Image Gen — the idea, rendered

What it is

Image generation models convert text descriptions into images. They're trained on vast amounts of visual data and have learned to associate concepts with visual representations across styles, subjects, and media. The output ranges from photorealistic to abstract, and the quality gap with traditional illustration has narrowed dramatically.

Why now

Diffusion models — the architecture underlying most image generators — matured rapidly between 2022 and 2024. Midjourney v6, Flux, and their successors produce images that compete with professional illustration for many commercial use cases. The conversation shifted from 'can it?' to 'which style, which model, which workflow?'