Are robots taking over the role of branding designers?

I'm a branding designer by trade. I love combining logic & magic to create a compelling brand story. I love fussing over fonts, photography, color palette, and iconography all working together to evoke a certain mood. It gives me great joy in turning something that was once invisible and only existed in the minds of my clients, and making it visible for others to appreciate.

That's why I was so excited when Chris Do the founder of The Futur? started writing and posting about #midjourney .. an artificial intelligence program that creates images from textual descriptions. Anyone with a Discord account can get access to the software, and experience it for free firsthand.

For Examples:

If I type in “/imagine ...

prompt: commercial shot of red apple, in black leather jacket with silver spikes, on yellow background, volumetric lighting, detailed, realistic, 4k --v 4

This is the result that Midjourney created:

First of all, I was blown away by the speed at which these images were generated (a matter of seconds) as well the high quality of the renders. It's a perfect tool for us designers, because it helps us manifests what’s in our head without having to manipulate stock photography .. or time-consuming 3D renders.

Imagine creating a design concept in seconds for a beer label like this:

What else can Midjourney do?

Logos

1. prompt: logo of Cat Cafe, by Paul Rand, simple, flat --v 4
2. prompt: logo for a fishing and bait shop, kitschy --v 4
3. prompt: buttermilk & dairy company logo, old time, graphic, vintage --v 4
4. prompt: logo of butterfly, designed by paul rand, simple --v 4

These may not be final logos, but we can use them as inspiration, or a jumping off point, and further refine it to suit business.

App Designs

1. prompt: meditation app, flat vector, Figma, dribbble, user interface --v 4
2. prompt: redesign of Stripe app, by US designer --v 4
3. prompt: cryptocurrency tracking app, adobe illustrator, behance --v 4
4. prompt: app that monitors your healthy, flat vector, Adoble Illustrator, dribbble, user interface --v 4

Game Environment Design

1. prompt: cute isometric island, cottage in the woods, river with water falling off the edge, made with blender --v 4
2. prompt: cute isometric kitche, cutaway box, made with blender --v 4
3. prompt: cute isometric room of teenage boy, cutaway box, made with blender --v 4
4. prompt: isometric island, Winterfell from Game of Thrones, blender 3D -v 4

Character design

1. prompt: bear mascot, wearing a suit, cute, Japanese style --v 4
2. prompt: Macho Man Randy Savage, 3D, Funko style, volumetric lighting, detailed, realistic, 4k --v 4
3. prompt: mascot for a vegetable drink brand, super cute, 2d --v 4
4. prompt: koi mascot, cute, japanese style --v 4

Movie Posters

1. prompt: movie poster for No Country for Old Men --v 4
2. prompt: movie poster for Dune, style of Saul Bass --v 4
3. prompt: movie poster for Hamlet --v 4
4. prompt: movie poster for the Old Testament of the bible --v 4

Even Photography

You will no longer have to resort to lame stock photos from sites like istock / shutterstock / getty images:

Photos of People:

1. prompt: blonde girl leaning on table and smiling at camera, detailed facial features, detailed eyes, polaroid, 1990 --v 4
2. prompt: woman playing solitaire at a desk, fuji color film, polaroid, 1999 --v 4
3. prompt: man sitting at breakfast table, detailed facial features, vintage photograph, fuji color film, 2000 --v 4
4. prompt: man waiting in line at mcdonald's in Thailand, detailed facial features, full body, fuji color film, 2005 --v 4

People Interacting

1. prompt: man and woman posing for a picture at Disneyworld, 2001, detailed face, detailed arms, full body portrait, photograph --v 4
2. prompt: Brother and sister playing in the yard, early 2000s, flash photography, polaroid --v 4
3. prompt: Two men, brothers, one man has hair, arguing outside a house on a patio, 1980, realistic arms, vintage photograph, flash photography --v 4
4. prompt: Two siblings sitting on deck in late afternoon, early 2000s, flash photography, polaroid --v 4

So does that mean designers are going to be out of work, and replaced by robots?

Beep-boop-beep. No. Far from it. I see Midjourney as merely a tool to help designers come up with better ideas in a shorter time. To validate a proof of concept. You still need the craftmanship of an experienced designer to bring an idea to life. It’s a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

Design thinking will always win over design doing.

At our studio Rayvn Design , we've been using Midjourney during the conceptual phase, when we are assembling moodboards & vision-boards for our clients. It helps them see what was once and idea, and how it can come to life. Here's an example of branding & design work we did for a real-estate development client, during the pre-construction phase:

If you are a business owner, and would like our help in manifesting your idea via branding & design, then check out our website (Rayvn Design https://rayvn.io) .. and let's talk about how we can make the invisible visible.