Nexus Marketing’s Guidelines for AI-Generated Images in Design

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Updated January 2026

As the use of AI-generated images grows in popularity due to their speed and practicality, Nexus Marketing adheres to best practices. This ensures compliance, minimizes risks of copyright infringement, and protects both Nexus and our clients from potential data breaches.

This document addresses potential client questions and concerns about incorporating AI-generated images into their project requirements.

Why and How We Use AI for Design

We view generative AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a catalyst for it. Our primary goal in integrating AI into our design workflow is efficiency without compromise.

By using AI to handle time-consuming, repetitive, or foundational image generation tasks, our designers can reclaim time to focus on high-level creative direction, brand strategy, and complex execution. AI also allows us to visualize concepts quickly during the brainstorming phase, enabling faster feedback loops and more agile project development.

We maintain a disciplined approach to where and how AI assets are used. We do not use AI for every project; rather, we apply it only when it adds clear value to the workflow.

  • Simple contexts: We primarily utilize AI for straightforward or secondary visual elements, such as background textures, generic environmental shots, or conceptual placeholders.
  • Specific constraints: For high-stakes brand assets, core identity marks, or highly specific product photography, we continue to rely on manual conceptualization and design processes to ensure absolute precision.

Quality is our baseline. Every AI-generated asset undergoes manual review and refinement by a designer (often in collaboration with a copywriter) before it reaches a client:

We believe in a partnership built on trust. We are fully transparent about our use of these tools and are committed to honoring our clients’ individual preferences.

Client Opt-Out: We recognize that some organizations have strict internal policies regarding AI. If a client has concerns about the use of AI in their design work, we are fully equipped to accommodate 100% traditional workflows or document a specific AI-usage boundary for the account that aligns with their legal or brand requirements.

AI Image Use: Key Considerations

  1. Data Privacy and Security
    • Client data is never leaked or used to train public models.
      • Proprietary Data Protection: We exclusively use Enterprise tiers or paid subscription models (Adobe Firefly Enterprise, Freepik Premium, Google Gemini Pro, Envato Elements). These platforms legally guarantee that the prompts, possible brand data, uploaded images, and generated images are not used to train their public AI models.
      • Data Isolation: The benefit of our paid subscriptions is that all data remains within our organization’s domain. Enterprise accounts are configured to prevent any form of data leakage, ensuring that the client’s information or creative strategy is never accessible to other users of the AI.
      • Privacy From Human Review: Unlike free versions of AI, our subscriptions ensure that no human reviewers have visibility into your data.
  2. Commercial Use Guarantee
    • Assuring clients that the images are legally “clean” and backed by financial protections
      • Intellectual Property (IP) Liability Coverage: Our paid tools provide a legal “shield” through full IP indemnification and commercial licensing, ensuring your brand assets are protected against copyright claims.
      • Commercially-Safe Training: We favor Adobe Firefly for high-stakes work because it is trained primarily on licensed Adobe Stock and public domain content, minimizing the risk of infringing on any living artist’s style.
      • Always with a Human Touch: We very rarely use raw AI outputs unless they are simple components of a larger design, like background textures, generic shots, or conceptual placeholders. Every image undergoes significant human review and refinement (such as compositing, retouching, and brand styling) to ensure a defensive claim of authorship.
  3. Technical Integrity and Quality Control
    • Ensure that images are of appropriate quality for their intended use.
      • Maintaining Production-Ready Standards: Raw AI images are usually in low-resolution RGB files. We double-check with each client’s requirements to ensure high-quality output without pixelation.
      • Anomalous Pattern Review: AI struggles with minute details like background text, number of fingers, physics, or logical proportions. A comprehensive review process is in place to ensure all images maintain brand integrity.
  4. Ethical and Social Responsibility
    • Aligning AI workflows with responsible innovation and organizational best practices
      • Diversity and Inclusion Alignment: AI can default to stereotypes. We proactively use inclusive prompting and manual editing to ensure brand visuals accurately and diversely represent the intended target audience.
      • Ethical Prompting Standards: To maintain maximum originality, prompts are designed to be non-derivative. This includes avoiding the depiction of public figures and brandmarks, as well as intentionally excluding specific artist styles to prevent direct replication.
      • Environmental Responsibility: To minimize the carbon footprint associated with Generative AI, we will use precise and specific prompt wordings. This approach helps us achieve the desired output efficiently and reduces the number of attempts needed.

Best Practices

For Account Managers

  • Share this blog post for clients to review upon request.
  • Clarify that we use AI as a problem-solving tool rather than a replacement, specifically for niche scenarios where our standard subscriptions (Freepik, Envato, DepositPhotos) may be limited.
  • If a client is uncomfortable with AI use, inquire if they have their own corporate stock subscriptions and are open to sharing credits to meet those specific needs.

For Designers

  • Stay true to the guidelines mentioned above.
    • While using other free and public AI platforms may be easier, it can potentially put the agency and our clients at risk.
  • Be transparent.
    • Always prioritize and respect a client’s specific request or preference to avoid the use of AI in their project outputs. Despite the availability of highly advanced AI tools capable of generating images indistinguishable from human creations, we must maintain integrity and adhere to our commitments to our clients.
  • Document the Transformation.
    • Maintain a traceable workflow for every AI-assisted asset. Keeping layered working files ensures we can prove the substantial human effort required to turn a raw prompt into a proprietary brand asset.
  • Quality Over Convenience.
    • Never sacrifice the “human eye” for speed. AI is a tool for expansion, not a shortcut; if the output fails our visual logic or quality standards, it must be refined manually or replaced with traditional assets.

References