Decide how a new site looks before you build it
A new site has no history for bernard to read. Your old site told it your colours and fonts; a blank starter tells it nothing. So the best first step is not a page. It is the look.
The prompt
“Before you design anything on [new site], ask me about my colours, fonts and how I want to sound, and save my answers as the style for this site. Don’t build any pages yet.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
Three places the look can come from
Your own answers. Open Your Style for the new site and answer the quick questions about what the site is for and how you want it to sound and look. Skip anything you are not sure about. The detail is in Tell bernard how you want your site to sound and look.
Your other bernard site. If you run a site whose look you want to keep, ask your AI to read that site’s style and save the same style for the new one:
Read the style saved for [other site] and save the same colours, fonts and voice as the style for [new site]. Show me what you will save first.
A look you love. Screenshot a site whose style you like and give the picture to your AI. It describes what it sees, for example “warm cream, large serif headings, a lot of space”, and you decide what to keep. See Copy a design you’ve seen.
What to tell it
Be specific where you can. These help the most:
- Colours you must keep. A brand colour, or the colour of your logo. Bernard treats these as fixed. It can use more or less of a colour, but it does not swap it for a different one.
- How the type should feel. “One classic serif for headings, plain for everything else” is enough. You do not need font names.
- Words to avoid. If “bespoke” or “solutions” makes you wince, say so.
Then build the first page
When the style is saved, ask for the homepage only:
Read my style for [new site] and build my first homepage from it. Homepage only, draft only.
Look at the preview. If the look is right, every later page starts from it. If it is wrong, fix the style, not the page, and ask again. The steps for the rest of the site are in I don’t have a website yet - build me one.
Questions people ask
- Why set the look before the first page?
- Because every page after the first copies it. If the homepage is built on a guess, each later page repeats the guess and you end up fixing the same thing many times. A few minutes on the style first saves that, and nothing is built or published until you approve it.
- My new site should look like my other bernard site. Do I have to answer everything again?
- No. Ask your AI to read the style saved for your other site and save the same colours, fonts and voice for the new one. It shows you what it will save first, and you can change any part before you approve it.
- What if I don’t know what colours or fonts I want?
- Leave those questions blank. Bernard never fills a blank with a guess. You can screenshot a site whose look you like and use that instead, or answer later from the Your Style page.
- Can I change the style later?
- Yes. Changing your style updates the record straight away, but your live pages do not change by themselves. When Bernard next designs or rewrites something, it uses the new style, and you see a preview to approve.