Believable use, not just a nice room
A lifestyle image sells a use, so the use has to be right. Scale comes first: a mug, a drill or a sofa must be its real size next to hands, furniture and people. Then physics: how a cushion compresses, how a liquid pours, how a jacket hangs when someone moves. Show the product used the way its instructions say, with the protective kit a careful user would wear; the UK's advertising codes do not allow ads to condone or encourage unsafe practices. If a scene includes accessories sold separately, say so or take them out.
Cast on purpose
Image models drift towards a narrow, average look unless told otherwise: similar ages, body types and skin tones, and familiar role clichés. Treat casting as a line in the brief, not an afterthought. Specify age range, body type, skin tone, visible disability, family make-up and who is doing what, and review the set as a whole rather than image by image. Casting should also fit the market where the image runs. In the UK, the rule against harmful gender stereotypes (rule 4.9 of the CAP Code and 4.14 of the BCAP Code, in force since June 2019) applies to generated people exactly as it does to photographed ones.
The brand world as a reusable style
Consistency across hundreds of images comes from defining the world once. Pin down the light (time of day, direction, softness), palette, materials, props, lens look and grain, plus a handful of recurring sets: the kitchen, the living room, the street corner. Save them and reuse them, so a new product drops into a known place instead of a freshly invented one. In Synthetic White, sets, styles, characters and products are saved as elements and the brand hub holds the image style, so every image in a range starts from the same world and goes through the same approvals.
Seasonal and regional variants of one scene
One well-built scene can carry a year: bright light through the window in June, a coat on the hook in November, festive props in December, and a summer Christmas for Australia. Regional versions need the small truths locals notice. Plug sockets differ (Type G in the UK, Schuko in Germany, Types A and B in the US), cars drive on the left in the UK, Ireland, Japan and Australia, kitchens and windows vary, and price tags carry the local currency. Change these deliberately, as named variants of one approved scene, rather than regenerating the room for each market.
Updated 25 September 2026