Midjourney

This workflow produces a small campaign mood board — four cohesive visual directions from one brief — using Midjourney's web editor and variation tools.

Campaign mood board in one session

1. Write a anchored prompt. Combine subject, environment, lens language, and palette: "wellness brand hero, misty forest dawn, 35mm, soft teal and cream, minimal product on mossy stone."
2. Generate a 2×2 grid. Run four initial variations. Pick the frame closest to brand tone — not the most dramatic — as your anchor.
3. Apply style reference. Use a style reference image (sref) from a prior approved shoot or illustration so new gens stay on-brand.
4. Branch with Vary (Strong/Subtle). Create three derivative directions: warmer, more minimal, and more editorial. Upscale finals only after composition is locked.
5. Export and annotate. Download upscaled PNGs, label each direction in Figma or Notion, and attach prompt + sref settings so art directors can reproduce.

Midjourney generations are not automatically licensed for every commercial use — read current Terms of Service and your client contracts before publishing.

Midjourney does not offer a standing free tier. Entry plans historically start around $10/month (Basic-class) with a limited number of GPU hours or fast generations; higher tiers ($30–$60+/mo class) add more fast time, stealth mode, and concurrent jobs. Exact generation allowances change — Midjourney measures usage in terms that map to compute time rather than simple image counts.

Annual billing usually discounts monthly rates slightly. Team plans exist for shared workspaces with centralized billing. There is no official API: automation-minded teams must use human-in-the-loop workflows or choose a different generator with API access.

Because there is no API line item, compare Midjourney's subscription purely against creative output value — not against per-token API math. Always confirm current plan names, commercial terms, and generation limits on midjourney.com before purchasing.

Flux targets photorealism and open-ecosystem tooling — popular when you self-host or need checkpoint-style control. It appeals to technical artists and pipelines that prioritize realism over Midjourney's default painterly look.

Ideogram leads when legible typography inside the frame matters — posters, logos with text, signage mocks. If your brief includes words in the image, test Ideogram before fighting Midjourney prompt hacks.

Leonardo bundles web generation, models, and light automation features oriented toward game and marketing asset workflows. It is a practical middle ground when you want web UI convenience plus more structured asset management than Midjourney provides.