How to Prototype Consumer Products Using AI

When you are developing a new product or package you want to get information early and often so that you know if you're on the right track. If you have to wait a few weeks to get your first designs from a designer, it can really slow you down and hinder good decision making.

It’s like driving on a highway. If you need to take an upcoming exit, it's not ideal to realize this when the exit is immediately in front of you. Instead, you would prefer to see signs in advance indicating that your exit is approaching. These signs help ensure you're in the correct lane and heading in the right direction.

Early information is better than late information.

In this post, I'm going to help you speed things up and get information sooner than later. I've spent the last year experimenting with AI art and more recently have a combined that expertise with my passion for product development and CPG.

Introducing Design Maven

I've used Chat GPT to codify all my knowledge and experimentation into a “Mini” software application called Design Maven. I’ve built it for you, or anyone else who wants to use AI to rapid prototype. Using Design Maven you should be able to generate a packaging prototype in as little as a minute.

First, I'll help you get set up with the tool and then provide a few extra tips to be aware of.

You'll probably find this guide useful if you:

• Work at a brand or creative agency and want to provide your clients with high-fidelity prototypes extremely fast.

• Are a growing brand that wants to experiment with new branding or product ideas

• Are thinking of launching a consumer brand but haven't quite figured out the packaging/branding

• Love to tinker with cool tools and just want to generate new product prototypes for fun

Samples

Here are some examples of what I've been able to create:

Some samples

Ok, let's get started.

How Design Maven Works

Design Maven is your own personal graphic designer. It is an AI tool trained on specific information to help you rapid prototype product, branding and packaging designs. To work with it you simply have a conversation and request what you would like to visualize. You can start the conversation anyway you like, but I have provided some conversation starters in the tool that will make things easier. I highly recommend starting with those.

Getting Set Up

You will need a GPT Plus membership which does run for $20/month. I don’t make any money from this. It’s just the cost of a higher ChatGPT tier. To get an account is fairly simple.

1. You will want to be in Chrome because otherwise Chat GPT doesn’t let you download your images in a usable file format

2. Go to https://openai.com and click “Try ChatGPT” in the top right corner

3. Create an account

4. Once you have completed sign up you will land on a chat page. Hover over the GPT-4 at the top and click “upgrade to chat GPT plus” and finalize the upgrade

5. You will be directed back to a chat page.

6. You can now click this link to add Design Maven to your account: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-zWcaLChGh-design-maven

Using Design Maven

I've programmed a few modes into Design Maven. Below you'll find what they are and what they do.

Surprise me with something great!

This is your fastest path to getting a prototype. Just give it your brand name and a package type and it will whip something up.

Let's rapid prototype together

This option gives you the most more control over the look and feel of the prototype. Choose this option if you have a specific design aesthetic in mind or want a particular kind of graphic on the label.

Let's start with some branding

This is my favorite. In this option, Design Maven starts by helping you craft a brand and then ends the exercise with a packaging prototype.

Let me upload images for inspiration

Provide some images for inspiration and Design Maven will use those along with some info you provide to create a packaging concept

Tips and Other Things to Know

Below are a few things that will help you get the most out of Design Maven.

Trust it’s expertise

You will be surprised by the results if you treat Design Maven like a real designer. Ask it for suggestions or let it make some decisions for you. I've produced the best results when I've been less specific about the exact details of the image. It can certainly handle specifics if there is something you want to see but I found that aesthetically things look better when I give it more range. Just like a real designer would.

Design Maven doesn’t replace your actual designer

These are high-fidelity but also low-fidelity. What I mean is that these will always generate imperfect images so you can't just turn around and slap these on your website. They are mostly good for ideation and quick iteration to get your creative juices flowing. Then, once you find something you really love, you can engage a real designer who can create a high-fidelity mock up. Better yet, use it with your designer in the early stages of the process to get alignment.

Create variations on the same prompt

Design maven is really good at providing variations of the initial concept. For example, if you have an image and style that you like you can ask the AI to create various flavors for you like I did with these juice cans.

Jordon's Juices

Tell it to play off of a particular image

If you have found a particular visual that you like but you just want to see different slight variations of it, you can ask it to create a few other images in that vein. Here is what it gave me when I asked it to riff off of the Jordon’s soda with gears on it.

Original concept given:

Alternate version after I asked it to play off the first

Be specific but not particular

You want to be specific with key elements of the image. For example don't just say box, say cereal box. This helps Design Maven get you generally what you want. That being said, it will have a very hard time when you get too specific such as describing the background in exact detail.

Limit your text usage

DALL-E 3 is the AI art generator that powers Design Maven. It is one of the only AI art generators that can put requested text into the image (one big reason why I chose to build the tutorial around this model). But if you throw too much text at it, you will be disappointed. Keep it simple with only a few words.

Stay away from telling it what you don’t want

Design Maven really struggles anytime you tell it to exclude something from an image. Sometimes instead of excluding that thing it will just add more. It is better to start over or give it something in the positive to achieve. Instead of saying remove that statue from the background, say, can you create another image with a new setting?

Have fun!

Prototypes are never perfect so don't get too hung up on whether or not it's doing something exactly how you want. Instead, just enjoy the process of being creative and developing new ideas.

There you have it! All I can say now is enjoy and let me know what you think! I’d love to see what you create! Just reach out on LinkedIn or reply to this email.

Take care ✌️,

Jordon