Do I need an existing website to start on Bernard?

No. Moving a site across is one way in. You can also start from a one-page starter and a short interview, or base a new site on one you already run on Bernard. Every route lands on a draft, and nothing is public until you approve it.

Can I copy the look of a website I like?

You can borrow its style: the layout idea, the colour mood, the feel of the type, the spacing. Its logo, words, photos and paid fonts stay theirs. Send a screenshot of the part you like and your AI restyles your site in that language, in your own colours.

Can Bernard copy my whole site to make a new one?

Yes, in one step. You pick the site and name the new one, and Bernard copies every page, stylesheet and photo with your style. Shop pages, contacts and history stay behind, and nothing is public until you approve it.

Where does Claude Design fit?

Claude Design is for pages you want to see and change by hand before they go anywhere. It reads your real site for its colours, fonts, header and footer, you design the page, and it goes to your draft for you to approve.

Getting found · 5 October 2026

You don't need a template to start a website

A woodcut of a dressmaker's dummy wearing a half-finished jacket, a tape measure hung round its neck and a line of pins along one seam.

Most website builders start the same way. You pick a template from a grid of pictures, then spend a weekend pulling it apart until it looks a bit more like you. The template decides the shape; you fill it in.

That is backwards. Your business already has a look, even if it is only in your head: the colours on your van, the way you write to customers, a website you saw once and thought "that's it". The best starting point is the look you already have, not one someone else designed for everybody.

Here are the three ways to start on Bernard, and where each one makes sense.

1. Move the site you have

If you already have a site and you are mostly happy with it, move it. Bernard brings the pages, words and photos across and rebuilds them lighter. Nothing about your look has to change on the way in. This is the way most people start, and it is the quickest, because the work is already done.

2. Start from a conversation

If you have no site, or the one you have is not worth keeping, start from scratch. You get a one-page starter and a short interview: what you do, who it is for, how you want to sound, which colours you must keep. Bernard writes your answers down as your style and builds the homepage from them.

The important part is the order. Style first, then the homepage, then every other page. A homepage built on a guess teaches every later page the same guess. A homepage built on your own answers teaches them your look.

3. Start from a look you already love

This is the one that template grids cannot do.

From one of your own sites. Running a second brand on the same look? Copy the whole site in one step: its pages, look and style come across, and shop and course pages stay behind. Then change what is different.
From one of your own pages. Your About page looks right and your new Workshops page does not. Point at the one you like and ask for the other to match: the same headings, spacing, colours and buttons, with your words left alone.
From someone else's site. Screenshot the part you love and ask for your site in that style. Borrow the layout idea, the colour mood, the feel of the type and the spacing. Leave their logo, words, photos and paid fonts where they are. That line is easy to keep once you know where it is.

Where Claude Design fits

Some pages are easier to see than to describe. Claude Design is Anthropic's visual design tool. Connected to Bernard, it reads one of your real pages first, so it starts from your actual colours, fonts, header and footer instead of its idea of your brand. You design the new page, change it by hand, ask Bernard to check it, and it goes to your draft as an ordinary page.

What stays the same whichever way you start

Everything lands on a draft. You look at the preview on a phone and on a computer, and nothing is public until you approve it. Then the site you started is a normal Bernard site: you can change any of it later, in the workshop, with your own AI, or back in Claude Design.

You don't need a template. You need a starting point that is already yours.

Questions people ask

Do I need an existing website to start on Bernard?: No. Moving a site across is one way in. You can also start from a one-page starter and a short interview, or base a new site on one you already run on Bernard. Every route lands on a draft, and nothing is public until you approve it.
Can I copy the look of a website I like?: You can borrow its style: the layout idea, the colour mood, the feel of the type, the spacing. Its logo, words, photos and paid fonts stay theirs. Send a screenshot of the part you like and your AI restyles your site in that language, in your own colours.
Can Bernard copy my whole site to make a new one?: Yes, in one step. You pick the site and name the new one, and Bernard copies every page, stylesheet and photo with your style. Shop pages, contacts and history stay behind, and nothing is public until you approve it.
Where does Claude Design fit?: Claude Design is for pages you want to see and change by hand before they go anywhere. It reads your real site for its colours, fonts, header and footer, you design the page, and it goes to your draft for you to approve.