I started writing again after a long hiatus and quickly realised that creating compelling blog covers is one of those tasks that can easily become a bottleneck in your workflow. You want something that looks professional, matches your vibes, and captures the essence of your post, but you don't want to spend hours in design tools or may not have the skills to do it yourself.
After experimenting with various approaches, I've settled on a system that gives me beautiful, consistent cover images in minutes: parameterized AI prompts. Let me walk you through exactly how I do it.
The Prompt
I use ChatGPT's Image Generation feature with a reusable parameterised prompt that goes like this:
4K (high-resolution) 16:9 abstract blog header —
gradient blend of {PRIMARY_COLOR}, {SECONDARY_COLOR}, {ACCENT_COLOR}
Texture: {TEXTURE_STYLE} with a subtle {MATERIAL_FINISH} sheen
Gaussian-blur strength {BLUR_INTENSITY} (0 = none)
Film-grain strength {GRAIN_INTENSITY} (0 = none)
Geometric overlay: {GEOMETRY_OVERLAY}
Lighting mood: {LIGHTING_MOOD}
Modern, luxurious, minimal aesthetic, no text
The magic is in the parameters. Each one controls a specific aspect of the generated image, allowing me to create variations that feel cohesive but unique. Here's how each parameter works
| Parameter | Type / Range | Allowed / Typical Values |
|---|---|---|
PRIMARY_COLOR | Hex or CSS color | Any hex code (#RRGGBB) or valid CSS color name (e.g. #0099ff, midnightblue) |
SECONDARY_COLOR | Hex or CSS color | Same as above |
ACCENT_COLOR | Hex or CSS color | Same as above |
TEXTURE_STYLE | Enum | golden_sand, brush_strokes, mystic_smoke, marbled_ink, fluid_clouds, geometric_wave |
MATERIAL_FINISH | Enum | silk, velvet, matte_paper, frosted_glass, metallic_foil |
BLUR_INTENSITY | Float 0 – 1 | 0 = none • 0.25 = subtle • 0.5 = soft • 1 = heavy |
GRAIN_INTENSITY | Float 0 – 1 | 0 = none • 0.1 = light film grain • 0.5 = noticeable • 1 = very coarse |
GEOMETRY_OVERLAY | Enum | none, four_square_tiles, subtle_circle_cluster, diagonal_ribbon |
LIGHTING_MOOD | Enum | soft ambient, radiant, moody, high key |
Once you choose the parameters, simply drop the resulting prompt into ChatGPT or other AI image generation tools and you will get some interesting results.
Let's talk results
To see how versatile this system is, here are several examples of prompts I've generated using different parameter combinations, along with the beautiful images they produced:
Mystic Purple with Velvet Texture
Deep Ocean with Frosted Glass
Solar Flare with Matte Paper
Arctic Aurora with Silk Sheen
Cyber Neon with Metallic Foil
Desert Warmth with Golden Sand
Pastel Dreams with Silk Texture
Liquid Silver with Frosted Glass
Cosmic Starlight with Metallic Foil
Volcanic Fire with Velvet Texture
Abyssal Depths with Frosted Glass
Polar Aurora with Silk Sheen
Opalescent Pearl with Matte Paper
Peach Blush with Silk Clouds
As you can see, the results are quite impressive considering the time it took. I decided to take this approach one step further and built PromptSauce - an online directory to search for and share your design assets and the prompts used to generate them.