AI-based Image Generation

for Designers & Engineers

Using Midjourney and Dall-E
for Engineering and Industrial Design

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Back Ground
Tools like Midjourney and Dall-E are for marketing purposes, aren‘t Midjourney feed searching for „Engineering“
they?
They are maybe good to create a couple of cool and free images for
a powerpoint being an engineer, the rest is for the marketing folks.
I am writing this little article being an engineer but coming across
serious applications, especially also with my friend Peter Brunsbach
from 3D Culture.
To get a primary idea for industrial design, proper form and function
is part of almost every product. The process includes customer
interviews, research, braiinstorming with sketches, images,
inspiration books and today maybe some 3D prototyping.
Gathering early feedback for design to test a customer reaction,
promoting a non existant product or just visualizing your thoughts
can be very valuable. Not just creating fake news, but manifesting
ideas without wasting materials. Indeed, it can also be input for the
first „image to 3D“ solution, which is discussed in another article on
LinkedIn, but it is not fully developed yet.
Being based on AI, this article will naturally be outdated by the day
after the release. It is checked for style and content by an AI, of
course. The images are AI-generated. just myself, I am real (I hope)
Gerd Schwaderer

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

About myself
An app that analyzes your personality based on your name once Prompt </imagine <image of myself link> robot 3D> in Midjourney
told me that a „Gerd“ is a mix of a Geek and a Nerd.

Actually it is the short German name for Gerhard, the guy with the
spear.

But being a Gerd meant starting off with point clouds, reverse
engineering, inspection, CAD, Business Development, Sales
Management and Product Management for start up or publicly
traded companies such as Imageware, SDRC, Unigraphics,
Geomagic, 3DSystems, Volumegraphics and Hexagon.

That meant dealing with pointclouds, meshes, CAD, Voxels and all
sorts of manufacturing in many industries, but also their fantastic
people.

Who knows whats next. You decide

Editing existing images is tricky with AI

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

About LLMs
prompt <image that represents „Engineering“>, Dall-E

An LLM is like an autistic employee.

It is SUPER CAPABLE, but

only if you TASK IT PROPERLY

A large language model contains billions of images, and

and it only reacts as cleverly as you prompt it.

Garbage in, garbage out.

That is why you need proper prompt engineering

If you look at the image on the right, it looks embarassingly

possible but totally senseless of course.

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

List of some applications
prompt <Leonardo da Vinci style blueprint of Tintins moon rocket> Dall-E

1.Product Design
• Consumer goods
• Jewelry
• Fashion & Apparel
• Art
2.Transportation:
• Mood boards
• Industrial Design
3.Civil Engineering
• Architecture
• Interior Design
• Infrastructure
4.Engineering fun stuff:
• useless wonderful blueprints: image>

Entertainment, Media, Fashion and Marketing

are not part of this „not so white paper“
By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn
Product Design, Consumer Goods
prompt <pop art ceramic supplies, Alessi style> in Midjourney

I spent a lot of time with companies such as Playmobil,

Lego, Hotwheels, Swarovski, Alessi, Johnson &
Johnson and Games Workshop for reverse engineering
physical design.
Certainly also qualifying the products (FAI).
AI can now create fantastic product design with just a
smart prompt for rapid customer feedback.
Increase your database for decisions using realistic
products that were visualized without 3D design,
physical models or even manufacturing

Some examples…

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, early feedback
prompt <a Lego model of the Tesla Cybertruck> in Midjourney

Want to imagine something new without starting with hand

models or CAD?
Imagine how it would look like?
Get some first feedback?
Ask engineering early how they imagine to solve the
manufacturing challenges?
It‘s a billion-dollar industry, so it‘s worth integrating the
technology (I am not saying they didn‘t)

Off Topic:
To complete that, sure enough there is an image2Lego generator
Legolizer that creates a flat Lego image
Lego from 3D model needed?
Not part of this not so white paper but here we go:
Brickreplicator , Brickify converts an STL, Bricker is a Blender
plugin

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, injection molding
prompt <super villain, role play figurine, plastic, Games Workshop> in Midjourney

Many of the images fed to a LLM will be based on

actual existing models, that have engineering
constraints integrated such as parting lines, no
undercuts, draft angles.
So it could well be that the output will actually have a
tendency to be „meaningful“ even for engineering
purposes.
The way LLMs are created could lead to it, but adding
real manufacturing constraints is a few years ahead I
guess.

