# How to Get 10 AI Design Options Instead of One > Get 10 AI design directions in about five minutes with Paper or Claude Design. Upload a brand file, ask for options, then iterate on only the one you pick. Source: https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-get-10-design-options-with-ai Author: Mika Reyes (https://mikareyes.com) Published: 2026-08-22 Tags: beginner, claude, skills --- When I was a PM at LinkedIn launching the "I'm Hiring" profile ring, design never walked into review with a single mock. They brought a wall of them, and the conversation was about which one won, not whether the one existed. Working alone without a designer, that used to be impossible. Now it costs one prompt. ## Why this matters The best creative marketers and designers I know never bring one design to a review. They bring ten and argue their way to the best one. You can do the same thing alone, in about five minutes, by uploading a brand file to Paper or Claude Design and asking for directions instead of a design. You already do this with words. You would never write one headline for your landing page and ship it. You write ten and pick. Your graphics deserve the same treatment. The prompt is short and the whole thing is repeatable. Here is the exact workflow. ## Step 1: Make a brand file Start with a brand.md holding your colors, your fonts, and the feel you are going for. Without it, ten options come back in ten unrelated styles and every one of them is unusable. ![A BRAND.md file open in an editor showing YAML frontmatter with name, tagline, and version, followed by Strategy, Overview, Promise, and Guardrails sections](https://mikareyes.com/ai-guides/brand-md-file-example.png "The brand file is what makes ten options read as ten versions of your brand rather than ten random designs.") [Here is the full guide to creating a BRAND.md file](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-create-a-brand-md-file) if you do not have one yet. It takes about ten minutes with a free plugin. ## Step 2: Open Paper or Claude Design Upload your brand file to whichever tool you are using. Claude Design works fine and is convenient if you already have it open. Paper is a design canvas built for an agent to work inside, so it handles the "make ten of these" request more naturally. I like to use Paper over Claude Design, Canva or Figma because: - Using Claude Design eats through my tokens fast - The Paper and Claude connection works SO WELL! I find that the Figma and Canva MCPs kind of suck If you want the full Paper setup, [the carousel guide walks through connecting it to Claude](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-make-instagram-carousels-with-paper). ## Step 3: Give it the raw material Drop in the actual text and the actual photo you plan to use into a canvas. Or, if you already have a carousel or certain base design, you can use that, too (though there might be restrictions on what Paper is able to give as options). ## Step 4: Ask for directions, not a design On Paper, select the assets you want to use. Then on Claude, use this starter prompt and update as needed: ``` I'm building graphics for my business. Here's the text and photo that I want to use. Use my brand guidelines to come up with 10 different design options I can choose from. ``` I used the 1st graphic below to generate 4 different design directions. ![A Paper canvas showing a source graphic on the left and four labeled design directions beside it: stat spike, tension plus cost, proof or receipt, and direct instruction, each using the same photo and brand colors](https://mikareyes.com/ai-guides/design-options-paper-directions.png "Four of the directions from one run, each labeled by angle. Same photo, same brand, completely different message strategy.") One leads with a statistic, one with tension and cost, one with proof, one with direct instruction. Same photo, same brand, four different reasons to stop scrolling. ## Step 5: Pick one, then iterate Choose your favorite and ask for five more versions of just that direction, or start editing it directly. Paper makes it nice and easy! The second round is where the design gets good, because you are refining something that already works instead of exploring from zero. ## Step 6: Save it as a skill If you do this weekly, package the whole thing into a Claude skill so it becomes one command instead of a prompt you rewrite each time. The skill holds the instructions, your brand rules, and the ask-for-ten structure, so you go straight to reviewing options. [Here is how to create a custom skill](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-create-custom-skill), and [here is what a skill is](https://mikareyes.com/ai/what-is-a-skill) if you have not built one before. ## Additional reading Here are some related guides to check out: 1. [How to Create a BRAND.md File for AI Design](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-create-a-brand-md-file) 2. [How to Make Instagram Carousels with Paper and Claude](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-make-instagram-carousels-with-paper) 3. [How to Make Your Website Look Expensive with AI](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-make-your-website-look-expensive-with-ai) 4. [How to Create a Custom Claude Skill](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-create-custom-skill) 5. [How to Fix AI-Looking Graphic Design and Posters](https://mikareyes.com/ai/how-to-fix-ai-looking-graphic-design-and-posters) ## FAQ ### Why should I ask for 10 designs instead of one? Because you cannot judge a design in isolation, only against alternatives. Asking for ten costs the same five minutes as asking for one, and it turns a yes or no decision into a real comparison where you can see which direction actually lands. ### Should I use Paper or Claude Design for this? Both work. Claude Design is convenient if it is already open, but generating ten variations burns through tokens quickly. Paper is the better choice if you do this regularly, since it is built as a design canvas the agent works inside. ### Do I need a brand file to do this? Yes, or the ten options come back in ten unrelated styles and none of them are usable. A brand file with your colors, fonts, and feel is what makes the variations different in layout and message while staying recognizably yours. ### What do I do after I pick a favorite? Ask for five more versions of just that one, or start editing it directly. The second round is where the design actually gets good, because you are refining a direction that already works instead of exploring from scratch.