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From vibrant book covers to stylish advertising banners, graphic design gives color and shape to our lives. Today, we're exploring MidJourney's capabilities in the field of graphic design, and learn to use the AI as a powerful tool for tackling design tasks.
So, what is graphic design? It's a visual art that encompasses many different fields: web design and interfaces, typography and illustration, branding and advertising. In this In Focus episode, we will explore the different types, directions, and genres of graphic design and learn how to use designers' names and references to existing styles to create your own unique designs.
Let's start our journey!
Branding + Logo Design
You might be familiar with numerous websites offering logo generation or assembly from sets of graphic elements or icons. But instead of those cookie-cutter templates, can we use Midjourney to create something more original? Let's try to create logotypes for the same brand using variety of prompt strategies and reference names...
...and test the same appoach with more varied range of subjects:
Hey, how about creating a consistent set of brand identity elements? We'll start by generating a logo.
When we have a variation we like, let's expand the canvas by
panning it repeatedly to the left. while changing the prompt to clean white background. When the vertical line is of the needed width,
pan downward to extend the white background vertically, until you roughly have your page format. If Midjourney adds rogue elements to your clean white space, remove them with Vary (Region).
For consistency, we added the Style Reference, or --sref, parameter to steps 3 and 4 pointing at the initial logo image.
Note the increased Style Weight, or --sw parameter allowing to strenghten the reference image's impact on each new generation.
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Print Design
Printed incarnations of graphic design are everywhere in our lives: concert tickets, metro maps, playing cards, restaurant menus, newspapers, posters, business cards, billboards, letterheads, and so much more... Let’s see how Midjourney can help us generate ideas and drafts for some of those materials.
And it's not just designer's styles that can yield great results when used in design prompts.
Of course, let's not forget the power of quotes! Putting text in quotes into your prompt will instruct Midjourney to generate (well, at least try to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) said text.
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And if you want to add more elements to a design generation you like, use Vary (Region). Expand variation area, lower --stylize value and add --style raw if Midjourney perseveres. You might need a few variation steps to fit in different parts of the text:
Packaging Design
Bright or gentle, minimalist or bold, packaging designs' goal is to catch the eye and evoke a desire to look, touch, open, and own—or simply admire. To create a compelling packaging design with Midjourney, mention keywords like “packaging design,“ “box,“ “blister,” “pack,” etc., in your prompt.
Icons
Icons can be used as elements for apps, websites, and branding, or even as emojis. How cool is that?
Want to generate one icon at a time and keep a consistent style? Again, just use the first generation that you liked as a Style Reference with the help of --sref. In the next example, the first icon was generated from a text prompt, and then we added --sref [Firt Upscale URL] --sw 500.
Aiming for even more consistency? Increase the --sw value, or use the --seed of the initial generation.
Stickers
Do you have stickers on your laptop? Or fridge? Maybe on your guitar or traveling case? Or maybe you are more used to virtual stickers—present in almost any modern messenger app. How about creating your own sticker pack for any mood or situation? It's easy with Midjourney!
Web Design: Landing Pages
How about building something more complex? A landing page? For this experiment, we first created a 16:9 header, and then used ↓ Panning, changing the prompt in the process to render new sections.
Finding the right prompts might take some time, but, in the end—it’s totally possible to create at least a good draft for your webpage. Here are the steps we took our design through:
website landing page header for wedding agency by Josef Frank. Title "Marry me”
↓
minimalist website landing page for wedding agency designed by Josef Frank. "About us" section text block with clean background
↓
Here, the --no parameter had to be added in order to keep the flowers at bay.
minimalist website landing page for wedding agency designed by Josef Frank. "About us" section text block with clean background --no flowers illustrations
↓
minimalist website landing page for wedding agency designed by Josef Frank. Footer section contacts block on dark clean background
↓
minimalist website landing page for wedding agency designed by Josef Frank. Footer section contacts block on dark clean background
For some parts and transitions, consider using Vary (Region). We did so for the transition between the header and the rest of the website, selecting a line between the two sections and promting: gradual transition from illustration to clean background.
Mockups
So the masterpieceis finished! Your graphic design—be it a poster, a beverage lable, a letterhead, or a webpage or app—is ready to be presented to the client, showing it in both, its “pure form” , and real-life situations. MidJourney excels at creating mockups that we can populate with your designs.
Choose the desired aspect ratio, specify the background, and use keywords like [your subject] mockup, et voila—a beautiful mockup ready to bring your creation to life!
Sometimes, the creative process for designers can hit a wall, making it hard to pull ideas out of your head. Say goodbye to a lack of inspiration! Say hello to Midjourney, your friend and ally in so many things creative.
P.S.: And don't forget to add a surpise flavor of --sref random to your designs. (^≗ω≗^)
Happy midjourneys and until next week!
—Andrei and Maria
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ⓘ New styles on every page!
