Midjourney Beginners #3: Practical and useful things you can create with Midjourney
Never run out of creative ideas again!
“Midjourney Beginners” is a series of articles written for readers who are just getting started with Midjourney.
Anyone can make beautiful images with a few simple steps.
No complicated things here.
What can you create with Midjourney? Images, of course. But there's more.
When someone asked me what Midjourney was and what it could do, I said "images" almost instinctively without thinking.
But this isn’t very helpful. Images? What kind of images? Photos? Illustration? Anime? Drawing? Painting?
In fact, Midjourney is constantly evolving. It's more sophisticated now than it was last year. It's now moving toward video generation. It creates unique style and brand assets (Style Reference codes), consistent virtual models/AI influencers (Character References), worldbuilding and a variety of other features that will be discussed in this article.
According to David Holz, the future version of Midjourney can make real-time video, creating a holodeck-like environment. The "holodeck" is a fictional device in the Star Trek universe that uses holographic technology to create an immersive, interactive, three-dimensional simulation of a real or imagined environment.
And yes, you can still put your face on a virtual character, such as a warlord or sorceress, which is a common question among beginners who are new to creating images with AI.
You can make your cat fly too, if you want.
It's a lot of fun using Midjourney to create various kinds of images, share them with family and friends, and post them on social media. But after a while, you may start to wonder what else it can do. Is it worthwhile to continue your subscription if you don't generate many images?
It's all fun in the beginning. But after a few months, you may begin to wonder - what should I create next?
This article will provide you with ideas for practical things that you can create with Midjourney. "Practical things" are stuff that can be used in everyday life - rather than just posting images on social media.
It’s more about showing what is possible with Midjourney than getting into the specifics of the creation techniques. In upcoming articles, I will share with you those techniques and tips.
Consider it a way to integrate Midjourney into your life. And partner with the bot to let your creativity shine in everyday situations.
1. Elevate and customize your images
Stock photos are super popular among writers, students, and content creators because they are easily accessible, and many are free to use. However, it can be tricky to find the perfect photo with the right vibe or style.
For example, I downloaded the above stock photo from Pixabay of a smiling lady presenting in front of a whiteboard. It's a nice photo, but it does not capture the specific character or mood I was aiming for.
You can upload that photo to Midjourney's Discord server and use the '/describe' command. It will generate some prompts and image variations that may fit better.
For example, it could generate a senior professional woman presenting (1), a confident woman leaning against a whiteboard (2), or a young lady smiling and pointing at the whiteboard (3)—giving you options that might suit your needs better than the original.
And then, let's say you wanted to switch things up and have a male executive (4) present instead. You can tweak the prompts Midjourney gives you, and suddenly, you've got a whole new image that matches your idea.
So, basically, you're taking a stock photo as your starting point, and then using Midjourney to customize and elevate its aesthetics while adding your personal touch. This way, you'll have unique, high-quality images that are perfect for your project. Pretty cool, right?
Use a stock photo as your starting point. Then, Midjourney will be used to customize and elevate its aesthetic.
2. Create and personalized background and texture images
Backgrounds and textures are very useful for a variety of projects. They can be used as a cool banner for your social media accounts, a unique wallpaper for your desktop, or as an eye-catching background element in a PowerPoint presentation.
You can create personalized, fun backgrounds for your virtual meetings on platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Especially if your company does not require you to use a standard corporate background. You can get creative and design something unique that reflects your personality or the meeting's theme.
Another idea is to use custom backgrounds and textures to convey your message creatively. You can, for example, incorporate a special message in a seamless pattern, such as "Happy Birthday, Emily!". The pattern could be printed and used as a personalized gift wrap or a fun background for a birthday video call.
You can personalize a seamless background with a word or message.
3. Create a collection of useful items
Instead of creating individual images, you use Midjourney to create a style-consistent collection of items such as stickers, clip art, icons, or even custom objects—whether for personal projects, side hustles, or simply something fun for your friends or team.
Say you have a dog or a cat that you adore. You can begin with a photo of their head, upload it, and let Midjourney's Retexture tool work its magic. You can change the colors, experiment with styles, or add fun backgrounds. Suddenly, you have a set of adorable custom stickers. These can be physical items that you print and distribute, or digital assets for your chats, blogs, or online projects.
You can design a collection of icons or symbols for your blog, website, or side hustle. You could create buttons, badges, or small graphics to reflect your personal brand. These collections become part of your "visual identity," like a set of distinctive design elements that connect everything you do.
For example, Pentagram, a well-known design firm, recently demonstrated how they used Midjourney to create a set of digital assets, such as icons and visual symbols, all in the same sleek style. They used these in real-world applications, demonstrating that this isn't just an experiment—it's already being adopted by top-tier agencies and even government projects.
Watch their video here (no audio):
4. Use Midjourney for creative projects
(A) Brainstorm ideas and concepts
Midjourney is an excellent tool for generating home renovation ideas.
Are you thinking a farmhouse-style kitchen with a warm, rustic feel? Midjourney allows you to visualize it in various color schemes, such as warm orange and cheerful yellow, before you spend money on the renovation.
It assists you in selecting the best fit for your space and provides you with graphic materials to discuss with your interior designer about the look of your ideal kitchen.
Midjourney excels at creating a wide range of variations quickly. You can use this to test out different visuals for a new product or character before committing to developing them further.
(B) Create printables with Canva
Midjourney images can be used as the source materials to fill up the Canva templates. Canva's extensive template libraries allow you to create book covers, posters, greeting cards, and just about anything else.
(C) Sell digital products
You can sell both the printables and the AI images. While some YouTubers and authors aggressively promote their courses to make money by selling AI images, I believe it is a highly competitive market.
Someone once told me that the secret to making money selling AI photos is not only the quality of the image, but also the quantity, automation, marketing skill, and other factors. Generic clip art images without aesthetic appeal may sell better than those artistic and beautiful images.
(D) Storytelling with images
Images can be arranged sequentially to tell a story. I discussed this in the article “Midjourney: Storytelling through photography shots” and “Midjourney: Getting started with Patchwork”. Visuals enhance the immersion and impact of your story.
In addition, you can use the Midjourney images as source materials to create an AI video in Runway or Sora.
Dear Paid Members,
Please find a list of prompts for each image in this article. I also commented on their creation method.
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