Norra is a direct-to-consumer modular sofa brand. I built a reference-locked AI workflow that places the real product into fully generated scenes and produces hero, lifestyle, ecommerce and paid-social imagery to one brand standard. Each image is planned around its placement in a layout and the job it has to do.
Making one good image is easy. Making eleven images where the arm radius, backrest count, welt seam and oak legs match the physical product every time takes a process. This page documents that process: the reference library, the prompt architecture, the QA gate and the layouts the images were made for.
RoleAI image direction, prompting, QA, UI layout
ModelNano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image), 2K
Inputs4 product renders, 1 wordmark
Output9 approved assets, 5 aspect ratios
Hit rate9 of 11 generations approved
BrandNorra, a fictional brand
01 · Brief
Every image starts from an objective.
Before generating anything, each asset got a channel, a commercial job, a format and a copy-safe zone. An image is approved when it does that job inside its layout. How it looks on its own is only part of the check.
Asset
Channel
Objective
Format
Copy zone
Homepage hero
Web · above the fold
Show the full 3-seat at a glance and set the brand mood. Carry an H1 and CTA.
16:9 → 4:5
Left 38%
Lifestyle · reading
PDP gallery, email
Show the seat depth and that you can curl up on it.
4:5
None
Lifestyle · doorway
Editorial, organic social
Make the sofa look like part of a real home.
4:5
Door frame
Single module
PDP · 1-seat option
Answer "will it fit a small flat?" One module works as a lounge chair.
4:5
None
Material detail
PDP, retargeting
Show texture and softness, which a photo of the whole sofa can't.
1:1
None
Configuration · 2-seat
PDP configurator
Show exactly what a 2-module build looks like.
3:2
None
System drawing
PDP, how-it-works
Explain modularity in one look.
16:9
Left 33%
Feed ad
Meta / Pinterest
Stop the scroll and stay recognisable as a thumbnail.
4:5
Top 35%
Story ad
IG / TikTok story
A warm, relatable moment. Durability, pet-friendly.
9:16
Top 14% / bottom 20%
02 · Reference library
The product is the fixed point.
Four clean renders form the source of truth. Each generation gets only the views that match its camera angle. A module shot gets the module view, and a 3/4 hero gets the 3-seat view plus both arm modules so the model can see each end. Seven fidelity attributes are written down once and checked on every output.
Thick, rounded arm with soft radius corners. Top sits just below the backrest.
F2 · Backrest
One pillowy backrest cushion per module. Never one continuous bench back.
F3 · Seat
Deep loose seat cushion with a soft welt seam along the base.
F4 · Legs
Tapered round legs in light oak. No metal, no plinth.
F5 · Fabric
Cream-white bouclé with a fine, dense, curly loop. Not teddy fleece, not linen.
F6 · Configuration
Module count and arm placement match the brief. Arms only on the outer ends.
F7 · Proportion
Low profile, deep seat, generous arm-to-seat ratio. Not stretched to fill the frame.
03 · Prompt architecture
Five blocks. One of them never changes.
[SHOT]
Varies
Placement, lens, angle and where the product sits in frame, written in percentages so copy zones are reserved in the composition from the start.
[PRODUCT LOCK]
Locked
The seven fidelity attributes, word for word, in every prompt. Ends with explicit negatives: no piping, no buttons, no pillows covering the backrest.
[SCENE]
Varies
Drawn from a fixed set of materials: limewashed plaster, wide-plank oak, stoneware, linen, dried branches. Scenes change but stay in the same world.
[LIGHT]
Brand rule
Low-angle warm window light from frame-left. One light direction across the whole set, so images sit together in a grid.
[FINISH]
Brand rule
Photographic register, true colour, light grain, and no generated text or logos. Type is always set live in the layout.
[SHOT] Homepage hero, wide editorial interior photograph. Eye-level, 35mm, f/5.6, slight 3/4 angle matching REF-A. The ENTIRE sofa is inside the frame, both arms and all legs visible: sofa spans 40–92% of frame width, seat line at ~62% height. Left 38% is calm open plaster wall, reserved for headline copy.
[PRODUCT LOCK] The Norra three-seat modular sofa from the reference images: cream-white bouclé with a fine nubby curly texture; three separate seat modules, each with a deep loose seat cushion and a soft welt seam along the base; one rounded pillowy backrest cushion per module; thick rounded arms with soft radius corners at both ends, arm top just below the backrest; tapered round light-oak legs. Same proportions, same low profile, same fabric colour. No piping, no buttons, no added pillows.[SCENE] Warm-minimal living room: limewashed plaster in warm greige, wide-plank oak floor, a low round oak coffee table with a ceramic cup and a closed book, a dried branch in dark stoneware beside the right arm.
[LIGHT] Soft early-morning sun from a tall window out of frame left, through sheer linen; long soft diagonal window shadows on the wall; warm, low contrast.
