Unlock your creativity with AI prompts for graphic design.
Generative AI is a powerful creative helpmate that can quickly generate extraordinary and unexpected images based on your own imagination. It’s also a mighty time-saver that can help you power through routine tasks quickly, freeing up time for more creative work.
Unlock your creativity with AI prompts for graphic design.
Graphic design is an artistic practice — and it’s also a job. You’re navigating tight budgets and challenging deadlines, all while trying to make aesthetic designs that communicate. But finding ways to play, experiment, and surprise yourself are just as important as hitting deadlines — they’re how you evolve as an artist and stay engaged with your craft.
Enter AI art generators like Adobe Firefly. Adobe Firefly can help you achieve high-quality outputs to kickstart the creative process and to use in your graphic design work. But to get those high-quality results, you first need to learn how to write, fine-tune, and experiment with prompts — the words that make the artwork.
Prompt: sketch illustration of a hilly landscape during sunset
Understanding AI prompts for graphic design.
Prompts are bits of text that describe what you want the AI tool to generate. Like any creative tool, artificial intelligence doesn’t work without the direct input of a human creator. A paintbrush doesn’t create a masterpiece on its own, and similarly, AI won’t do a thing without your input.
For example, to generate images for a menu mockup for a new pasta spot, you could try “large plate of spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce on a white plate.” The AI then receives your request and generates something that looks like what you've written. Generative AI prompts for graphic design can do a lot more than just generate new images — you can use them to expand images, create vector artwork, generate new color palettes, and more.
It's rare that any design is perfect on the first pass. There are always rounds of iterating, feedback, and fine-tuning. The same is true for graphic design prompts. Trying out the same prompt written a few different ways can provide myriad different outcomes that spark your imagination.
Introducing generative AI into your design practice isn’t just a potential time-saver and creative boost — it’s quickly becoming an essential part of all design processes and understanding how it works is as important as understanding design software and analog techniques.
Prompt: large plate of spaghetti and meatballs with red sauce on a white plate
Benefits of using AI prompts for graphic design.
Ideation and brainstorming.
No matter how you brainstorm — in a room with colleagues tossing out ideas, jotting down ideas on a notepad — using generative AI prompts to quickly visualize your ideas is an effective way to kick off the creative process, begin assembling sketches or mood boards, and quickly iterate on design ideas.
Push past creative blocks.
When embarking on a new graphic design project, try using AI prompts to quickly generate ideas based around related keywords. Using generative AI and AI prompts for graphic design can help take the pressure off staring at a blank screen — or help you reimagine a design that doesn’t feel quite right yet.
Efficiency and productivity.
Well-honed generative AI prompts can make short work of time-consuming tasks such as searching for stock photography, expanding images to suit different design sizes, and retouching photos. Instead of scrolling through stock options for a “small brown dog with short fur running through a field side view,” you can conjure one up using AI prompts and then fine tune the image until it’s perfect for your use case.
Are AI prompts suitable for all skill levels?
Whether you're a seasoned graphic designer or just beginning, you can use AI prompts in your workflow. Understanding how to use generative AI prompts in your practice is important — and it’s easy to get started right away. You can begin experimenting with generative AI tools in many Adobe apps — like Generative Fill and Generative Expand in Photoshop — or try crafting prompts in the Adobe Firefly web app, which is free to use with an Adobe login.
The easiest way to learn how to craft effective prompts is to simply start writing them. Like any practice, you’ll learn to refine your approach with time. There’s an art to writing good prompts, as well as an art to knowing what to do with the generated images, including curating and editing them. Anyone can type a few words — it takes expertise to use generated art successfully.
Prompt: outside of a 1960s diner
Exploring graphic design AI prompts: Top use cases.
Writing AI prompts for graphic design isn’t difficult, but it takes some trial and error to get a desired outcome. Here are a few key word choices to keep in mind as you go:
- Descriptive words: In general, using words like “aquamarine,” “whimsical,” or “hyper realistic” will produce more refined results.
- Art styles: Try naming distinct art styles — such as “pop art,” “minimalist,” or “Art Deco” — to get a specific look.
- Directional words: Use phrases like “in front of,” “side view,” and “overhead” to orient your image.
- Output: If your goal is to create an image for a specific use, try using words like “logo,” “package design,” or “page layout”.
- Color palette: Whether you’re trying to generate a photorealistic image or a vector graphic, use colors like “green” or “hot pink” or describe a color palette with a term like “winter blues.”
- Graphic elements: Describe shapes and figures to control the appearance of your results such as “square logo” or “cylindrical pedestal.”
