I created this site when the first wave of generative AI diffusion models were making waves. The goal was to see how quickly I could build a fully functional print on demand style online e commerce site using only images generated from Mid-journey (AI diffusion model for generating images)
I created a brand called the M gallery (play on the BMW M line of cars) as a marketplace to sell merchandise with graphics of BMW related content. Using Mid-journey I used a combination of prompt based image generation and blending with real images of the cars to create as realistic of a representation as I could for the given time I had. Diving deeper into custom trained models on data tailored to this project (that would lead to the most accurate results).
After the images were generated, touch ups and graphic/typography overlays were made using adobe illustrator+photoshop. The final comps were then uploaded into printfull (print on demand fulfillment marketplace) and placed onto several products.
Once the products were created I set up a Shopify store to host the products and connected the products created in Printfull to the Shopify store in the backend so that when a customer places an order on my Shopify site, it gets routed to Printfull to be fulfilled and sent to the customer.
Last thing to do was create mockups for all of the products, Mid-journey was used to generate most of the mockups. I overlayed all of the graphics onto the mockups and uploaded them to the Shopify site for the product photos.
Currently the site is not active for purchases because it costs money to keep open for business every month but you can view it. This was just a test to see how long it would take to set a business like this up. To actually start making money, marketing would have to be done to drive traffic to the site. All in, the project was done in a week and a half (6-8h on the weekends and 2-3 hours after work on weekdays)
