AI WORLD HQHow to Design a Simple Logo for Your Side Project with Midjourney
Generate a clean, memorable logo in under an hour — perfect for side projects, Etsy shops, and small businesses starting out.
In short: You can use Midjourney to sketch a clean, simple logo for a side project in well under an hour, even with zero design experience. The catch: Midjourney produces pixel images, so you'll likely want one quick free tool to convert your favorite into a scalable vector before you print or stitch it on anything.
You don't need Photoshop, a design degree, or a fat wallet to get a logo you can actually use for a side project. With Midjourney and a few minutes of typing, you can sketch something clean enough for an Etsy banner, the corner of a homepage, or a T-shirt. Here's how to do it without the guesswork.
💡 Tip: tap a step’s number when you finish it — a green tick appears and your browser remembers how far you got.
- A paid Midjourney subscription. Midjourney no longer offers a free tier, so check the official pricing page at midjourney.com for the current plans.
- Either a browser or a Discord account. Midjourney now runs in a web app at midjourney.com, and it still works inside Discord. Pick whichever you find less confusing.
- A rough idea of your project: the name, the mood (calm, playful, bold), and one or two colors you'd be happy to live with.
- About 30–60 minutes total, including the optional vector step at the end.
Open Midjourney and find the prompt box
Go to midjourney.com in your browser and sign in, or open Discord and join a Midjourney-enabled server. On the web app, the main page is an empty canvas with a single text input near the bottom — that's where your prompt goes. In Discord, open one of the rooms labeled something like "general" or "newbies," and the message box at the bottom of the chat is where you'll type. In either case, the screen looks mostly empty: a big blank area on top and a single typing field at the bottom.
You'll know it worked when the prompt box is clearly active and ready for your description.
Describe your logo in one clear sentence
In the prompt box, write a short description of what you want your logo to look like. Be specific about shape, color, and mood, but keep it simple — think of it like describing a logo to a friend over coffee, not writing a novel. Every word in the prompt matters, so vague prompts give vague results. After you press Enter or click Send, wait roughly 30–60 seconds while the tool thinks.
You'll know it worked when a grid of four square images appears on your screen.
Refine with variations
Below each of the four generated images, look for a row of small buttons — something like V1, V2, V3, V4 (variations) and U1, U2, U3, U4 (upscale). Click the V button under the image you like best — V2 if you liked the top-right one, for example. The screen starts generating four new images that riff on the one you chose, keeping the parts you liked while changing the rest. If you don't see V buttons, look for words like "Vary" or "Variations" near the image; the exact labels shift a bit between the web app and Discord.
You'll know it worked when four new, related images appear in a fresh grid.
Upscale the one you love
Now click the U button (U1, U2, U3, or U4) under the image you want to use as your final logo. This asks Midjourney to make a higher-resolution version of just that one image. The other three images fade back, and a single larger version replaces your choice. Larger files look crisp on a website and don't go blurry when you stretch them across a banner. If you don't see U buttons, look for an "Upscale" label or a small magnifier icon near your chosen image.
You'll know it worked when a single, larger image appears and a download button (usually a small arrow or picture icon) shows up nearby.
Prepare the image for real-world use
Midjourney gives you a pixel-based image — fine for websites and social media, but for printing on shirts, mugs, or large signs you'll want a vector version (a "smart" file that stays sharp at any size, the way a road sign looks crisp from any distance). Open the free desktop app Inkscape, or any free online "image to vector" tool, and upload your saved logo. The tool traces the shapes and gives you an SVG or PDF file you can resize forever. For websites and social media, the upscaled PNG you already downloaded is usually plenty.
You'll know it worked when you have both a PNG (for web) and an SVG or PDF (for print) saved on your computer.
- Writing a prompt that's too long or poetic. Long, flowery prompts confuse the tool. Stick to 10–25 words describing shape, color, and style. Fix: write it like a recipe — noun, color, mood, background.
- Asking for tiny text or fine detail. AI image tools struggle with spelling and thin lines, and they vanish at small sizes. Fix: leave the words out of your first logo and add them later in a free tool like Canva, or keep all shapes chunky.
- Skipping the upscale step and using the small grid image directly. It looks fuzzy on a phone. Fix: always click the U button before downloading, and convert to vector for any print use.
Open midjourney.com (or the Discord bot), type this exact prompt, and see what comes back: "minimalist mountain icon, geometric, single deep teal color on white background, modern, clean, simple". Pick the one you like best, upscale it, and save the result to your desktop. You just made your first logo.
❓ Quick questions
How long does this take?
About 6 minutes — the guide has 5 steps, and you can tick each one off as you go.
Which tool do I need?
This guide uses Midjourney Midjourney — but the approach works very similarly in other AI assistants.
Do I need to prepare anything?
- A paid Midjourney subscription. Midjourney no longer offers a free tier, so check the official pricing page at midjourney.com for the current plans.
- Either a browser or a Discord account. Midjourney now runs in a web app at midjourney.com, and it still works inside Discord. Pick whichever you find less confusing.
- A rough idea of your project: the name, the mood (calm, playful, bold), and one or two colors you'd be happy to live with.
- About 30–60 minutes total, including the optional vector step at the end.
What mistakes should I avoid?
- Writing a prompt that's too long or poetic. Long, flowery prompts confuse the tool. Stick to 10–25 words describing shape, color, and style. Fix: write it like a recipe — noun, color, mood, background.
- Asking for tiny text or fine detail. AI image tools struggle with spelling and thin lines, and they vanish at small sizes. Fix: leave the words out of your first logo and add them later in a free tool like Canva, or keep all shapes chunky.
- Skipping the upscale step and using the small grid image directly. It looks fuzzy on a phone. Fix: always click the U button before downloading, and convert to vector for any print use.
Keep reading
✦ Original step-by-step guide by AI World HQ's AI editorial team. Written in plain language, reviewed for accuracy.
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