QWE AI Academy The #1 Mistake Everyone Makes
You type “modern tech startup logo with the text TechFlow” into Midjourney. It spits out something gorgeous – sleek gradient, perfect composition. Except the text reads “TekFIow” or “TecchFlo” or a string of symbols that vaguely resemble letters.
Here’s what no tutorial warns you about up front: Midjourney can’t reliably generate readable text (as of early 2026). Not even in Version 6.
If your logo needs a company name, tagline, or any letterforms at all, Midjourney’s the wrong tool. Full stop. You’ll waste hours regenerating, tweaking prompts, and the text will still come out garbled. Save yourself the frustration: use Ideogram or a dedicated logo generator instead.
That said – Midjourney nails one thing: iconography. Mascots. Emblems. Abstract marks. Pictorial symbols. Separate the visual from the typography? You’ve got a workflow. The trick is knowing when to stop fighting the tool.
What You’re Actually Signing Up For
Midjourney isn’t a logo maker. It’s an AI art generator that can produce logo-style images if you prompt it correctly and accept its limits.
It runs through Discord (a chat app) or a web interface at midjourney.com (as of 2026). No mobile app. No Photoshop plugin. Type commands, wait 30-60 seconds, get four image variations. Pick one, upscale it, download a PNG. That’s the loop.
The output? Always a raster image – a grid of pixels. Even if you write “flat vector logo” or “SVG style” in your prompt, you’re getting a PNG. Those keywords affect the look (clean edges, solid colors) but not the file format. Need a real vector for print or scaling? You’ll export the PNG and trace it in Adobe Illustrator later.
One minute of GPU time = roughly one set of four images. The Basic Plan ($10/month as of 2026) gives you 3.3 hours – about 200 image sets. Sounds like a lot until you realize logo work is iterative. Test layouts. Try color schemes. Tweak details. Beginners burn through 200 generations in a week.
The Standard Plan ($30/month as of 2026) adds Relax Mode: unlimited generations, but slower (you wait in a queue). If you’re experimenting, that’s the real enable. The Basic Plan? A trap for logo projects.
Setting Up
Go to midjourney.com. Click “Sign In.” You’ll be redirected to Discord. Don’t have a Discord account? Create one (it’s free). Then pick a Midjourney subscription – no free trial exists as of 2026.
Once subscribed, two places to generate:
Discord: Join the Midjourney server, find a “newbies” channel, type commands there. Public. Chaotic. Some people prefer it.
Web interface: Log in at midjourney.com, click “Create,” type prompts in a cleaner UI. Your images stay organized in one place.
The web version’s easier if you’re not a Discord power user. Either way? Commands are identical.
Writing Prompts That Don’t Waste Your Quota
Structure: description + parameters. Parameters are settings that go at the end, like --no realistic details or --ar 1:1. They start with two dashes and control technical stuff – aspect ratio, exclusions, style intensity.
Basic logo prompt looks like this:
/imagine simple owl mascot logo, flat design, white background --no shading text --ar 1:1Let’s break it down:
/imagine– the command that starts generation (Discord) or implied in the web UIsimple owl mascot logo, flat design, white background– what you want--no shading text– tells Midjourney to avoid shading and text (though it’ll ignore this half the time)--ar 1:1– square aspect ratio (default anyway, but explicit is safer)
The --no parameter is supposed to exclude things. Actually? It’s a suggestion. I’ve used --no text and still gotten gibberish letters in 30% of outputs. It reduces the chance, doesn’t eliminate it.
Pro tip: Start generic, then narrow. Don’t write a novel-length prompt on attempt #1. Try “minimal lion logo” first. See what Midjourney gives you. Then add constraints: “minimal geometric lion logo, gold and black, sharp angles.” Iterate from there.
Designer Name Prompts (Hit or Miss)
You can reference famous designers to steer the style. “Flat vector logo of a coffee cup, style of Paul Rand” → mid-century minimalism. “Style of Saul Bass” → bold, cinematic shapes.
Paul Rand and Saul Bass are the only two designers officially confirmed in Midjourney’s training data (according to a designer’s August 2024 blog post). Other names (Massimo Vignelli, Rob Janoff, Piet Mondrian)? Might work, might not. It’s a dice roll.
Think of it this way: you’re betting on whether enough images of that designer’s work exist in the training set. Rand and Bass dominated mid-century design – safe bets. Lesser-known designers? You’re gambling.
