How does Gradiently work? From first design to owned Mark

How does Gradiently work? You find a Mark, a living gradient and material background, in the Market. You design with it in the Studio for free, as long as nobody has claimed it. When you are sure it is right, you claim it, which makes you its only owner and lets you export. Then you keep it: the first year is included, and after that keeping is free with Pro or a yearly fee per Mark without it. That is the whole loop.

1. 1

   Find

   Browse or search the Market by name, colour words or code.

2. 2

   Design

   Put your own words on the Mark in the Studio, free, for as long as you like.

3. 3

   Claim

   Make it yours: one owner, a public record, a numbered certificate.

4. 4

   Export

   Download designs made with your Mark, at 720p free or up to 4K with Pro.

5. 5

   Keep

   Hold the Mark year after year, give it away, or list it for another brand to claim.

To make this concrete, follow one example through every stage: a small florist who wants their weekly posts to look like nobody else's on the high street.

Stage 1: find a Mark in the Market

The Market holds every Mark. Search works three ways: by name, by colour words such as "dusty rose" or "deep teal", or by code, which you can type without the dots and in any case. Filters narrow it by look. Save anything promising to your favourites so you can compare later.

Our florist searches "dusty rose", filters to softer looks and saves four Marks. If you are unsure what to look for, how to pick the right Mark and searching Marks by colour help narrow it down.

Stage 2: design with it for free

Open any unclaimed Mark in the Studio and design with it as if it were yours. Start from a template, type your own words, add a photo, or ask the Designer to lay something out. The Mark renders live behind everything, at every size, and makes room for the words: its calmest region moves behind your text and Auto ink picks light or dark type line by line.

On the free plan you can keep up to 3 designs, so this is the moment to test each candidate on a post, a story and something wide such as a header. The Mark that holds up across all three is usually the one. Your first design in five minutes walks through a first session.

Stage 3: claim the Mark

Claiming is a one-time payment that makes you the Mark's owner. Three things happen at once: your name goes on the Mark's public record, you receive a numbered certificate of authenticity, and from then on only you can export designs made with it. Nobody else can claim it while you hold it. The steps are in how to claim a Mark.

Stage 4: export your designs

Once the Mark is yours, every design made with it can be downloaded. What you get depends on your plan.

The florist goes Pro, exports the peony post as a PNG for Instagram, a 1080×1920 story version and a print PDF with bleed for the shop window. Format choices are covered in exporting images and loops.

Stage 5: keep it, give it or list it

The first year of keeping is included with the claim. After that, keeping is free if you have Pro, or a yearly fee per Mark without it. If a year goes unpaid there is a grace period, and after that the Mark returns to the Market for someone else to claim. Every design you already exported stays yours either way. Details are in keeping a Mark.

• Keep it: the usual path for a brand that has found its look.
• Give it: pass it to anyone on Gradiently for free. We email a code to confirm, they have a few days to accept, and the certificate moves into their name.
• List it: set a price on the Market. When a brand claims it, Stripe pays you and Gradiently keeps a fee. Payouts work in the EEA, UK, Switzerland, US and Canada.

Anyone can check a certificate number or Mark code at any time to see who holds it and the full history of owners, which is useful when a Mark changes hands.

Where AI fits in the flow

You can do every design step by hand, or let the Designer help. Describe the post, and it asks what it needs, writes the words, lays the design out in your Mark and makes the other sizes. If you live in ChatGPT or Claude, you can connect Gradiently there instead and have your assistant search Marks and create designs that open in the Studio. Either way, claiming and exporting stay with you.