Image Battle

Summary for Graphic Design

This analysis of the Graphic Design category reveals that success hinges on reliability, especially with text and specific constraints. The models that consistently follow detailed instructions outperform those that may have higher artistic flair but lack precision. 🧑‍🎨

Top Performing Models

The clear winners in this category are models that demonstrate exceptional control and reliability:

• 🥇 Reve Image (Halfmoon) (Avg Score: 8.5): The top performer, showcasing incredible consistency and a perfect score on the incredibly difficult icon set prompt.
• 🥈 Recraft V3 (Avg Score: 8.2): A design powerhouse, excelling at both creative typography and flawless logo generation, like this perfect HelperBot logo.
• 🥉 Nano Banana (2.5 Flash) (Avg Score: 8.2): A strong contender that demonstrates excellent adherence and technical quality, especially in creating clean vector icons and logos.
• Imagen 4.0 Ultra (Avg Score: 8.2): Shows flashes of brilliance and creativity, particularly in conceptual tasks like the Celtic knotwork 'GROWTH'.
• ChatGPT 4o (Avg Score: 8.1): A very reliable and versatile model, producing high-quality, professional results across most prompts.

Key Takeaways

• Text is King: The single biggest factor determining success in this category is the ability to render text perfectly. Models that struggle with typography, like Midjourney v7 and Imagen 3.0, consistently received low scores for otherwise beautiful images.
• Instructions Matter: Following specific constraints like 'flat vector' or 'set of 5' is a major challenge for many models. The top models are distinguished by their ability to adhere to these rules.
• Specialists Shine: Specialized or fine-tuned models like Recraft V3 often outperform general-purpose models in this domain, demonstrating a better understanding of design principles and text integration.

General Analysis & Useful Insights

Beyond the scores, several patterns emerged that highlight the unique strengths and weaknesses of different models in the realm of graphic design.

The Typography Divide: Hits and Misses

Text rendering remains the great filter for AI in graphic design. The gap between the best and worst is enormous.

• Reliable Typographers: Models like Recraft V3, Reve Image (Halfmoon), and Nano Banana (2.5 Flash) consistently produce clean, correct, and well-integrated text. They can be trusted for tasks like logo design and labeled icons.
• High-Risk Gambles: Models like Midjourney v7 and Midjourney V6.1 are a major risk. They often produce stunning visuals but ruin them with text that is misspelled, gibberish, or completely omitted. This failed 'Spring Sale' graphic is a perfect example of a beautiful image rendered useless by text errors.
• Inconsistent Performers: Even top-tier models like DALL-E 3 can stumble, as seen in the misspelled 'GPOWTH'. This highlights the need to generate multiple options and double-check all text outputs.

Adherence to Stylistic Constraints

Many prompts specified a 'simple flat vector' style, a crucial test of a model's ability to move beyond its default aesthetic.

• Masters of Minimalism: Imagen 3.0 (perfect flat icon) and Reve Image (Halfmoon) demonstrated a strong ability to produce clean, true-to-form vector graphics when requested.
• Style Drifters: Other models frequently ignored this constraint, defaulting to more complex styles. Midjourney V6.1 generated beautiful neumorphic icons instead of flat ones, and XAI Grok 2 Image consistently produced 3D renders. While these can be great images, they represent a failure to follow instructions.

Conceptual Creativity vs. Literal Interpretation

Some prompts required creative interpretation, which separated the good models from the great ones.

• Creative Geniuses: Imagen 4.0 Ultra's interpretation of 'GROWTH' as intricate Celtic knotwork and Ideogram 3.0 (Quality)'s sophisticated, editorial take on the 'Spring Sale' graphic are examples of AI going beyond the literal to create something truly special.
• Literal but Lacking: Some models provided very basic, literal interpretations that, while correct, lacked creative flair. For example, the simple leaf logo by Reve Image (Halfmoon) was technically adherent but artistically uninspired compared to the clever lettermark from Ideogram V2 in the same prompt.

Best Models by Graphic Design Use Case

Different graphic design tasks demand different model strengths. Here’s a breakdown of the best models for specific jobs based on this dataset.

1. Logo Design (Text & Icon)

This task requires a perfect blend of symbolic representation, style adherence, and flawless typography.

• 🏆 Top Choice: Recraft V3 is a standout performer, creating a complete and professional HelperBot mascot logo and a perfect Quantum Leap logo with text contained inside the shape as requested.
• ⭐ Strong Contenders: Midjourney v7 created a perfect minimalist logo, showing its high potential when it gets text right. FLUX.1 Kontext Max and Ideogram V2 also produced excellent, high-scoring logos.
• ⚠️ Use with Caution: Models like DALL-E 3 and the Midjourney family frequently omit text entirely, as seen in the Quantum Leap prompt, making them unreliable for logo work.

2. Icon Sets (Consistency & Clarity)

This is one of the most difficult tasks, requiring the generation of multiple, stylistically consistent, and correctly labeled items.

• 🏆 Top Choice: Reve Image (Halfmoon) was a clear winner, delivering a perfect set of 5 minimalist icons that were consistent, correctly labeled, and in the requested style.
• ⭐ Strong Contender: ChatGPT 4o was the only other model to succeed at this task, producing a flawless set of 5 flat icons.
• ❌ Avoid: The vast majority of models failed this prompt. Ideogram 3.0 (Quality) suffered a complete conceptual failure, generating full UI mockups instead of icons.

3. Social Media & Ad Graphics

This requires strong composition, aesthetic sense, and reliable text rendering.

• 🏆 Top Choices: Recraft V3, Reve Image (Halfmoon), ChatGPT 4o, and FLUX.1 Kontext Max all created beautiful, error-free 'Spring Sale' graphics that were ready for use.
• 🎨 Creative Powerhouse: Ideogram 3.0 (Quality) produced a stunning, editorial-style ad that showed a sophisticated understanding of branding.

4. Seamless Patterns & Abstract Backgrounds

This task tests the ability to create repeating, high-resolution textures in a specific style.

• 🏆 Top Choices: This was a strong point for many models. Recraft V3, Ideogram V2, and Flux 1.1 Pro Ultra all generated perfect, clean, and classic Art Deco patterns.
• ✨ Artistic Excellence: Midjourney v7 created a breathtakingly complex and 3D-like pattern that was a work of art in itself, showing its strength in texture and abstract geometry.