What the images are actually for
IMAGE-BRAIN, 8 Oct 2026. Read against the agency's rule book (ADRs 0001, 0003, 0005, 0020; THE-MACHINE; THE-LAWS) and the 587 measured industries (269,379 businesses with no site in Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok and London).
The nuance we were missing
- Almost every site we make is unclaimed, "tier 0". We know the business's name, category and street, and nothing else. Google's terms rule out their Maps photos, hours and ratings, and there's no menu. The rule book says tier 0 is the default for unclaimed sites and that its look has to be the best one (THE-MACHINE, 7 Oct).
- Two people look at it. The owner needs to think "wow, that's mine" (ADR 0001). The customer tapping "website" on Maps needs to know what the place is, what it usually has, and where it is.
- So stock-style pictures of "a barber chair" are the wrong job. They aren't theirs and can't pretend to be. A tier-0 hero is even type-led by law (L6.5). The images have to make a name and a category feel like a real local place, honestly labelled.
Three kinds of image do that, and none of them is stock:
| Image | What it does | Why it scales |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Their name on things | A cup, an awning, a takeaway bag or a chalkboard with a blank label. Code prints their wordmark on it; the kit already makes the mark (ADR 0003 allows a generated logo). The owner opens the site and sees their name on a cup. | One blank cup serves every café on earth, and each one gets its own name. |
| 2. Their city | Streets, river, skyline and pavement of Da Nang, Bangkok and so on. "This is here", not "this is anywhere". | One pack serves every business in the city (13,145 in Da Nang). |
| 3. What places like them usually have | Basket objects (pho, iced coffee, clippers), labelled "usually here", never posing as their exact dish (ADR 0003). | One per item per family. The industry configs already name 362. |
Your multiplier: crops, flips, tints
| Trick | Use on | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Crop one big master into hero, phone, card and band | everything | Generate wide with room around the subject. Two crops of one master never sit on the same page (law L6.4); across sites they're fine. |
| Mirror (flip) | scenes, objects, carriers | Fine, because nothing is generated with text. Carrier labels get flipped before the name goes on. |
| Tint to any colour (duotone, mono) | decor, line art, city line packs | Already in the kit. Photos stay natural. |
| Invert | grey decor only | Gives a light ground and a dark ground from one file. Inverting a photo makes a film negative, so never. |
| Recompose: objects on a tinted ground in a new layout | statement blocks, blog covers, gift cards, game pieces | The strongest one: thousands of layouts per family. |
So what we should count is distinct masters, not files. Variants are code.
Which industries: the low-hanging fruit
| Group | Examples | Industries | No-site businesses | Images to make | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Go now: the category says it all | cafés, coffee, bubble tea, bakery, noodle and rice shops, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, seafood, diners, bars; beauty, hair, barber, nails, spa, massage | 51 | 105,129 (39%) | name-on-things carriers, basket objects, city pack. This is where image gen pays. |
| B | Cheap: trust sells it, not pictures | auto and motorbike repair, convenience and grocery, pharmacy, phone shops, laundry, gym, dental, florist, trades | 31 | 29,834 (11%) | grey decor + city pack + about 6 objects and 2 carriers per family. Mostly reusable pages (FAQ, how it works, area served). |
| C | Wait for the claim: the product is a fact | hotels, homestays, serviced apartments, tattoo, event planners, real estate, car dealers | 15 | 30,999 (12%) | Nothing new. A generated room or tattoo would be a fake fact: customers book on it. City pack only; their own photos after the claim. |
| D | Not our buyer | hospitals, schools, gas stations, banks, temples, the generic "Restaurant" and "Store" categories | 10 | 43,353 (16%) | Nothing. (Generic "Restaurant" is 29k, but with no cuisine the basket is a guess; they get the city pack and type.) |
| X | Stop: regulated | cannabis, smoke, liquor, tobacco, vape | 3 | 379 (0%) | Nothing. See below. |
| The rest | clothing, furniture, auto parts, jewellery, travel agents… (477 smaller industries) | 477 | 59,685 (22%) | Later, family by family, once A works. |
Group A is 51 industries and 39% of the whole pool, in about 12 families. Biggest first: Coffee shop 19,129, Cafe 11,005, Thai restaurant 9,057, Beauty salon 9,000, Spa 6,936, Diner 3,760, Barber shop 3,219, Hair salon 3,169, Fast food restaurant 3,123, Ramen restaurant 3,073, Bar 2,890, Vietnamese restaurant 2,583.
Weed dispensaries: stop
- Since June 2025, Thailand sells cannabis flower only on a Thai medical prescription, in person.
- Advertising is banned, direct and indirect, in all media, and the penalties include prison. Online sales are banned. More than 7,000 shops have closed, and since April 2026 new licences must be tied to a clinic or pharmacy.
- A site we make unasked, with a product menu, is advertising for the owner and for us. That's the opposite of value-first.
- So no dispensary images, and the 94 private ones stay private. If you want this lane, it needs a Thai legal read first, and the site would be text-only, styled like a clinic.
Sources: marketing laws 2026 · 7,000 shops close · legal guide 2026 (industry and news sites, not a lawyer).
Cafés: go. Coffee shop and Cafe together are 30k no-site businesses, the biggest in group A, and the agency is judging 200 real tier-0 cafés today.
The next run (902 shots, replaces the held 867)
| # | What | Shots |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name-on-things carriers. Awning, shop sign, window, cup, takeaway bag, box, apron, menu card, chalkboard, gift card, receipt, napkin… each with one flat blank label. 24 for every business + 8 per group-A family, photo and illustration | 240 |
| 2 | City packs: Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, Bangkok, London. Streets, river, skyline, pavement, day and night, illustrated + grey line to tint | 64 |
| 3 | Basket objects: the 362 "usually sold here" items in the 60 industry configs, each alone on white | 362 |
| 4 | Grey decor kit: footer and side-rail grounds, seamless tiles, festival grounds, foils, spot illustrations | 117 |
| 5 | Group B starter sets: 10 families × (6 objects + 2 carriers) | 80 |
| 6 | Experiments: whole page as one picture, parallax layers, day/night twins (coffee, barber, hotel) | 39 |
Dropped from the held waves: 464 long-tail scene fills (groups C, D and the rest, which aren't low-hanging) and anything for dispensaries. Run 1 goes first with 20 carriers, then a /lab page showing a real Da Nang café's name on a cup, an awning and a bag, before the other 220.