A company supported by Sequoia Capital, Visual Electric, has released an AI-powered image generation tool designed specifically for creative professionals.
Founded in November 2022, the company is led by CEO Colin Dunn, previously an executive at Universe, a mobile construction platform, and with experience at Facebook and Dropbox. Chief Product Officer Adam Menges, a former Apple employee, brings his expertise from startups Lobe (a design tool) and Lowkey (an AR game company), both acquired by Microsoft and Niantic, respectively. Chief Technology Officer Zach Stiggelbout, who worked on Lobe at Microsoft, is also a key member of the team.
In a conversation with TechCrunch, Dunn highlighted that many interfaces for generative AI-based image creation don’t cater to the specific workflows of designers.
At Visual Electric, we launched this initiative because we identified generative AI as primarily a challenge related to interfaces. The current tools often follow a linear chat metaphor, but creativity doesn’t unfold linearly; it’s messy. That’s why we designed our product to align with the creative process. Our generative canvas allows you to freely explore, get a little messy, and work spatially,” he explained.
What is the functionality of the platform?
Getting started with the platform is easy – simply input a prompt, and you’ll receive four options on an expansive canvas. You can iterate as many times as needed to create the perfect image for your project. While entering your prompt, you have the option to choose a color palette, specify excluded colors, select a format, and set a mood, including Airbrush, Film, Cinematic, and Neon.
The tool is available for free, but there’s a limit of 40 image generations per day. For enhanced generation speeds, unlimited image creation, and the ability to use the images commercially, you can opt for the premium plan starting at $16 per month. Visual Electric notes that under both plans, the images you generate are shared with the community. However, if you subscribe to the top-tier $48 per month plan, your creations remain private, and you enjoy even faster image generation speeds.
Additionally, the tool offers features such as “touch” for modifying specific aspects of a generated image through prompts, an upscaling capability exclusive to premium users, background removal, creative variations through the “creativity” slider, and a “remix” feature for giving an existing image a fresh look.
Established in 2022, the company has secured $2.5 million in funding from investors including Sequoia, BoxGroup, and Designer Fund.
Visual Electric employs Stable Diffusion as its image generation model and leverages GPT-3.5 Turbo to provide auto-generated prompt suggestions. Additionally, the tool utilizes GPT-4 to generate prompts based on imported images.
While the company currently lacks a mobile app, there are considerations to develop one in the coming year.
Over the past year, notable companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Adobe, and even Getty Images have introduced various image-generation tools. Chatbot platforms like ChatGPT and Poe have also integrated image generation for user convenience.
Visual Electric believes that its tailored approach for a specific user base will give it a competitive advantage. Recently, other tools like Vercel and TLDraw, which recently secured an additional $2 million in funding, have also explored features related to interface generation.
