AI Image Generation in Design

01Where AI image generation actually helps designers

In our experience the main value is speed to a visual direction, not delivery of the final file. What used to take a day of hunting for references and building a moodboard now takes an hour. The same tools stay weak wherever precision matters.

If your project is mostly about imagery for a website, our AI service and web design service can run this workflow end to end.

02The workflow: from brief to final file

1. Brief: write down the audience, the use (banner, card, background), final dimensions and the brand palette. Without these every output is pretty but useless.
2. Explore: generate 20 to 40 fast, low-effort images to find a direction; do not polish details yet.
3. Select and lock: pick two or three images and save their prompts and settings.
4. Edit: fix broken areas with local repainting (inpainting) or in an image editor.
5. Upscale and export: raise the resolution, match colours to the brand and produce web formats.

03Prompting for designers

An image prompt is a brief like any other and should be specific. We break it into six parts and change one at a time to learn which one matters. The general rules of writing instructions in prompt engineering for developers apply to images too.

• Subject: what, how many, doing what?
• Style: flat illustration, 3D render, watercolour, documentary photo and so on.
• Lighting and mood: soft morning light, neon, hard shadow.
• Composition: close-up, top view, empty space on the right for text.
• Colour: two or three named colours, preferably from the brand palette.
• Constraints: no text, no realistic faces, plain background.

A structured example

Subject: a tidy desk with a laptop and a small plant
Style: flat vector illustration, soft grain
Lighting: warm late-afternoon light
Composition: top view, empty space on the right third
Colour: deep teal, warm sand, one coral accent
Constraints: no text, no people, plain background

A practical tip: always state "empty space for text" in the composition. Most banners get text on top later, and without it you end up cropping the image.

04Keeping a consistent look across images

The real problem in client projects is not one good image but ten that look like they belong to the same brand. A few habits help:

• Write one fixed "style block" and paste it at the start of every prompt; only the subject changes.
• If your tool supports a reference image or style reference, feed it an approved image.
• Limit the number of colours and finish with a colour-correction pass that pulls everything toward the brand palette.
• For recurring characters do not count on identical results; a human-designed vector mascot or icon is the safer option.

05Editing, upscaling and web delivery

Most models output around one to two megapixels. For a full-width banner or print you need to raise the resolution. AI upscalers guess detail, so afterwards recheck faces, hands and textures; odd details are sometimes added.

On the web the final image has to be light. Image weight directly affects LCP; see page load speed optimisation and Core Web Vitals. A simple example with cwebp:

# resize to 1600px wide (0 = keep aspect ratio) and encode as WebP
cwebp -q 80 -resize 1600 0 hero.png -o hero-1600.webp
cwebp -q 80 -resize 800 0 hero.png -o hero-800.webp

<img src="hero-800.webp"
     srcset="hero-800.webp 800w, hero-1600.webp 1600w"
     sizes="(min-width: 900px) 800px, 100vw"
     width="1600" height="900" alt="Teal desk illustration" loading="lazy">

Do not forget alt text; it is necessary for accessibility and helps search engines as well (technical SEO). For format details, the MDN guide to image types is a good reference.

06Licensing, ethics and caution

This section is not legal advice and does not replace a lawyer, but we always apply a few practical precautions:

• Read the tool terms: some plans or versions restrict commercial use, and the ownership of outputs is not treated the same way in every country.
• Do not name living artists or brands in prompts to imitate their style; it is ethically questionable and carries legal risk.
• For logos and brand identity treat AI output as a starting point, not the product; owning and registering a brand needs an original design.
• Do not use real people's likenesses without consent, and never present a synthetic image as a genuine photo, such as a customer testimonial.
• Where it matters, tell your audience the image is AI-generated; transparency builds trust.

07Pre-delivery checklist

• Dimensions, ratio and palette match the brief.
• Faces, hands, text and edges are checked and fixed where needed.
• The prompt, seed, model name and version are saved.
• The file is in a web format, light, and has meaningful alt text.
• The tool licence terms have been checked for this use.

If you would like this workflow set up for your project, message us on the contact page or browse our work in the projects section. For more technical uses of AI, read AI in software development.