4.5 – Creating Images with Copilot Designer Lesson

Lesson Overview

Microsoft Designer, previously called Image Creator, is the engine behind the image outputs you may have seen in Copilot. This lesson focuses on using Designer directly, allowing you to create and manage images more intentionally. Whether you’re accessing the tool through Bing’s Copilot or directly at bing.com/images/create, Designer’s purpose-built interface makes prompt-based image generation straightforward and engaging.

Inside Designer, you’ll find several tabs and features—such as the central prompt bar, Explore (for browsing community submissions and finding prompt inspiration), and Creations (your personal image history). These tools are valuable for anyone needing custom visuals quickly, from educators putting together visually rich presentations to marketers or content creators looking to generate unique graphics on the fly.

Direct image creation with Designer saves time and gives you more control, as you can view prompt histories, reuse what works, and experiment with variations easily. Features like boost credits speed up the process, and the “Surprise Me” button provides new prompt ideas if you’re ever stuck.

In real-world scenarios, such as preparing a slide about desert animals, you can craft prompts like “photo of a camel in the desert, bright hot sun, sand dunes in the distance,” and Designer will offer a set of tailored images to pick from—ready for immediate use or further editing.

Who This Is For

Skimming this lesson will help if you:

• Are new to image generation tools and want a clear entry point
• Need regular access to custom visuals (e.g., educators, marketers, designers)
• Want to experiment with prompts for the best visual results
• Collect and reuse successful image prompts in future projects
• Are interested in using AI-generated images for presentations, documents, or social media
• Prefer managing image assets and their sources directly

Where This Fits in a Workflow

Image generation with Microsoft Designer fits best at the start of your creative process—right where you need fresh visuals for slides, reports, blog posts, or product mockups. You might use it after drafting project content and realizing you need engaging graphics or during brainstorming sessions to visualize ideas quickly.

For example, if you’re building a presentation on wildlife, you can research prompts in Explore, draw ideas from community images, then use the prompt bar to generate tailored visuals for each slide. Later, you can revisit Creations to retrieve any past images or tweak prompts for new variations, making the whole workflow faster and easier.

Technical & Workflow Benefits

In the past, creating custom images often meant searching stock photo libraries, commissioning an artist, or settling for generic visuals. With Microsoft Designer, you enter a prompt and see results in seconds—directly tailored to your needs. Your prompt history and the ability to quickly reuse or adjust prompts mean you spend less time recreating requests.

Boost credits accelerate the process when you’re working under a deadline, and “Surprise Me” helps spark creativity if you’re stuck on how to phrase a request. For content or marketing teams producing large volumes of visual assets, this moves from manual file searching to on-demand generation—improving turnaround and consistency. Educators and solo creators also benefit, as every visual is unique and instantly available for download or further editing.

Practice Exercise

Try generating images for a real-world scenario:

1. Decide on a topic—a presentation about desert wildlife, for example.
2. In the Designer prompt bar, enter: “photo of a camel in the desert, bright hot sun, sand dunes in the distance.”
3. Review the generated images. Download your favorite, or use the Explore tab to find similar prompts and refine yours.

After finishing, compare the images you created to those in the Explore tab. What differences do you see in style or detail? How could you adjust your prompt for an even better fit next time?

Course Context Recap

This lesson introduced creating images directly within Microsoft Designer, building on your understanding from Copilot image creation. You now know how to access key tabs, write prompts, and manage your growing library of AI-generated images. Next, you’ll progress to editing images inside Designer, learning how to fine-tune and personalize your results further. Continue your journey through the course for deeper skills and creative techniques.