Off topic:
Games Workshops revenue is half a billion dollars and
their models some of the most sophisticated plastic
injection models in the world, very complex
engineering. They are created using 3DSystems
FREEFORM product. A voxel modeller that is able to
create mold ready designs.
By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn
Product Design, Consumer Goods
prompt <a women’s high heel shoe in red with a heel made of skulls> in Dall-E

Remember how LLMs work.

There is an incredible amount of shoe images to be found on
the web. Naturally, shoes must work brilliant.

prompt <A 3D knitted jogging shoe with buckles> in Dall-E

Off topic:
While working with Adidas I tried to investigate why shoes have
an even higher importance for women than for men.
The story I found was this: From the middle ages to the late
19th century there was little opportunity to show off besides
things like shoes. If you don‘t have a coach or horse and can
hardly leave the house, it could be used to represent your
social status. Just make sure your heels are not worn out which Midjourney feed for shoes

sais: has to work and walk.

Remember the importance for small feet in premodern China.
One note for engineers: Make sure to wear good shoes, one
can easily spot when you have a nice suit & tie but save on the
footwear.

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, Consumer Goods
prompt <a fire brigade outfit in the style of the 5th element> in Dall-E prompt <Create a hair dryer from Dyson especially for men, a bit brutal> in Dall-E

Midhourney feed for shoes

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

 Product Design, Medical/ Anatomical
prompt <ortheses for the leg of a kangaroo> in Dall-E

Well, Medical isn‘t exactly consumer goods, is it?

I didn‘t want to hide these as they show an amazing ability to
create product solutions based on existing ones. Sometimes
we are extremely biased because we have been influenced by
the existing solutions so much. A car usually comes with 4
wheels, since there were coaches.

An AI sometimes goes a little loose on that. You can combine 2

images for example, or mix prompts. Just keep it short enough.

Midhourney feed for shoes

prompt hand razor of the prompt <3D-printed prompt <A bicycle helmet,
terminator, metal handle, lattice, toothbrush, organic lattice inspired by Space X, moon
organic, brutal> in Dall-E structure> in Dall-E landing> in Dall-E

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, Jewelry
prompt <complex golden bracelet of a chinese dragon, diamonds, ruby eyes, 8k,
photorealistic> in Midjourney

There are many jewelry images to be found on the web. Naturally,

that makes a LLM also a great designer for very realistic jewelry.
One could even advertise the models without ever having built
them, waiting for first customers.
Design it in 3D, throw the mesh into a jewelry 3D wax printer, and
create it.
Check out Shapeways or similar webpages to see a > 2 billion $
market

prompt <wedding ring, brass prompt <Earrings, Antonio Gaudi

knuckles, diamonds> in Dall-E style, simplistic in Midjourney

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, Art
prompt <Jeff Koons statue of a hand, made from balloons, red> in Dall-E

Where is the intersection of art and engineering?

It is where companies create monumental installations such as

for Jeff Koons or Anish Kapoor. The idea is one thing, but the
creation of the actual models another.

I find it particularly interesting how iconic expressions, styles and

shapes battle each other. Will the 911 win over the balloons?
Sure enough you can also set weights to the input depending on
the tool you use.
prompt <Create an image how Jeff
Koons would create a balloon based
Porsche 911 >in Dall-E
Side note:
I once got a presentation about the manufacturing of Jeff Koons
artefacts. It includes industrial 3D Scanning, reverse engineering,
incredible metal work as the statues are from thick, hollow steel
and years of polishing. The quality is breathtaking and half value
of the crazy pricing is actually justified by the fabrication!

