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Hi! I’m Sergey, a graphic designer at Mish Product Lab. At some point, I was replaced by neural networks or maybe I just learned to work with them. In this article, I’ll share how I tamed artificial intelligence, multiplied my own efficiency, and stopped fearing that one day I’d be out of a job because of a machine.

<p>
  <em>
    Disclaimer: all tools mentioned here were up-to-date at the time of writing. The AI field
    changes fast. New models appear daily, pricing changes, and generation quality keeps improving.
  </em>
</p>
<p><em>So, as they say, stay tuned.</em></p>

<h3>Test Setup</h3>
<p>
  I’ve been working in design for about seven years, mostly in graphics: logos, branding,
  illustrations. I’ve always aimed to expand my skills in every direction. Partly because I like
  doing everything myself — being a kind of “design multitool.”(Or maybe I just don’t delegate well,
  but that’s a detail.)
</p>

<p>
  And partly out of curiosity and boredom. When you keep doing the same thing long enough, you turn
  from an inspired artist into a creative conveyor belt. That’s a direct road to burnout. So
  whenever I heard about a new tool, I’d dive right in: illustration, 3D, animation, typography,
  calligraphy, lettering, sculpture, painting, 3D printing, photography, and video. You name it,
  I’ve probably tried it and I loved it.
</p>

<p>
  The upside of this curiosity: I can handle a lot of tasks myself, switch between projects, and
  never really get tired of the work. Even if I’m not the one doing a specific task, knowing the
  terminology and tools helps me communicate better with specialists in any field. Knowledge makes
  you confident — and people tend to pay well for confidence.
</p>

<h3>The Workflow Before AI</h3>
<p>That’s how just a few years ago, things looked like.</p>

<img src="/uploads/2_efc6cea578.png" />

<p>
  Need an illustration? Practice sketching, work with Photoshop and Illustrator, maybe even paint by
  hand.
</p>

<p>
  Want 3D? Learn Blender, Cinema 4D, or ZBrush. For animation — After Effects or Premiere. You spend
  hours looking for stock photos, brushes, or references. And while learning one tool, you forget
  another. While diving into 3D, you lose your drawing rhythm. There’s just not enough RAM in your
  head or your laptop.
</p>

<p>Then everything changed.</p>

<h3>The Workflow After AI</h3>
<p>And that’s how I manage things now.</p>

<p>
  Around 2022, when Stable Diffusion started gaining traction outside developer circles, I installed
  automatic1111 with Stable Diffusion on my laptop. At first, it wasn’t exactly “work-ready.” My
  early generations looked like pixel soup — maybe “art” if you squint, but not something usable for
  design work. Still, it was fascinating.
</p>

<img src="/uploads/3_12c85928b0.png" />

<p>
  Progress in AI soon exploded. Every day brought new models, updates, or tools for images, music,
  video, 3D, and text, each update getting better and better. What once felt like hype became real
  working tools.
</p>

<p>
  Now, it’s hard to imagine a day without AI models that act like my extra pair of hands and
  sometimes, eyes.
</p>

<p>
  Of course, AI doesn’t do all the work for me. Neural networks are still just tools — they require
  learning, testing, and keeping up with updates. Anyone can generate a cat, sure, but no one’s
  paying for cats.
</p>

<h3>My Toolbox</h3>

<p>
  I’m still a graphic designer at heart, so my tools revolve around that world. AI helps me with
  photos, illustrations, and concept creation. 3D and video generation are still catching up, but
  improving fast.
</p>

<p><em>Now, a quick disclaimer to clarify what we are talking about.</em></p>

<p>
  <em>
    A neural network has a shell, it is a graphical interface through which the user interacts with
    the model. The model is an array of data on which a particular neural network is trained. For
    example, if we are talking about tools that generate images, this is a couple of billion
    pictures that the model correlates with the prompt. A prompt is a text query that you use to
    describe what you want to see as a result. There are also tokens — an internal currency used to
    pay for generation.
  </em>
</p>

<img src="/uploads/4_2fb976dab1.png" />
<img src="/uploads/5_bf41a18bbe.png" />
<img src="/uploads/6_a57d036f6a.png" />
<img src="/uploads/7_4cf610a104.png" />