Parameters Worth Knowing
| Parameter | What It Does | Example |
|---|---|---|
--no |
Exclude elements (unreliable) | --no text realistic details |
--ar |
Aspect ratio (width:height) | --ar 1:1 (square), --ar 16:9 (wide) |
--s or --stylize |
Artistic intensity (0-1000, default 100) | --s 50 (less stylized), --s 250 (more artistic) |
--v |
Model version | --v 6 (latest as of early 2026) |
Lower --s values (50-100) keep logos cleaner and more corporate. Higher values (250+)? Painterly flair. Can look less “logo-like.”
When Midjourney Actually Works
Midjourney shines when the logo is purely visual. Mascot. Emblem. Abstract shape. No company name required.
Say you’re designing for a sports team. You want an aggressive hawk head. Prompt:
fierce hawk head logo, sharp lines, black and red, emblem style --no text background --ar 1:1Four options in under a minute. One of them’s 80% there. Upscale it (click the U1-U4 buttons under the image), download the high-res PNG, import it into Illustrator, trace it to vector, clean up stray pixels, export SVG. Done.
Need the words “Riverside Hawks” under that logo? Midjourney becomes a liability. Random letters. Weirdly spaced text. Letters that morph into decorative nonsense. Stop using Midjourney for typography. Add text manually in Illustrator, Canva, or Figma.
Think of Midjourney as a concept generator. It gives you the icon. You finish the logo elsewhere.
The Post-Processing No One Tells You About
Here’s the dirty secret every tutorial buries: Midjourney outputs aren’t production-ready.
You’ll download a 1024×1024 PNG (or larger if you upscale). Fine for a website thumbnail. Not fine for a business card, billboard, or embroidered jacket. Those need vectors.
Converting PNG to vector:
Open the PNG in Adobe Illustrator. Select the image → Object → Image Trace → Make. Expand the trace (Object → Expand). Clean up stray anchor points. Fix shapes that traced poorly. Adjust colors. Export as SVG or AI.
Takes 10-30 minutes per logo depending on complexity. Gradients, soft shadows, intricate textures? The trace’ll be messy. You’ll spend more time fixing it than if you’d hired a designer.
For text? Add it as live type in Illustrator (choose a real font) and position it manually. Midjourney can’t help with that step at all.
What Midjourney Can’t Do
Let’s be honest about the gaps.
No typography. Wordmarks, lettermarks, text-heavy logos – skip Midjourney entirely. Use Ideogram (handles text better as of 2024-2025 according to multiple designer guides) or a human designer.
No color precision. You can request “red and black” but you can’t specify Pantone 186C or hex #E63946. Midjourney interprets color descriptively, not technically. Brand guidelines matter? Recolor everything in Illustrator anyway.
No revisions without re-rolling the dice. Can’t tell Midjourney “move the wing 2mm left” or “make the beak sharper.” You can only regenerate with a tweaked prompt and hope. Nail 90% of a design? That last 10% requires manual edits.
Your images are public (unless you pay $60/month). Basic and Standard plans post all your generations to the public Midjourney gallery (as of 2026). Testing logos for a client or an unreleased product? Anyone can see them. Stealth Mode costs $60/month minimum. For many freelancers, that’s a deal-breaker.
Better Alternatives Exist
Midjourney’s one option. Not always the best one.
Need text in the logo? Try Ideogram. Built to handle typography in AI-generated images. Does it better than Midjourney as of 2024-2025.
Want a finished logo (not just an icon concept)? Use a dedicated AI logo generator like Looka, Brandmark, or LogoAI. They output vector files, let you tweak colors with precision, include font pairing. Less “artistic” than Midjourney but far more practical for branding work.
Testing ideas before hiring a designer? Midjourney’s useful. Need a logo you can deploy tomorrow? Probably not.
FAQ
Can Midjourney create a logo with my company name in it?
Yes, technically. Realistically? Text comes out garbled 70% of the time even with V6 and --style raw. Generate the icon in Midjourney, add the company name manually in Illustrator or Figma using a real font.
Do I own the logos Midjourney generates?
Paid plan? You own commercial rights per Midjourney’s Terms of Service (as of 2026). But: companies making over $1M USD annually must subscribe to Pro or Mega plans. Also, AI-generated images aren’t protected by copyright in most jurisdictions as of 2026 – someone could legally copy your logo unless you modify it enough to claim authorship.
What’s the actual time cost of making a usable logo?
Generating ideas: 30-60 min (testing prompts, variations).
Vectorizing the final PNG in Illustrator: 15-30 min.
Adding typography and final adjustments: 15-30 min.
Total: 1-2 hours if you know what you’re doing. 3-5 hours if you’re learning. A professional designer delivers a finished logo in similar time – but includes revision rounds and brand strategy. Midjourney’s faster for throwaway concepts. Not necessarily faster for polished deliverables.