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Product Design, Art
Special tribute to 3D-Culture.de, who got me into this.

It takes a special approach to extract these 3D statues.

While the characters are very well known this also seems to
prevent - as if the characters were extremely strong - to
manipulate them.
It is easy to create funny figurines, but keeping the original
serious character and doing something artistic takes time and
effort.

I spent more than 100 hours to finally get a whole variety of these
and will hide the receipes for a while.

Contact me directly if you are interested, especially in something

impossible

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Transportation
Luis715605: prompt <Design a Porsche 911 car, made of ceramics, blue and white
decoration, entwined lotus pattern. Fine pattern> in Midjourney

No way…. that‘s to serious of a business you will say.

Actually, I can generate amazing designs of beautiful
cars within minutes that are all better than most of
China‘s cars before they hired European Designers.
Manufacturable? Not the designers job.
I am really bad with hand drawings and admired the
automotive designers during the time I had the
opportunity to spend time in many major design studios
all over Europe.
Each hand drawing was a piece of art to me, but
impossible to carry even a confetti out of there.
Anectode: the cleaning staff is usually directly
employed to secure the information inside of the holy
environment.

Thank you Luis715605 to come up with such a

fantastic idea of an onion porcellain design for a paint
job.
By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn
Transportation
prompt <One picture shows the design drawings and spray-painted finished products of a car, the futuristic minimalist circular
bus design, the design manuscript as the background, the finished product in the front, minimalism, science fiction, sense of prompt <futuristic convertible inspired by Tesla Cyber Truck> in Dall-E
technology, hand-painted drawing background, elegant color system> in Midjourney

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Transportation
prompt <electric motorcycle, inspired by Tron, black and white> in Dall-E prompt <Electric Trike with spoiler, aluminum, open, 3D, photorealistic, 8K> in Dall-E

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Automotive (and other), Mood Boards
In the automotive design industry, the book or collection of
materials, colors, and textures that interior designers use as a Prompt <mood
board for an
reference for their designs is often referred to as a "mood electric car,
board" or "inspiration board." green and
yellow items,
These boards serve as a visual tool to convey the overall different
fabrics, cut out
aesthetic and emotional direction of the interior design. They magazine
can include swatches of materials (like fabrics, leathers, and pages, pieces
metals), color palettes, photographs, and sometimes even of cloth>
inDall-E
inspirational imagery or elements from nature and technology
that embody the desired feel and atmosphere of the car's
interior.
Mood boards help designers communicate their ideas and
visions to the team, stakeholders, and clients, ensuring a
cohesive design theme that aligns with the project's goals. They prompt <mood board
are an essential part of the creative process in automotive for the interior design
design, helping to explore and define the sensory and of a modern ski hut,
with material samples,
emotional appeal of the vehicle's interior. images, colors, all held
in wooden and sheep
wool colors> in Dall-E

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Automotive (and other): Sketches
prompt <design drawings and spray-painted finished products of a car, the futuristic minimalist circular bus design,
minimalism, science fiction> in Midjourney
Lots of product design starts with sketches.
So I guess many sketches were also available to feed the
LLMs.
The more input there is, the better the output will be.

Important side note:

Avoid using prompt expressions like “professional designer” or
“best sketch ever” or anything like that
Imagine that those are the description used for the images that
the LLM was fed with. So what does that mean?
Any half gifted person that published his terrible stuff may have
called himself a professional designer. So your prompt will not
use the result of true professionals, but the ones from people
that CALL THEMSELVES professionals.
So asking for the output of a very gifted person will actually get
you (most likely) worse results than leaving it away. If so, use
“style of “ well known artists and writers.
You now better understand how LLMs work… do you?