<p><em>So, let’s go.</em></p>

<p>
  For simple photo or illustration tasks, I use Ideogram, Recraft, or Leonardo. They have evolving
  models, clean interfaces, and daily token refreshes, it is great for exploration or small tasks.
  And of course, Midjourney — the gold standard for image generation.
</p>

<p>
  When precision matters — like a specific model pose, color palette, or complex scene — I use local
  tools like Forge or ComfyUI. You can download specialized models from CivitAI or Hugging Face,
  fine-tune them, and edit every pixel if needed. There are universal models and specific ones for
  solving specific tasks, such as photorealism or anime. Local shells offer the ability to fine-tune
  the generation. And there is a huge range of functions for controlling the result: you can
  replace, redraw, or repaint even a single element of the image, or even the entire picture.
  Generations are free and unlimited.
</p>

<p>
  Local generation is free and unlimited — but requires a strong GPU and lots of disk space. If your
  hardware isn’t ready for that, cloud services like immers.cloud or cloud4y.ru rent GPUs by the
  hour — perfect for experimentation.
</p>

<p>
  If you want to get into the neural sphere in a big way, you definitely shouldn't pass up these
  neural networks. To understand how they work, it's worth taking a look under the hood, figuring
  out how they learn, what models are and what kinds there are, what Lora is, and learning other
  specific terms.
</p>

<p>
  <em>
    Tip: if you want to understand these tools, but your hardware can't handle them, there are cloud
    services such as immers.cloud or cloud4y.ru where you can rent powerful graphics cards on an
    hourly basis.
  </em>
</p>

<h3>Example Workflows</h3>
<p>A few useful techniques that I periodically use in my work.</p>

<p><strong>Example 1: Custom Illustration Style</strong></p>

<p>
  Let's create a preset for generating illustrations in a specific style in the Recraft service.
  First, let's gather some style references. I'm going to make illustrations in the style of Keith
  Haring. Open the styles tab on the image panel. Click on the big plus sign in the window with
  models to create a custom style. Upload several sample images and test them right in the same
  window. The style will be saved in the set and will be available at any time.
</p>

<img src="/uploads/8_9d9febd56b.png" />
<img src="/uploads/9_9276678f11.png" />
<img src="/uploads/10_198d0109f2.png" />

<p><strong>Example 2: From Image to 3D</strong></p>

<p>
  Let's not limit ourselves to a picture and make a 3D model as well. First, we generate a character
  in the same Recraft using the 3D render preset. For the prompt, we'll take something abstract,
  something from IKEA would be perfect — for example, the Fjädrar pillow. Add it to the prompt
  character and you get this funny character.
</p>

<p>
  Next, upload the resulting image to the Tripo3D service. You can give hints using the prompt or
  the image (our option). At the moment, Tripo3D is perhaps the best solution in the field of 3D
  generation, so the output is a fairly decent model. The service allows you to save the model in
  various formats, including obj and stl. You can use your model in a digital environment or send it
  to a slicer and print it on a 3D printer.
</p>

<img src="/uploads/11_2824ce4257.png" />
<img src="/uploads/12_c6ddbfc992.png" />
<img src="/uploads/13_d6e70a8e21.png" />

<p><strong>Example 3: Improving Your Art with AI</strong></p>

<p>
  Option for working with a local tool. If you can draw, but only at an intermediate level, here is
  an interesting way to improve your creativity.
</p>

<p>
  Take a sheet of paper and draw something simple. Take a photo and upload it to ComfyUI. In the
  first stage, we essentially replace Photoshop, make the sketch brighter, and add clarity.
</p>

<p>
  We upload the result to the second process and ask it to draw the same thing, but make it look
  nice. It already looks good, but we can still color the whole thing into a full-color
  illustration.
</p>

<p>
  We feed it into the third process and describe the style. This mechanism is called ControlNet: the
  neural network scans the original image and generates a new one based on this composition, adding
  a description from the prompt.Now you can draw like a pro. Just don't tell anyone.
</p>

<img src="/uploads/14_461a154a90.png" />
<img src="/uploads/15_0adb670114.png" />
<img src="/uploads/16_c086036d19.png" />
<img src="/uploads/17_d71d2fdc65.png" />

<h3>Can AI Replace Designers?</h3>

<p>
  Who can it really replace? Mostly the “hands” — people who just resize, copy, or follow strict
  templates. Even there, some tasks still need human judgment — for now.
</p>

