AI Character Design

Recently, I ran an experiment with MidJourney to gain a deeper understanding of this new wave of generative art, not just as a novelty, but as a tool I could actually utilise in a real-world creative workflow. I picked a clear target style (soft vinyl designer toy characters) and then pushed the one thing AI is uniquely good at, fast iteration at scale.

The output was exactly the kind of stuff I love designing. Cute, colourful, sometimes downright rainbow-psychedelic little figures with big eyes, chunky silhouettes, glossy toy materials and simple “readable” shapes. The designs bounced all over the place in a good way, from friendly monsters and squishy blob creatures, to odd little robots, bug-like critters, and strange cosmic alien beings that looked like they’d crawled out of a neon dimension. Even the weirder results were useful, because they often had one great idea hiding inside them, like a silhouette, face, accessory, or colour combo worth stealing for something more intentional.

All up, I generated around 4,000 variants, then curated and cleaned up the best 1,100 into a set of more polished character concepts. The big takeaway was how powerful generative tools can be for early-stage exploration. It does not replace taste, direction, or finishing work, but it absolutely delivers a mountain of interesting starting points and helps you find strong ideas quickly.