[FINISH] Photorealistic high-end furniture catalogue photography, true-to-life colour, subtle film grain, no text, no logos, no people.
// refs REF-A, REF-C, REF-D // model nano-banana-pro · 2K · 16:9
04 · The work
One product, one light, many rooms.
Every frame uses the same product lock and the same light direction. The scenes, people and formats change. Viewed as a set, they read as one shoot.
Lifestyle · 4:5Editorial · 4:51 module · 4:5
Reading. A person adds scale and shows the seat depth. Her face is turned to the book, so the product stays the subject.
Doorway. Framing borrowed from interiors editorial. The dark foreground makes the room feel lived in and gives the sofa depth.
One module. Only the armless reference was passed, so the model had no arm geometry to add by mistake.
Detail and system
System drawing · 16:9Material · 1:1
Configuration · 2 modules · 3:2
System drawing. Same references, different medium. Line art explains the joins better than a photo, and the empty third holds a "How it works" headline.
Material. Raking light at 100mm. The hand compressing the bouclé shows softness without a word of copy.
Configuration. A layout that doesn't exist in the reference set. Two arm modules with no centre module, built from REF-C and REF-D only.
05 · Paid social
Composed for the placement.
Ad frames were generated with their copy zones built into the prompt, then type was set live on top. The red dashed lines mark platform UI that covers the image. The product never sits under them.
Start with one seat. Add the rest later.
Shop modules
Feed 4:5 · 1080×1350 · headline in top 35%
norra · Sponsored
Made for every member of the family.
Performance bouclé ↑
Story 9:16 · 1080×1920 · dashed = UI overlay
Thumbnail test
A feed ad is often seen at thumbnail size. Each frame is checked at 160, 96 and 64px. If the silhouette still reads as a Norra sofa at 64px, the frame passes.
160px9664
1:1 crop · 16064
06 · In the interface
One hero, two breakpoints.
The hero was composed for both crops. On desktop the headline sits over the empty wall. On mobile the image crops to 4:5 around a set focal point and the copy moves below, so type never sits on top of the product.
SofasModulesFabricsStores
Built in modules. Made for staying.
Start with one seat and grow from there.
Build your Norra
Desktop ≥1024px · 16:9 · object-position 60% 55%
☰
Built in modules. Made for staying.
Start with one seat and grow from there.
Build your Norra
Mobile 390px · 4:5 · object-position 68% 50%
Focal point
Set on the centre module's seat. Every crop keeps it in the middle third.
Type contrast
Ink #1C1B19 on the plaster wall measures above 10:1, so no scrim is needed and the image stays clean.
Delivery
2752px master, then 2400w / 1600w / 1080w AVIF and JPG with art-directed srcset for each crop.
Product page
The configurator swaps to an image of the selected build.
Each output was scored against the seven fidelity attributes before it went into a layout. Two of eleven generations failed on composition and format. The product itself rendered correctly in both. The fix in each case was a more specific [SHOT] block. Regenerating with the same prompt and hoping wasn't the plan.
Asset
F1 Arm
F2 Back
F3 Seat
F4 Legs
F5 Fabric
F6 Config
F7 Prop.
Layout fit
Homepage hero v2
Lifestyle · reading
Lifestyle · doorway
Single module
Material detail
Configuration · 2-seat
System drawing
Feed ad · terracotta
Story ad v2
Matches referenceNot visible at this angleNot applicable
v1 · Rejectv2 · Approved
Hero: product cropped at the edge
The product was accurate, but the right arm fell off the frame. A homepage hero has to show the whole sofa, and the mobile crop had nothing left to recover it from.
FIX → [SHOT] gives positions as numbers: "sofa spans 40–92% of frame width, seat line at ~62% height, both arms and all legs visible."
v1 · Rejectv2 · Approved
Story: safe zone read as a border
"Keep the top and bottom 22% calm" came back as flat colour bands around a small photo. The product was right, but the frame was unusable as a story.
FIX → Describe what is in the quiet areas (wall above, rug below) instead of describing empty space. Add "one continuous full-bleed photograph, no panels". Move the camera closer.
08 · Team playbook
Rules any designer can run.
The aim is for the whole design team to get the same result, not only me. These rules turned this project into a repeatable workflow.
R1
Paste the product lock word for word
The product block is copied unchanged from the library. Editing it per shot is how drift starts.
R2
Match references to the camera
Pass only the views the shot needs. Extra angles give the model more geometry to blend, which leads to errors.
R3
Write the layout into the prompt
Give product position and copy zones as percentages of the frame. Reserve space at generation time instead of fixing it in a crop.
R4
Describe what fills empty space
"Empty" and "safe zone" get read as borders. Name the wall, floor or sky that should be there.
R5
Fix the block that failed
Find which block caused the reject, change only that block, and log the change. Two rejects led to two rule updates.
R6
Approve in the layout
An image is approved only after it's placed in its real template at every breakpoint and at thumbnail size.
norra · Sponsored