<p>
  But for everyone else — there’s no reason to fear. If you treat AI as a powerful assistant that
  handles the boring stuff while you focus on ideas, you’ll only get stronger.
</p>

<p>
  AI has billions of images — but only a designer decides which ones to use and why. There’s no
  magic “make it good” button. AI creates; designers give meaning.
</p>

<p>
  So learn new tools, automate the boring parts, and keep growing. If something can be simplified —
  simplify it.
</p>


How AI Turns Designers into Creative Multitools

Петров Сергей

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At Mish, we receive dozens of resumes every day. Reviewing them and finding suitable candidates takes a lot of time, so poorly formatted emails often go unnoticed. To help you avoid being overlooked, we’ve put together a few recommendations.

<h3>Mistake #1: Embedding a PDF with all information in the email</h3>
<p>
  Such a document is hard to navigate, and the information in each PDF is presented differently.
  Designers often forget to check links, which frequently end up non-clickable or even just images.
  As a result, HR spends a lot of time searching. Eventually, this becomes frustrating, and you stop
  opening files. No one wants to spend half a day deciphering your resume. Please respect the
  recruiter’s time.
</p>

<h3>Mistake #2: No portfolio</h3>
<p>
  It’s impossible to respond positively to even the most inspiring email from a designer who is
  willing to do anything but cannot provide a single piece of work. Offers to complete a test
  assignment usually don’t work either. First, test assignments should be paid. Everything else is
  free nonsense. I don’t believe in it.
</p>

<h3>Mistake #3: Portfolio on an inconvenient platform</h3>
<p>
  Again, think about the person on the other side of the city who is looking at your portfolio for
  the first time. You send a link to Google Drive with a million folders. How much time, on average,
  do you think it takes to evaluate your resume and portfolio? Follow the principle of “less is
  more”: prioritize and organize. Don’t try to impress an employer with quantity.
</p>

<h3>Mistake #4: Links in the body of the email</h3>
<p>
  We often receive long, unstructured emails — like free-form essays of “I can do this… And here I
  did that” — with lots of links scattered throughout. This creates the impression of a chaotic mind
  and makes the recruiter’s job harder. The ideal solution: compile a small Figma presentation with
  good navigation tools and embed all your links there.
</p>

<h3>Mistake #5: Unidentifiable authorship</h3>

<p>
  When designers send us portfolios on Behance, I quietly rejoice. It shows professional level and
  respect for the potential employer. But then I see that the projects are shared by a group of ten
  people. It’s impossible to identify the applicant’s exact contribution.
</p>

<h3>Mistake #6: Starting with demands</h3>
<p>
  This applies not only to designers but to any candidate. Emails that start with the applicant’s
  demands or conditions are very off-putting: “In the office, you must provide me with this laptop
  model, ensure coffee and cookies, be lenient with my tardiness, because I am a Creator…” Few
  people read these emails to the end. Don’t try to inflate your value this way.
</p>

<h3>What I See as the Perfect Resume</h3>

<p>
  1. Always indicate your city right away. Some vacancies are location-specific, some are not. This
  saves the recruiter time.
</p>

<p>
  2. Present your portfolio in Figma or on Behance (see previous points). If you host it on your
  website, navigation and curation must be flawless.
</p>

<p>3. Provide a link to your resume (concise and clear).</p>

<p>4. Toward the end, you can describe your “wish list” and salary expectations.</p>

<p>
  5. List your professional preferences, mention what projects you enjoy working on, and share your
  vision for professional development.
</p>


Resume Tips for Designers: Presenting Yourself the Right Way

Пименова Миша

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Баталова Анна

Management

Business Needs

Branding

Graphic Design

Creative

Media

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Усанов Никита

Presentation

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Кошман Александра

Motion

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Новоселова Мария

Illustration

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Измайлов Никита

Account Management

Sales

Metrics Analysis

Customer Observation

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Logo

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Крупина Дарья

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Колобова Алина

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Силаев Герман

Marketing

Copywriting

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Константинов Данила

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Кардашев Ари 

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Кожевников Артём

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Иван Саша.jpg

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Иваницкая Александра

Creative

hello@mish.design

Moscow

Nizhny Novgorod