Design, art and architecture students tend to use image models differently from everyone else. You're not after a pretty picture. You want a mood board by Thursday, a mockup that shows a client what a poster looks like on a wall, a site photo with your massing model dropped in, or one bad detail fixed without redrawing everything.
Two image models come up most for that kind of work: Google's Nano Banana and Black Forest Labs' FLUX. Here's how they compare for studio projects.
The short version
| Job | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Changing one thing in an existing image | Nano Banana | Conversational edits that leave the rest alone |
| Photoreal product or interior shots | FLUX | Built for images that pass as photographs |
| Precise composition from a description | FLUX | Follows placement and lighting instructions closely |
| Lots of quick iterations | Nano Banana | Fast, and cheaper per image |
| Repainting one area, extending the frame | FLUX | Fill and Expand |
| Posters with real words on them | Neither: try GPT Image or Ideogram | Both handle long text more reliably |
Nano Banana: the conversational editor
Nano Banana is the name Google's Gemini image models picked up. Its strength is unglamorous and very useful: upload an image, say what to change, and you get the same scene with that one change.
For studio work that means quick variations. Try a product on three backgrounds. Turn a daytime site photo into dusk. Take a rough sketch and make it presentable enough for a pin-up. Keep adjusting one thing at a time until it's right.
On LazySusan it comes as Nano Banana 2.1 (newest and best value), Nano Banana Pro (Google's highest-quality option) and Nano Banana 2. It outputs at 1K, 2K or 4K, in 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3 and 3:4.
Prompts that work well:
Same room, but in a Scandinavian style: pale wood, white walls, one green plant. Keep the window and the camera angle unchanged.
Make it night: switch on the street lamps and add a little rain on the pavement.
Two habits help. Make one change per edit rather than three at once. And say what should stay the same when it matters.
Where it's weaker: long passages of exact text, and briefs with many elements that all have to land in precise positions.
FLUX: when it has to look real
FLUX is the model people reach for when an image has to pass as a photograph: a product on marble with believable reflections, an interior where the light comes from somewhere, materials with texture instead of plastic. It also follows composition instructions closely, so "the chair on the left, the window behind it, morning light from the right" tends to come back the way you described it.
It edits without starting over too. Kontext and FLUX 2 change what you ask for and leave the rest alone. Fill replaces only the area you paint, which is ideal when one hand, one label or one window is wrong. Expand adds picture around the edges, handy when a square render needs to become a landscape board.
Product photo of a matte black desk lamp on a concrete plinth, single rim light from behind, shallow depth of field, neutral grey backdrop.
A cozy coffee shop interior with warm light, wooden tables and plants on the shelves, shot from the doorway.
Two tips from the FLUX page: describe the light, because it changes the image more than another adjective about the subject; and if a result looks too glossy, try FLUX 1.1 Ultra Raw for a more natural finish.
Where it's weaker: quick chatty back-and-forth edits. It can do them, but Nano Banana is the more natural tool for "now change this, now that".
By discipline
Graphic design. Use Nano Banana for fast mood boards and poster mockups in context. When the poster itself needs readable type, use GPT Image or Ideogram, both one click away in the same workspace. See Nano Banana vs GPT Image and Ideogram vs GPT Image.
Product and industrial design. FLUX for hero shots that look photographed. Nano Banana for colourways and background swaps.
Architecture and interiors. Nano Banana is good at restyling an existing photo of a space while keeping the geometry. FLUX is better at a convincing interior from a description, and Expand helps when you need a wider frame for a board.
Fine art and illustration. Treat both as reference and study tools. A model can show you a lighting setup or a composition you hadn't tried. It can't make the piece for you, and in most studio courses it isn't supposed to.
Brand projects that need vectors. Neither. Recraft makes vector graphics and consistent icon sets.
A workflow that uses both
- Generate rough options on Nano Banana 2.1 at 1K, because iterations should be cheap.
- Pick one direction and make the edits there, one change at a time.
- If the final has to look photographic, rebuild it in FLUX with a precise description of composition and light.
- Fix small problems with Fill, not a new image.
- Only render the keeper at 2K or 4K.
The verdict
Nano Banana is the better everyday tool for design students: quick, cheap per image, and excellent at "change this one thing". FLUX is the one for the final image that has to look real, or for a composition you need exactly right.
On LazySusan both sit in the same workspace and both send results to one Library, so you can draft in one and finish in the other without exporting and re-uploading. Plans start at $8 a month, with a Student plan for .edu emails. More detail on each: FLUX and Nano Banana.
Use it honestly
- Check the brief and the course policy. Many studio courses allow AI for research and mood boards but not for submitted work. Some ban it outright. Ask if you're unsure.
- Label AI images in your process work. If a reference or a mockup came from a model, say so on the board.
- Don't submit generated work as your own where it isn't allowed. In a portfolio, the thinking is what's being assessed.
- Check the output. Image models get perspective, structure, hands and text wrong. In architecture especially, a convincing render can hide a building that couldn't stand up.
- Mind other people's work. Don't upload a classmate's or another artist's images to edit without permission.
Try both side by side: see the plans or sign up.