I’ve been using Nano Banana for my design mockups lately, and it’s actually worth the hype.
It’s the first tool I’ve tried that keeps the integrity of my design about 95% of the time, including all the type. That’s huuuuge. I drop in a design from Figma, and within 10 seconds it’s mocked up on a wall, a shirt, a cup. Something that would’ve taken 20 minutes or more in the past.
Here are the two ways I’ve been using it:
Upload your design + a mockup photo you already have
Prompt something simple like “mock this design into this poster.” Probably best for non-designers since it requires minimal art direction. Just make sure you have image rights!Generate the photo in Nano Banana, then add your design.
This gives you more control over your photo, but requires some art direction finesse. Make sure to include directions for lighting, camera POV, color palette, etc, so that all of your images feel like they’re from the same shoot. (You can also upload your design and write the prompt all at once, but you’ll have less control.)
What I love:
You can keep refining within the thread, and tweak details without losing the overall image.
It has surprisingly strong character and object consistency, which makes iterative creative work way smoother.
It doesn’t F with your design, the biggest win!
What’s still rough:
People still look a bit AI-ish. If you’re creating human scenes, it might be worth generating those in Midjourney (or other tool) and then bringing them into Nano Banana to apply your designs and create variations.
And yes, I did design this fake coffee brand just to test it out. If anyone wants to open up Paper Shark with me 👀