Is Midjourney AI a Good Option to Boost Design Production?
The role of AI is becoming increasingly central in the day-to-day lives of marketing teams across the globe. The reason is clear - AI tools can save days worth of time previously spent on day-to-day tasks and free up the marketer to either get through more work or focus on more important projects.
One tool in particular is taking the design world by storm - Midjourney AI. So what are the features of this tool, what’s it good for and what pros and cons should you consider before choosing to use this for your brand’s graphic design needs? Let’s take a closer look now.
What is Midjourney Ai?
Before delving into the pros and cons, it's important to grasp the concept of Midjourney ai and how it fits into the realm of graphic design. Midjourney ai is an innovative AI-powered platform that assists designers in creating graphic design by offering various tools and features. Its core objective is to augment human creativity and productivity, helping designers produce high-quality designs more efficiently.
Midjourney is a bot that runs on Discord and leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms to streamline various aspects of the design process. You’ll need to create a Discord account to access Midjourney. It’s super quick to input a prompt using ‘/imagine’ followed by a description of the image you want. From generating design concepts to suggesting colour palettes, typography options, and layout compositions, Midjourney ai provides designers with a comprehensive set of features to enhance their workflow. The AI algorithms behind Midjourney are trained on vast amounts of data, enabling the platform to generate designs that align with current design trends.
Should you use AI for graphic design?
The integration of artificial intelligence in graphic design has revolutionised the industry by automating repetitive tasks and expanding the creative possibilities for designers. By automating time-consuming tasks, such as selecting colour schemes or testing out a layout, Midjourney frees up designers' time, enabling them to take on other complex and creative projects.
As a graphic design subscription service ourselves, we really value the importance of the quality of design. That being said, there is definitely a place for AI tools to help out busy marketers who are being left with the stress of graphic design tasks every day. Tools like Midjourney can also provide a good basis for a design project - they’re great for brainstorming how you want a project to look, creating mockups or enhancing stock imagery. Let’s dive into some more of these use cases for Midjourney now…
Brainstorming ideas
If you’re not 100% sure about the general look and feel you want for a design, Midjourney is a useful way to quickly see what a few different styles look like. By inputting prompts to design in different artistic styles, layouts or colour schemes, designers can quickly see what might work best for the project and use it to plan the project accordingly.
Creating Mockups
Midjourney is an easy way to generate unique images for your business that can be used for mockups. It’s a quick way to generate mockups where the product is in an environment and being used in a way that exactly suits your business. For example, you might generate an image of a perfume bottle amongst flowers for a floral-scented perfume. It gives you more power to access to create mockups quickly, and in a style that suits your business best.
Enhance Stock Images
If you struggle to find exactly what you’re looking for on stock imagery sites, Midjourney is a good option to help you to enhance stock images to suit your exact needs for use in your design projects.
Tips for Better Images on Midjourney
Make small changes in your prompts
Only change one thing in your prompt at a time. Changing one word at a time gives you a clearer understanding of how to use the tool to get the image you’re looking for. There’s more information on Midjourney prompts here.
Use specific language in prompts
Make sure to use specific words and very descriptive phases to help the AI produce an accurate image.
Edit your aspect ratios
Use the –ar parameter followed by the desired aspect ratio to edit your image size. For example, for an aspect ratio of 1:1 (square), you’d write –ar 16:9 at the end of your prompt.
.jpeg){kind=spacer}
Making the decision: Is Midjourney ai right for your team?
Now that we understand more about how it works, it's time to assess whether Midjourney ai is the right fit for your team's graphic design needs.
Assessing your team's needs and capabilities
The first step in making an informed decision is to assess your team's specific needs and capabilities. Consider the volume and complexity of your design projects, as well as the skill level and creative preferences of your designers. If your team regularly handles high-volume projects with tight deadlines, Midjourney ai's time-saving and productivity-enhancing features may prove highly beneficial. However, if your team thrives on the uniqueness and originality of their designs, a more hands-on approach may be preferred.
Concerns about originality and authenticity
One of the primary concerns raised by critics of AI-driven graphic design tools is the potential lack of originality and authenticity. As Midjourney ai relies on pre-trained algorithms and existing design data, there is a risk that designs generated by the platform may lack the unique touch that human designers bring. However, it's worth noting that Midjourney ai is designed to assist, not replace, human creativity. It complements designers' abilities rather than replacing them entirely, allowing for a harmonious collaboration between human designers and AI-driven tools.
Technical challenges and learning curve
Implementing Midjourney ai in your team's workflow may come with technical challenges and a learning curve. Adapting to a new design tool powered by artificial intelligence requires familiarisation with the platform's features and functionality. While Midjourney ai offers an intuitive user interface, there may be a period of adjustment as designers become accustomed to the AI-powered workflows. To mitigate any potential challenges, providing comprehensive training and support to your team can help them make a smooth transition and fully utilise the platform's capabilities.
Our Thoughts
As a design subscription service, we can see how useful faster design generation can be for some teams. Midjourney is a powerful tool for rapidly generating high-quality images, and its use cases are numerous. That being said, Midjourney feels more like a time-saving tool for some day-to-day tasks, like finding stock imagery, and a great starting point for figuring out how you want a project to look. We see Midjourney as a great tool to use alongside a professional design team to help make processes more efficient, however as it’s not foolproof, having that expert work alongside it helps to make sure that your design projects are consistently the highest quality. Ultimately, it works great alongside professional designers rather than to replace them.
The decision to use Midjourney AI should be based on a careful evaluation of the pros and cons for your team. Consider the potential benefits, such as enhanced creativity, increased productivity, and cost-effectiveness, against the drawbacks, including concerns about originality and the learning curve. It's crucial to involve your design team in the decision-making process, ensuring their input and concerns are taken into account.
