Workshop 1: GenAI for design exploration and speculation

This workshop is a public masterclass in beginner Generative AI (GenAI) workflows for contemporary design practice. The session introduces Midjourney and different text-to-image prompting techniques to create visuals for future speculations. Additionally, the session will introduce different techniques to edit the visuals, and create short-form videos from text prompts.

What you will get

The workshop is hands-on and accessible to design practitioners, educators, researchers, and students interested in learning the popular Midjourney GenAI tool. Participants will have access to trial Midjourney during the workshop, though observation-only participation is also welcome. Participants will leave with practice experience of prompting, creating, and editing their own GenAI visuals, and how greater control over their prompting can elevate AI-assisted design image outputs.

Masterclass facilitator

• Dr Linus Tan: www.linustan.com | Swinburne University of Technology

Workshop series

This workshop is part of the Melbourne Design Week 2026 event, Future Services Studio: Imagining the Next Chapter of Australian Design Products and Services. There are two other workshop and a panel discussion at the same location, in this event series:

• Workshop 2, 1pm to 3pm: GenAI for imagination and prototyping (Claude)

• Workshop 3, 3.30pm to 5.30pm: GenAI in Design workflow masterclass (ComfyUI)

• Panel Discussion, 6pm to 7pm: Future Australian Designs and Services

For questions, group workshop at other times, and customised training, please contact Linus at linustan@swin.edu.au.