--- title: AI and Your Brand Assets | Brand Name Nerd description: Brand Name Nerd safeguards its unique assets by restricting AI use, ensuring distinctive branding. Explore options for approved AI workflows to enhance your business. image: https://brandnamenerd.com/hubfs/6008E365-05D8-4FC1-83E1-1280E30DBA12_1_105_c.jpeg --- [Skip to content](https://brandnamenerd.com/ai-and-your-brand-assets#main-content) [![Brand Name Nerd home](https://brandnamenerd.com/hubfs/raw_assets/public/brandnamenerd-theme/Theme/images/theme-images/bnn_logo.svg "Brand Name Nerd home")](https://brandnamenerd.com?hsLang=en) Brand Name Nerd Brand Name Nerd: Graphic Design for Small Businesses. Design Tips & Critical Hits. Menu - [Services](https://brandnamenerd.com/services) - [Pricing](https://brandnamenerd.com/pricing) - [Free tools](https://brandnamenerd.com/tools) - [Blog](https://brandnamenerd.com/blog) - [Contact](https://brandnamenerd.com/contact) # AI & Your Brand Assets **What you can do, what needs permission, and how to get it.** **Version 1.0 · Effective September 25, 2026 · Supersedes all earlier versions** Brand Name Nerd New Orleans, Louisiana [brandnamenerd.com](https://brandnamenerd.com?hsLang=en) [hi@brandnamenerd.com](mailto:hi@brandnamenerd.com) This public page summarizes Brand Name Nerd’s **AI Use, Brand Guardrails & Asset Licensing Addendum**. If you have signed that addendum, the signed addendum governs if anything differs. ## 1. The short version Brand Name Nerd’s brand assets, including logos, mascot art, illustrations, custom artwork, menus, and templates, are made by hand. They may not be used with AI tools to generate, extend, restyle, or imitate new brand assets unless Brand Name Nerd has built and approved an AI workflow for you in writing. If you want to use AI with your brand, tell us. We can build a controlled workflow with you and price it separately. ## 2. Why we work this way A logo’s value depends on being distinctive. AI reproductions and near-copies can weaken the distinctiveness your trademark relies on. In the United States, purely AI-generated material generally does not receive copyright protection by itself. Human-authored contributions may still be protectable, depending on the work and the human contribution. Our hand-built process is part of the value and protection you are paying for. There is also reputational risk. An image, voice, or testimonial that looks or sounds like a real person can create problems if it is generated or altered without that person’s consent. Some clients want a strictly human-made brand. These guardrails keep that option available. ## 3. What is not permitted Unless an Approved AI Workflow has been agreed to in writing, you may not: - Upload, submit, or feed a Brand Asset into an AI Tool for training, fine-tuning, or dataset construction. - Use a Brand Asset as a reference image, style prompt, or source for generated output. - Generate new or derivative assets, logo variations, mascot images, illustrations, or characters that imitate or approximate Brand Name Nerd’s work. - Use AI to extend, restyle, recolor, upscale, or redraw our work as a substitute for original artwork. - Use AI to produce content that suggests Brand Name Nerd created, reviewed, or approved it. - Feed Brand Name Nerd sessions, materials, templates, frameworks, or recommendations into an AI Tool, including automated meeting notes and transcripts. - Use an AI Tool to scrape, replicate, clone, or create derivative versions of Brand Name Nerd’s free tools, website content, design, code, or branding. For these purposes, **Brand Assets** include logos, logo variations, mascot and character artwork, illustrations, iconography, color palettes, typography selections, layouts, menus, collateral, photography, custom imagery, templates, source files, and exported files. **AI Tools** include software or services that generate, modify, extend, or imitate images, text, audio, or video using machine learning. Examples include image generators, style-transfer tools, generative fill, background-generation tools, and AI copywriting tools. ## 4. What is always fine The following uses are generally fine when they do not involve submitting Brand Name Nerd’s Brand Assets or confidential materials to an AI Tool: - Research, brainstorming, and internal notes. - Drafting copy in your own words and editing it yourself. - Generating alt-text