Typeface on Typeface: How I Uplevel Abstract AI Designs for Blogs and Webpages

Welcome to our new Typeface on Typeface series where we invite our team to share insights into their everyday generative AI and creative processes. Today, we'll discuss how our brand and visual design team uses Typeface to create abstract designs that bring our blogs and webpages to life. 

Ananya is our in-house visual designer who focuses on brand identities and development to ensure consistency across all mediums. Shortly after joining Typeface, she unlocked a way to use Typeface for B2B-specific designs. 

Q: Can you describe what you wanted to design, and why you used AI in your design process? 

When I first joined the Typeface team, my main objective was to create more engaging and interesting blog headers. Our aim was to break away from common design patterns that typically represent AI tools. We wanted to create trendsetting designs that truly stand out. 

AI offered the most creative and quickest way to do this. It helped me create eye-catching textural elements based on our core brand colors. These minimalist, clean visuals complement moments where key information is shared. This new design style is now used across pitch decks, collateral, webpages, swag, and various marketing materials and became the new marketing brand look.  

Abstract design for Typeface’s webinar slide

Q: That sounds like an ambitious project. What did your initial design exploration with AI look like? 

My early exploration was guided by Jonathan Moreira, Design Director at Typeface. We had an idea of adding movement, so our designs didn’t appear too static. We wanted to create designs that intrigued our readers and encouraged them to learn more. 

When I started experimenting with Typeface, I was curious to see how AI would respond to certain keywords such as dynamic, energy wave, floating fabric, elegance, futuristic 3D. Typeface had unique interpretations of that term, unlocking new creative avenues I wouldn't necessarily have thought of initially.  

Next, I used Magic Prompt to enhance my original prompts. This process sparked ideas and helped me iterate with new keywords. Typeface is not just a tool, but a partner that I could collaboratively brainstorm with and push traditional design boundaries. 

Before Magic Prompt

After Magic Prompt

Q: What’s the amount of work required to create these designs without AI? 

Creating these designs without AI would have taken up to three days of manual labor, which is a challenge for a fast-paced startup like ours. Without AI, we usually rely on inspiration from existing designs. The task of creating a 3D-like design world would require a lot of time, skill, and highly specialized design software. With AI, creation is only limited by your imagination and adding keywords helps you explore completely new design ideas within minutes. 

Since Typeface ensures the style is consistent and matches our brand, I can spend my time perfecting the images and thinking of new ways we can use these designs to elevate our content across various formats. 

Q: You trained our Brand Kit using AI-generated images. How did you come up with this idea?  

We wanted to use AI to create an entirely new brand theme and style from scratch, so we used AI to kickstart that process. We wanted to keep it on-brand with our visual style and feel. I began by setting up a Brand Kit with our brand color palette to generate the initial set of images. 

Initially, some of my first outputs had a darker atmosphere than what we wanted. That was expected, since our brand color palette does include a dark color. I intentionally chose the outputs that had a lighter and airier feel. 

Once we had a set of images from AI that seemed to represent our brand perfectly, it felt natural to use those to train an Image Style for future AI generations. It worked perfectly! 

Q: Now that your Brand Kit is set up, what does your daily workflow look like? 

Setting up our Brand Kit has streamlined my daily workflow significantly. Even when I input simpler prompts, Typeface can generate rich images that echo our brand. Whenever a marketer requests designs, I can quickly and creatively fulfill those needs.  

I start by using the settings to adjust the aspect ratio or size based on the format requirement. This helps me generate the right sized visuals for our website, blog, social media, print, and more. 

Next, I generate multiple images based on a few prompts. The beauty of AI is that it can interpret the same prompt in unique ways. If you have a favorite prompt, you can generate several unique yet on-brand images all at once. 

Q: Can you share some advice for designers looking to try out AI in their creative process? 

If you're new to AI, my advice is to keep an open mind and let AI surprise you in the design process. My experience using Typeface has been a journey of exploring my creativity, redefining design norms, and adapting workflows.  

Also, remember to have fun and enjoy the exploration process! AI is a great collaborator in your creative journey. AI is not about replacing your skills – it's about extending them.

Register for the webinar AI Showcase: How to use AI for B2B designs and see Ananya demonstrate her workflow live and engage in a Q&A session.