On-Brand Emails in Minutes: Our Honest Flodesk Studio Review

Running a design studio means we're professionally incapable of letting anything look "fine."

If a newsletter is slightly off-brand, or two fonts look like they're having an argument, we'll notice. Unfortunately, caring about good design doesn't magically create more hours in the day.

Between Marlo Studios and Marlo's Matcha, we're constantly sending emails. Product launches, creative studio diaries, community event invitations, welcome sequences, product education, behind-the-scenes updates—you name it. Email is one of the few places where we get to speak directly to our community, so we want every message to feel intentional.

The problem? Designing every email from scratch takes time.

So when Flodesk invited us to try Studio, their new AI-powered email builder, we were curious:

We've tested enough AI design tools to know the usual pattern.

• Everything somehow ends up looking exactly the same.
• Brand colours are technically correct, but still feel... wrong.
• You get one generic layout and are expected to be impressed.
• You spend longer writing prompts than you would've spent designing the thing yourself.

As designers, we've often found AI creates more work, not less.

Thankfully, this felt different.

We Tested It With a Real Campaign

Rather than making up a fake project, we decided to use Studio for something we were already working on: the launch campaign for our newest matcha, Saya Matcha.

Instead of opening Figma or building an email block by block, we gave Studio a simple prompt describing the campaign.

Within seconds it generated three completely different directions.

Not just three layouts but three fully designed emails, complete with written copy, imagery suggestions, structure and hierarchy.

That immediately surprised us.

Rather than giving us one generic answer, it felt like a junior designer presenting three concepts for feedback.

And because the emails were already built around our prompt, we weren't starting from a blank page anymore.

Setting Up Our Brand (Like Onboarding a Very Fast Junior Designer)

Before creating anything, Studio asks you to build your brand.

That means adding:

• Your logo
• Brand colours
• Fonts
• A short description of your brand voice
• Font mapping for headings, body copy and buttons

This might sound fairly standard, but one feature genuinely impressed us.

In regular Flodesk, your brand fonts are saved, but you're often reselecting them across different blocks every time you build a new email.

Studio removes that tiny but repetitive task completely.

Once you've mapped your typography, every email it creates already knows which font belongs where.

It simply remembers.

It's one of those small workflow improvements that ends up saving far more time than you'd expect.

You Don't Need a Finished Draft

One thing we appreciated was how flexible the starting point was.

You can begin with:

• a template
• a prompt
• or simply a rough idea.

No polished copy required.

No perfectly planned layout.

Whichever route you choose, Studio quickly generates several complete directions that already feel cohesive and ready to refine.

For founders staring at a blank page wondering where to begin, that's probably the biggest win.

It Doesn't Just Generate. It Collaborates.

One feature we didn't expect was how conversational the process became.

If something in your prompt was unclear, Studio asked follow-up questions.

If a section felt incomplete, it suggested improvements.

It wasn't simply generating a finished answer and hoping for the best—it actually encouraged a little back-and-forth.

That made the process feel much closer to working alongside someone than simply prompting an AI tool.

Designing Still Feels Like Designing

This was probably our biggest concern.

Would using AI mean giving up creative control?

Thankfully, no.

Once we picked our favourite concept, we refined it exactly as we normally would.

Sometimes we chatted with Studio to explore different ideas.

Sometimes we simply dragged sections around.

Sometimes we zoomed in and adjusted things manually—changing card shapes, experimenting with different textures (the grain effect deserves a small shout-out), switching background colours and adding buttons linking directly to our product pages.

Studio never felt like it was fighting us.

Whether you enjoy chatting with AI or prefer nudging every pixel yourself, both workflows are supported.

That's a balance we don't often see.

Exporting Couldn't Be Easier

When we finished the design, exporting was refreshingly simple.

You can:

• Send directly into Flodesk
• Copy the HTML
• Download it for use elsewhere

We exported ours straight into Flodesk and it appeared exactly as we'd designed it.

No rebuilding.

No formatting issues.

No strange surprises.

A Thought We Really Appreciated

One thing worth mentioning is what's actually happening behind the scenes.

Studio isn't inventing your brand from scratch.

Nor is it training itself on your Flodesk account or subscriber data.

Instead, it's assembling layouts, typography systems and design components created by Flodesk's own design team, then adapting those around your brand guidelines and prompt.

To us, that feels like the right balance.

Real human design.

Accelerated by AI.

Finished by you.

Our Guide to Designing an On-Brand Email in Studio

After using it ourselves, here's the workflow we'd recommend.

1. Spend time setting up your brand properly.

Your logo, typography, colours and brand voice become the foundation for everything Studio creates afterwards.

2. Don't overthink your prompt.

A rough campaign idea is enough to get started.

3. Let Studio ask questions.

The follow-up prompts often improve the final result.

4. Choose a direction, then make it yours.

Use chat, drag-and-drop editing or manual adjustments—whatever feels most natural.

5. Export wherever you actually send emails.

Whether that's Flodesk or another platform supporting HTML.

A Few Honest Notes

Studio is currently free while it's in beta.

There isn't a catch—it simply won't stay free forever while the team figures out pricing.

If you're already a Flodesk member, Studio is included at no extra cost.

And if you're new to Flodesk, you can use our partner code MARLOSTUDIOS for 25% off your first year.

At the moment, Studio focuses on email design, but forms and landing pages are already on the roadmap.

Our Final Thoughts

We expected to come away with a mildly sceptical review.

Instead, we redesigned our own Saya Matcha launch email in under thirty minutes—and genuinely enjoyed the process.

Studio didn't replace the design work.

It removed the repetitive parts.

Instead of staring at a blank canvas wondering where to begin, we started with three thoughtful concepts and spent our time refining them into something that genuinely felt like Marlo.

For us, that's exactly where AI is most useful.

Not replacing creativity.

Creating more space for it.

If you're a founder, freelancer or creative who cares deeply about good design but doesn't always have hours to spend building emails from scratch, Flodesk Studio is well worth trying.

You can start creating today at studio.flodesk.com.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As a Flodesk Partner, we may earn a commission if you sign up using our code MARLOSTUDIOS, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we genuinely use and love.