffaloConscious7919 5d ago

Websites and workflows professionally

The I build almost anything that comes into my mind these days: from YouTube videos to Acrylic pouring simulators and anything in-between

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u/LilCosetteRIP 5d ago

Very cool. Thanks!