Visual Electric Unveils Tailored AI Image Creation Tool for Designers

Visual Electric, a venture backed by Sequoia Capital, has unveiled its innovative generative AI-powered image creation tool tailored for designers. Established in November 2022 by CEO Colin Dunn, formerly an executive at Universe, a mobile building site, the company seeks to address the limitations of existing generative AI tools that often overlook the intricate workflows of designers.

Dunn, in a conversation with TechCrunch, emphasized the non-linearity of creativity, citing the inadequacy of current tools that adhere to a linear chat metaphor. Visual Electric’s solution is designed around the creative process, offering a generative canvas that allows users to explore, experiment, and work spatially.

According to Dunn, AI-based image generation is still in a “pre-ChatGPT era,” highlighting the tool’s ambition to achieve widespread appeal similar to ChatGPT. The beta version of Visual Electric, launched in February, targets graphic designers, ad creatives, and concept artists from prominent companies such as Stripe, Affirm, Riot Games, and design studios like Instrument and Manual.

The platform’s interface is user-friendly; users input prompts to receive four options on an infinite canvas, allowing for iterative processes to generate suitable images. Additional customization options include selecting color palettes, excluding specific colors, choosing formats, and setting moods such as Airbrush, Film, Cinematic, and Neon.

While the basic version is free with a daily limit of 40 image generations, a premium plan starting at $16 per month offers enhanced generation speeds, unlimited image creation, and commercial usage rights, with shared community access. The top-tier $48 per month plan provides private image creation, superior generation speed, and exclusive features.

Key features of Visual Electric include a ‘touch’ feature for modifying different parts of generated images, upscaling for premium users, background removal, variations through a ‘creativity’ slider, and a ‘remix’ feature for image makeovers.

Utilizing Stable Diffusion as its image generation model, Visual Electric employs GPT-3.5 Turbo for auto-generated prompt suggestions and GPT-4 for generating prompts from imported images. While a mobile app is not currently available, the company is considering its development for the upcoming year.

Despite the proliferation of image-generation tools by major players like Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe, and Getty Images, as well as integration with chatbot platforms like ChatGPT and Poe, Visual Electric believes its tailored approach for a specific user base will give it a competitive advantage in the evolving landscape.