Visual Electric, a startup backed by Sequoia Capital, has unveiled its innovative generative AI-powered image-generation tool tailored for designers. Established in November 2022, the company is led by CEO Colin Dunn, formerly with Universe, and supported by Chief Product Officer Adam Menges, formerly of Apple, and Chief Technology Officer Zach Stiggelbout, previously at Microsoft.
Dunn emphasized that existing generative AI tools lack a focus on designers’ workflows, prompting the creation of Visual Electric. The platform is designed around the creative process, providing a non-linear and spatial approach to image generation, departing from the linear chat metaphor prevalent in current tools.
The beta version of Visual Electric was launched in February, targeting graphic designers, ad creatives, and concept artists in companies such as Stripe, Affirm, Riot Games, and design studios like Instrument and Manual. Users sought a solution that allowed easy image creation, modification, and iteration until reaching a satisfactory result.
The platform’s interface is user-friendly: users input a prompt to receive four options based on an infinite canvas. They can iterate as many times as needed, selecting color palettes, excluding colors, choosing formats, and setting moods such as Airbrush, Film, Cinematic, and Neon.
While the tool is free with a cap of 40 image generations per day, premium plans starting at $16 per month offer faster generation speeds, unlimited image creation, and commercial licensing. Under both plans, generated images are shared with the community. Opting for the top-tier $48 per month plan ensures private images and enhanced speed for image generation.
Key features include a “touch” option for modifying specific parts of a generated image, upscaling for premium users, background removal, variations through a “creativity” slider, and a “remix” feature for giving existing images a makeover.
Visual Electric, founded in 2022, secured $2.5 million in funding from Sequoia, BoxGroup, and Designer Fund. The platform leverages Stable Diffusion as its image generation model, utilizing GPT-3.5 Turbo for auto-generated prompt suggestions. Additionally, GPT-4 is deployed to generate prompts from imported images.
Although Visual Electric lacks a mobile app currently, the company is considering its development in the coming year. In a landscape where major players like Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe, and Getty Images have introduced various image-generation tools, Visual Electric aims to stand out by focusing on a specific user demographic. Other tools like Vercel and TLDraw have also experimented with interface-generating features in the past year.
