ASO & AI: Prompting Midjourney to Produce Captivating App Icons

This week’s newsletter was written by George Natsvlishvili, Growth Consultant and Founder of 3 MINUTES BULLSHIT WITH GEORGE.

We use AI in our lives even without knowing about it. For example, Siri is an AI that doubles up as a personal assistant. Facebook also uses AI to recognize users in photos to help with marking and signaling a profile.

AI is emerging as a key player in the mobile industry. It’s helping developers and marketers refine their ASO strategies and boost their apps' visibility by streamlining and automating various tasks. This allows app marketers to optimize their strategies and stay ahead of the competition.

In this article, I will explore the capabilities of Midjourney, an innovative generative AI tool that can be used to craft captivating app icons. You will learn how to get started, come up with compelling prompts, and optimize your app icon using the provided step-by-step guide.

But before a few words about Midjourney. It is one of the most popular AIs used by designers.

Main ASO features:

• Generate logos, icons, and images with celebrities and public figures without any problems.?
• Because it’s so popular among designers who work in IT, the stock of pictures generated for this group are getting better and better.?

The Downsides:

• Midjourney works from Discord, so it can be problematic for some.?
• There are a few technical problems, like the long generation of a picture from 40 seconds to several minutes.
• No free trial version is a bummer.

Let's explore how you can initiate your creative journey with Midjourney to generate unique app icons.

Icon Production

Midjourney is no longer free to use, except for some brief promotional periods. This is a downside of the tool.?

As a paid user, you gain the ability to submit prompts directly to the Midjourney Discord bot. However, note that these prompts will still be publicly visible in the member's gallery–if you wish to generate private images (stealth image generation), you'll need to subscribe to the Pro Plan.?

To initiate your prompt, use Discord commands by typing “/imagine” followed by the prompt.

Here’s an example: /imagine app icon for a flight tracker app

It takes about a minute to generate a response, and when it does, the Midjourney bot will render four different images based on your prompt.

Editing and Refining Your Icons

After Midjourney completes the generation of icon options based on your initial request, the bot will provide prompts for you to edit and refine your images.?

Here are several options available:

• U Buttons: Ranging from U1 to U4, these buttons are used to upscale an image, generating a larger version with more details. I chose U1 to focus on the 1st visual.

• Vary: If you select “Vary (Strong)”, four new variations of the existing image will appear.

• Vary (Region): If you want to select a new background for your icon, choose "Vary (Region)," then identify and edit the specific landscape you want to change in the prompt.In the example below, I’ve added: “with sea instead of forest.”

Four new variations will appear, this time with a sea background instead of a forest.

• V Buttons: Ranging from V1 to V4, these buttons allow you to create slight variations of the selected grid image. The new picture grid is modeled after the general look and composition of the chosen image.For example, if you like the background but not the plane, select the V2 image, and the prompt edit will appear. Input "with a different plane version" in the prompt.

A new set of four images will then appear.

• ?? (Re-roll): This option enables you to rerun the job, generating a new grid of images based on the original prompt. If you change your mind and want to go back to the initial prompt message, click on this button and modify the prompt request to "app icon for the flight tracker app."

Tune in next week for part two, where George explores the process of editing existing icons.

In the meantime, check out 3 MINUTES BULLSHIT WITH GEORGE to hear about the latest trends in mobile marketing from industry experts.

Today's Insights ??

Here's a bit of fun to try when you're bored:

AI Comic Factory allows make your comics for free! Just input your story and choose a comic style.

Here's what we got with the prompt "AppAgent is a marketing agency located in Prague"

Mind-Blowing News ??

• Google Maps is getting an AI enhancement - introducing five new features that will make the tool "smarter and more helpful".
• Speaking of Google, the company is suing scammers who tricked users into downloading a fake version of its Bard chatbot.
• And, back to Elon Musk, who announced his "rebellious" AI chatbot, Grok.

Let’s see what next week will bring, stay tuned (and subscribe)!