It's no secret that AI will dramatically impact the future of brands and design so far – which makes us question how we can continue to provide irreplaceable value to designers.
For some creatives, it is recommended for automating frequent and repetitive tasks such as resizing, exporting, or unintentional pixel pushing.
Others see it as a way to build more curated mood boards and quickly communicate your brand's message to customers.
I've started a journey of exploring how AI can improve what we create and how we create it.
What did I do
If you're not familiar with Midjourney, it's one of the most prominent models in AI image generation to date.
I experimented with the model to see if it generated a series of unique graphics for the new brand identity.
Here are the results:
Report cover
site
ad
How I did it
While practice is more of a test, I learned some valuable insights along the way. Let's go through this process together.
1. Define graphics standards
When defining styles, first identify and build the unique visual characteristics or themes that the graphic should embody.
For this brand, let's explore a style that captures the idea of a mix of 3D momentum and luminous colors.
The graphic inspiration captures two aspects: 3D momentum and luminous color mixing
It can be helpful to refer to existing inspiration that you find online or that you personally get. Assembling inspiration into buckets will form a clearer frame of reference that later becomes useful as midway input.
In our case, I've designed the logo and color palette. It is important that the new graphics are tightly aligned and work together as a unified system.
Distill brand equity into abstract snapshots
By abstracting the features of the logo and color palette (shown above), we can help guide results that are more in line with the brand image in Midjourney.
Now that we've identified graphic inspiration and brand equity images, it's time to bring them into Midjourney.
2. Integrate in the process
While most of us are familiar with the /imagine command, I personally feel that it is not that powerful when dealing with very specific visual results.
In our case, we will use the /blend command.
This command "blends" multiple images together and produces an image somewhere in between.
Activate the hybrid command by typing /blend + (return) in the Discord message box
By typing /blend + (return) in the Discord message box, the aforementioned drag-and-drop module will appear.
While Midjourney allows mixing up to 5 images at a time, I recommend sticking with 2-3 images as this provides better design control.
It's playtime. Let's upload the image input to the drag-and-drop module. Here are some of the different combinations I've explored:
It looks like one of the above results needs further refinement. For example, we'll choose to remix this image result:
We remix this image with another image in the hope that it will bring the result closer to what we are looking for:
Use the image input to remix the image
There. Repeating this process will help develop an image library with a cohesive style.
Finally, here's the style I generated:
Brand graphic style
Along the way, I've also created some other interesting styles:
3. Enlarge the graphic
Now that we have a series of graphics that we are familiar with, we are going to upgrade them to a higher resolution than that allowed by Midjourney.
To upgrade, I recommend a free tool like BigJPG.com.
4. Post-editing
It may not be perfect. In some cases, further editing is required. Whether it's fine-tuning the colors or composition, I use Photoshop for the finishing touches.
In the epilogue
This approach in no way guarantees that everyone will get the same results. Rather, it is an example to demonstrate the power of AI applied to design.
Designers ultimately need to think about how to use AI purposefully. Using this technology can have an important impact on streamlining tedious design workflows, but it can also compromise the quality of our work if we are not careful.
Going forward, it's important that we collectively build our AI knowledge as a community to ensure the success of our creative work.