'I can't design' stops many from making covers or posters. But premium feel is really 'consistency' and 'restraint' — exactly what AI is good at, if you set the rules first. Here's a zero-base workflow.
Start with three: font, palette, spacing
Before starting, write one sentence for your visual tone, e.g. 'tech blue, airy whitespace, rounded, sans-serif'. Save it as a fixed prefix for every generation; cohesion appears at once.
Use references, not long prompts
Describing 'premium' is hard; pasting one reference image AI gets instantly. Collect 3 consistent works as a moodboard and reference them — beats 200 words of prompt.
Batch, then curate — not one perfect shot
Ask AI for 4 variants at once; you only subtract: drop clutter, weird text, off colors. Curating beats creating.
Final human pass: alignment & whitespace
- Keep 10%+ margin; don't hug edges
- One idea per image; clear hierarchy
- Unify size before export to avoid cropping
The design barrier was never the hand, but aesthetic discipline.