How To Use AI For Graphic Design | Easy Tutorial
In this article and video, we will show you how to use AI for graphic design.
Using AI tools to create graphic design assets is easier than ever. But there are a few best practices you’ll want to keep in mind!
We created this step by step process that shows you everything you need to know about designing a logo with simple AI tools.
Here are all our favorite tips and tricks for getting the best possible results.
How To Use AI For Graphic Design | Easy Tutorial
Below is the tutorial you can watch to learn how to use AI for graphic design.
How To Use AI For Graphic Design
Want to see a list of all the steps listed in the video? Check them out below!
1. Find Creative Inspiration
Before getting started, it’s always good to get inspired. Here are two websites you can check out to get the artistic juices flowing!
Behance - With a behance account you can save images you like, and make folders to organize them. Overall, it’s a good inspiration resource to keep in mind.
Midjourney - We’ll be using Midjourney in our process, but for now you can just visit the explore page and search, “minimal design logo” to see what comes up!
2. Use Midjourney To Make Your Logo
All you have to do in Midjourney to start your logo design process is enter a prompt at the top and you’ll see results in just a few seconds.
We’ll use this example prompt to design a new logo:
Create a minimal logo for me. The brand name is Curious Refuge. I want the logo to be a “CR” in modern, minimal, bold font. The C and the R are connected. Solid black on a white background. ——r 20
Adding ——r 20 at the end will automatically repeat this prompt 20 times, to give us plenty of results to choose and iterate from.
Keep in mind the vast majority of these first results will have flaws and imperfections! But we will fix that in the next few steps.
For now, just enjoy scrolling through different options that feel close to what you’re looking for.
It may take a few attempts to find something you like, and once you do, there are probably details you’ll want to tweak.
With the Midjourney image editor (which is available on all annual subscriptions), you can select the area you want to re-generate. Using your brush, it might look something like this, below.
After you hit submit, Midjourney will re-do the area in gray.
After making some edits in Midjourney, you can download your final version.
This looks nice, but in order to scale up and use this design, we will need it in vector format.
So here’s what to do next.
3. Vectorize Your Logo
Using Adobe Illustrator, go to “new file” and upload the image in any aspect ratio format of your choice.
Next, go to “Object” in the bar up top, scroll down to “image trace”, then select “make and expand.”
Your logo will be automatically traced for you, so you can scale it up.
All you have to do next is save the file in .ai format.
4. Search Similar Designs Online
Now you’ll want to make sure your logo is truly unique. This is pretty easy and will save you time in the long run!
You can simply use reverse google image search and upload your logo.
The results will show you anything similar out there!
5. Choose Your Color Palette
Now you can make a color palette for your brand and use it in your logo design.
One of our favorite tools Coolers.co is very easy to use and lets you cycle between a bunch of different color palettes.
6. Make A Mock-Up
After establishing your color palette, you can change your logo’s color in Adobe Illustrator and start creating more assets.
Canva is a very useful tool that you can use to design mock-ups, other products or even more versions of your logo.
Use any template from inside Canva and delete the elements you don't want to use. Just replace them with your .ai file logo created in Adobe Illustrator.
Feel free to change the text and font to customize it however you want.
To add your logo onto a product like a tote bag or T-shirt, just download your asset with a transparent background.
You can choose from Canva’s existing mock-ups and drop your image in directly. Canva even understands shadows and depth, so these results are pretty great!
We hoped you enjoyed these helpful steps about how to use AI for graphic design! :)
Learn the Best AI Advertising Techniques
If you want to learn more about how to create with AI but don’t know where to start, we would love for you to join us in our next session for AI Advertising.
All our AI courses are catered to your creative needs and inspiration. Feel free to check out our course catalog. Reach out to us via email at hello@curiousrefuge.com with any questions and we will be happy to help!