Learn more about how to write AI prompts that get results.
Generating whole scenes and images
Text to image is one of the best-known uses of generative AI and a powerful way to quickly create images for graphic design projects. Prompts can be as short or as long as you want, but if you have a specific idea in mind, try describing in simple but descriptive terms, like “busy city street scene at night with blurred reflections of buildings in the rain.” Words like “busy,” “blurred,” and even “at night” help inform the algorithm about what kind of street scene to assemble.
Examples
- minimalist office space with large windows and potted plants
- colorful tropical bird parrot sitting on yellow exotic flower branch in wildlife; green watercolor background
- colorful tropical bird parrot sitting on yellow exotic flower branch in wildlife; green watercolor background
Prompt: colorful tropical bird parrot sitting on yellow exotic flower branch in wildlife; green watercolor background
Adding and replacing objects in images
You can use generative AI to efficiently edit images. For instance, if you have the perfect image of a person walking through a winter scene but want to up the coziness factor with a sweater, you can use Generative Fill to brush out the existing garment and then type in an AI prompt such as “chunky knit sweater.” You can also use Generative Fill to add in all new objects such as “piece of birthday cake with a bite out of it.” Descriptive words like “chunky” and “birthday” will provide you with more specific outcomes.
Examples
- Black top hat with gold band
- Small white dog with curly hair
- Large blueberry muffin with a crumble topping
Creating vector graphics
Creating icons, logos, and illustrations is a key part of graphic design work. Text to Vector Graphic in Adobe Illustrator allows you to quickly convert AI prompts into bold, fully editable graphics. You can create in four modes, Subject, Icon, Scene, and Pattern, so you don’t have to describe your output as part of your prompt. Focus instead on describing the artwork. For instance, if you are creating a logo for a new donut shop, try “pink frosted donut with rainbow sprinkles flat design style.” Using style designations will get you different results — try words like 3D, maximalist, and retro. This is a great way to quickly generate design direction options for a client.
Examples
- Cute octopus holding balloons pink red white
- Minimalist pencil with eraser yellow
- Kitchen tools, food, and ingredients, corporate Memphis style
Prompt: Kitchen tools, food, and ingredients, corporate Memphis style
Designing templates
Kickstart the layout design process with the Text to Template feature in Adobe Express, which combines text and images based on your prompt. For this use case, specifying the format of the design as well as the subject or event is key to getting useful results. Try “a flier for a contemporary gallery opening” for example, or “a poster for a dog show.” All the results are editable, so once you get a few designs that resonate, you can adjust the imagery and text to your needs.
Examples
- Invitation baby birthday playful
- Rave flyer y2k neon
- Poster for vintage sale retro
Prompt: Poster for vintage sale retro
Recoloring your artwork
It's easy to explore new colorways for your designs using Generative Recolor in Illustrator. Simply create or open a design in Illustrator, open the Generative Recolor panel (Edit > Edit colors > Generative Recolor) and then type in a prompt describing a color palette. You can simply describe colors and tones such as “warm orange yellow red” or you can get a bit more eclectic and describe a theme, mood, or emotion such as “happy neon” or “winter day.”
Examples
- Tropical rain forest bright
- Muted blues and grays
- Stormy night
Prompt: Muted blues and grays
3 ways to bring generative AI into your design workflow.
1. Experiment and iterate.
- Tweak and change your prompts to get new results that build off your initial idea. Swap out nouns and adjectives or add new descriptive phrases.
- When using Text to image in Adobe Firefly, toggle on the Suggestions option in the prompt bar to see variations on your text.
- Once you’ve produced your first results, keep using Generate to see new designs of the same prompt.
2. Refine your generated designs.
- AI generated artwork is just a jumping off point. Use it as inspiration for a project, as you would any mood board or research gathered prior to starting a new design.
- Begin your design exploration with Adobe Firefly, then treat those images as rough drafts to customize with advanced editing tools in Photoshop, Illustrator, and other Adobe apps.
3. Be transparent.
- Be careful about how you use pre-existing works as an inspiration for prompts. Using specific art styles to generate images with the look of an impressionistic painting, for example, is a great way to use generative AI. But respect the intellectual property of other creators and don’t try to use generative AI to specifically recreate the look and style of an individual artist.
- Content Credentials are tamper-evident metadata that provide information about a work, such as how it was created, the creator's name, or edits. A Content Credential noting that an AI tool was used is included with media made using Adobe Firefly. Use Content Credentials to identify work made with the help of AI or to attach your name to your work when it's published and shared.