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Sketches retake – sketch & skribble to image
There are ckever ways to improve your sketching besides having it
done completely by an AI.
Skribble to image is getting to you as well.
I think this is an amazing mix of rough Ideas and AI

Sample of Scribble Diffusion

There is many more like

https://sketchai.app/ Sketch to Live by Canva
https://scribbletoart.com/
https://www.vizcom.ai/
https://www.unite.ai/goto/promeai
https://www.unite.ai/goto/openart
https://renderai.app/
And about 20 more…

Sketch by Malegowsky, imagined by Fotor

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn
Architecture, Infrastructure and Interior Design
Just renovated a house in 1 minute. Okay, you will say <image link> renovated house, red roof, white wall, green windows>
that‘s not exactly the house. But ist pretty close, we can
see what it will be like and tried longer.
Add a diner to the street? Done.
Working with existing images is always a little tricky but
well possible.
In Midjourney, you need to experiment with image weight,
seeds, and upload the image first to get the weblink to
refer to it.
Seeds force Midjourney to start off the same „seed“.
Too much for a tutorial here, I will do that later (if you vote
for it)

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Architecture, Infrastructure and Interior Design
Jf1969 <1969, Kodachrome, 100mm, Aspronisi Island, a Greek white rock island, inside a house
that is built inside the island like white caverns, huge windows with superb views on the Aegean
Sea, huge room with wooden furniture, white and Greek-blue decorations>
Interior, colors, themes and styles are basic instruments
and can easily be used in the LLM image generation.
Furthermore, in order to get more individuality, they can
also be mixed.
Sure I could have bought some glossy books, but LLMs
include the information of a million magazines with a
better taste than mine (not always).

prompt: <pnk chippendale sofa with rosewood bade> in Dall-E

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Architecture, Infrastructure and Interior Design
A Zaha Hadid style soccer stadium project for Saudi Arabia.
A bridge traversing the Bosporus inspired by Gustave Eiffel.
I would never dare to suggest to build that bridge or call myself an
architect, it‘s just for illustration!
Those are never final designs, but worth a thought.

Prompt <Create a bridge over the Bosporus, Istanbul, style of Gustave Eiffel> in Dall-E Prompt <soccer stadium in the desert, Zaha Hadid style> in Midjourney

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Conclusion
• The integration of AI in product design, exemplified by tools
like Dall-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and many others,
represents a significant shift in the creative landscape of
industrial design.
• These AI-driven tools offer the ability to rapidly generate a
diverse range of high-quality design concepts, providing not
only designers but also engineers with a vast array of
creative ideas in a fraction of the time traditionally required.
• AI is no substitute for the intrinsic creativity and critical
thinking of human designers. Instead, they serve as powerful
aids that augment the design process, enabling designers
and engineers to explore new ideas and possibilities with
unprecedented efficiency.
• As AI technology evolves, it becomes increasingly vital for
engineers to familiarize themselves with these tools to stay
competitive and innovative. By skillfully integrating AI into
their workflow, engineers and designers can push the
boundaries of creativity, leading to the production of unique,
cutting-edge designs that resonate in a rapidly changing
industry.

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn

Final thoughts to consider before you start
• Start with a good course! The Midjourney Feed for „Industrial Design“
• Check first images you like in the feeds of the artists
• Remenber - those are not the first shots but might be the result of many
iterations. You will never get the same result with the same prompt, they won’t
either due to the nature of an LLM
• Learn from the prompts but don`t be frustrated if you don’t get the same result. It
is the result of many iterations, incredible luck or a magic intuitive prompt genius
• To prompt: “award winning, professional” ect. expressions are nonsense (see
other slide). Prompts longer that 6-8 expressions as well
• Using text still doesn’t work well
• I removed the back grounds with remove.bg
• Learn ONE solution properly , instead of many just a little
• Dall-E is a multi modal model that understands a lot of input, yet is not as
controllable as Midjourney. Stable Diffusion offers a lot, Leonardo and many
others are available and get better every day
• I am not an industrial designer myself but an engineer. Working with those tools
doesn’t make us professional industrial designers, I know that
• Make sure to check the legal aspects which may change depending on the
country you live in. So far you can use the output without problem. While the EU
started to put in some regulations, there is mainly large players go to court or
sign large deals to compensate for the usage of the input data

By Gerd Schwaderer | LinkedIn