suggestions for your own content, followed by human review. - Resizing, compressing, and cleaning up the background of your own photography. - Using spreadsheets, invoicing, scheduling, and email tools that include ordinary automation. - Using AI for work that does not involve Brand Name Nerd’s assets, confidential information, templates, frameworks, or materials. You remain responsible for checking the terms of any tool you use and for confirming that you have the right to submit your own content. ## 5. What needs permission: the licensing option If AI-assisted work would genuinely help your business, Brand Name Nerd can build an **Approved AI Workflow** under a separate written scope and fee. Depending on your needs, the service may include: - Identifying which tasks genuinely benefit from AI and which should remain human-made. - Selecting tools based on their data-handling practices and commercial-use terms. - Building prompt libraries and reference packs from your own brand assets. - Creating guardrails that keep AI away from your logo, mascot, and core marks. - Preparing a one-page AI Brand Use Guide for your team. - Providing disclosure language for captions and descriptions. - Adding a review checkpoint where Brand Name Nerd approves outputs before publication. - Conducting a quarterly review to account for tool and platform changes. An Approved AI Workflow is limited to the client’s own business use. It is not transferable, may not be shared with another business, and ends when the applicable agreement with Brand Name Nerd ends unless the written scope states otherwise. Permission is not automatic. It begins only when Brand Name Nerd and the client agree to the workflow, scope, fee, and licensing terms in writing. If you do not want an Approved AI Workflow, nothing changes. Your brand can remain entirely human-made. ## 6. What we promise on our side Brand Name Nerd will: - Deliver human-authored work unless we tell you otherwise in writing. - Tell you in writing if we use an AI Tool anywhere in your project. - Avoid using AI to reproduce another artist’s protected work or a real person’s likeness without written authorization. - Avoid submitting your logo, or anyone else’s logo, to an AI Tool for training or style reference. - Keep any approved AI use within the scope of the written agreement. ## 7. Disclosure if you publish AI content Platforms and regulators increasingly expect AI-generated or AI-altered content to be identified. If content is both sponsored and AI-generated, those are separate facts. The content may need to disclose both: - The sponsorship or other material connection; and - The fact that the content is synthetic or AI-generated. Disclosures should be clear, conspicuous, easy to understand, placed with the content, and visible before any “see more” cutoff. They should also be legible on a phone. When a platform provides an AI-content label, leave the platform-native label enabled unless you have a documented reason not to use it. You remain responsible for reviewing the requirements that apply to your content, audience, platform, and location. ## 8. If AI use happens without permission Unauthorized AI use of Brand Assets is a breach of the applicable client agreement. Depending on the circumstances, Brand Name Nerd may require the generated or altered material to be taken down, may decline to approve future use, or may end the ability to license the Brand Assets for that workflow. The client is responsible for claims, losses, damages, and reasonable costs arising from the client’s unauthorized AI use, including claims connected to material the client submits to an AI Tool or publishes. These rules apply equally to full-rate, discounted, sliding-scale, barter, and pro bono engagements. A reduced or free engagement does not grant broader use rights. ## 9. Questions and the written addendum Questions can be sent to [hi@brandnamenerd.com](mailto:hi@brandnamenerd.com). A signed **AI Use, Brand Guardrails & Asset Licensing Addendum** is available on request for clients who want a written AI licence and an Approved AI Workflow. This public page is informational and is not legal advice. ### Contact Email us: [hi@brandnamenerd.com](mailto:hi@brandnamenerd.com) [Start a project](https://brandnamenerd.com/contact?hsLang=en) ### Work with us [All services & packages](https://brandnamenerd.com/services?hsLang=en) [Logos & branding](https://brandnamenerd.com/logos-branding?hsLang=en) [Custom graphics](https://brandnamenerd.com/custom-graphics?hsLang=en) [Portraits](https://brandnamenerd.com/portraits?hsLang=en) [Menus, signage & print](https://brandnamenerd.com/menus-signage-print?hsLang=en) [Web design & copy](https://brandnamenerd.com/web-design-copy?hsLang=en) [Consultations & workshops](https://brandnamenerd.com/consultations-workshops?hsLang=en) [How pricing works](https://brandnamenerd.com/pricing?hsLang=en) [Reviews](https://brandnamenerd.com/reviews?hsLang=en) ### Free stuff [Design tools](https://brandnamenerd.com/tools?hsLang=en) [Color & contrast checker](https://brandnamenerd.com/tools/color?hsLang=en) [Sponsor the tools](https://brandnamenerd.com/tools/sponsor?hsLang=en) [Resources for makers](https://brandnamenerd.com/resources?hsLang=en) [Blog](https://brandnamenerd.com/blog?hsLang=en) ### Studio [About the Artists](https://brandnamenerd.com/about-the-artists?hsLang=en) [Instagram](https://instagram.com/brandnamenerd) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/p/Brand-Name-Nerd-100072205761496/) [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/brandnamenerd) [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandnamenerd/) [Privacy policy](https://brandnamenerd.com/privacy-policy?hsLang=en) [Accessibility](https://brandnamenerd.com/accessibility?hsLang=en) ### Search the site Search ### Design tips, no spam Occasional notes on branding for small businesses. Unsubscribe any time. © 2026 Brand Name Nerd · Quirky ideas. Proven strategy. Driven by creativity. Locally owned & operated in New Orleans, Louisiana · Queer- and woman-owned Stock imagery: [Vecteezy.com](https://www.vecteezy.com) · [Licences & credits](https://brandnamenerd.com/licences?hsLang=en) Site designed & built in-house by [Brand Name Nerd](https://brandnamenerd.com/web-design-copy?hsLang=en) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "https://brandnamenerd.com/#org", "@type" : [ "ProfessionalService", "Organization" ], "address" : { "@type" : "PostalAddress", "addressCountry" : "US", "addressLocality" : "New Orleans", "addressRegion" : "LA" }, "alternateName" : "BNN", "areaServed" : [ "New Orleans, LA", "Greater New Orleans", "Remote (US)" ], "award" : "FedEx Entrepreneur Fund and Boost Camp recipient, 2026 (presented with Hello Alice)", "description" : "Graphic design for small businesses in New Orleans: logos, branding, custom graphics, print and copy. Nerdy, spooky, sparkly and stylish.", "email" : "hi@brandnamenerd.com", "founder" : [ { "@type" : "Person", "alumniOf" : { "@type" : "EducationalOrganization", "name" : "Civic Leadership Academy, City of New Orleans Mayor's Office of Community Engagement", "url" : "https://nola.gov/next/mayor-s-office-of-community-engagement/programs/civic-leadership-academy/" }, "memberOf" : { "@type" : "Organization", "name" : "Flyte", "url" : "https://flyteeducation.org/" }, "name" : "Amanda Burnswell" }, { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Velvet" } ], "foundingDate" : "2023", "foundingLocation" : { "@type" : "Place", "name" : "New Orleans, LA" }, "hasCredential" : { "@type" : "EducationalOccupationalCredential", "credentialCategory" : "certification", "name" : "Louisiana Hudson Initiative certified small business", "recognizedBy" : { "@type" : "GovernmentOrganization", "name" : "Louisiana Economic Development" } }, "knowsAbout" : [ "logo design", "brand identity", "custom graphics", "menu design", "print design", "portrait illustration", "accessible design", "WCAG" ], "logo" : "//47666447.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/47666447/raw_assets/public/brandnamenerd-theme/Theme/images/theme-images/bnn_logo.svg", "name" : "Brand Name Nerd", "sameAs" : [ "https://instagram.com/brandnamenerd", "https://ko-fi.com/brandnamenerd", "https://www.linkedin.com/company/brandnamenerd/", "https://www.facebook.com/p/Brand-Name-Nerd-100072205761496/", "https://share.google/EB1NIlPsZ0YxitRvi" ], "slogan" : "Design Tips & Critical Hits", "url" : "https://brandnamenerd.com" } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement" : [ { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://brandnamenerd.com/", "name" : "Home", "position" : 1 }, { "@type" : "ListItem", "item" : "https://brandnamenerd.com/ai-and-your-brand-assets", "name" : "AI and Your Brand Assets", "position" : 2 } ] } ```