Hearty stock, prompt service: serving up the best food backgrounds with Adobe Express
Are you feeling uninspired? Maybe you're just hungry. Who better to ask than Danish people?
In a 2021 study by the Aarhus University Department of Food Science, researchers dig into “how creativity is defined and measured and what we currently know about creativity as influenced by the senses,” asserting that “by offering a rich multisensory experience, eating nourishes not only our bodies but also our mental well-being.” The study declares that “eating, as one of the most multisensory of all human behaviors, should be a playground for creative thinking.”
We think food and design go together like peanut butter and jelly, so naturally we couldn’t agree more.
There's an infinite menu of ways to play with your food in Adobe Express. Quickly kick off a cornucopia of food design projects and food photography projects using thousands of remixable design templates and fresh curations of royalty-free food images from Adobe Stock, and transform your imagination into an all-you-can-eat buffet powered by Text to Image generative AI.
Let’s show you how to create the best food backgrounds with Adobe Express, making mouthwatering designs for a smart phone or tablet’s lock screen, newsletter headers, desktop wallpapers, social media content, dinner party invites, and more.
Summary/Overview
Lost in the supermarket: exploring food as an aesthetic
Food is so much more than just sustenance, agriculture, or the loaf of bread on the shelf — it's the thing the makes us all the same, and at the same time makes us all a little different. The smells, the tastes, the textures — this is the stuff that potluck memories, family traditions, and cultural connections are made of. Food can become a muse for creative expression, an avatar for your personality and identity, and a stand-in for solidarity.
Throughout art and history, food has drawn attention across mediums from both artists and aficionados. Corporate logo design, post-impressionist paintings, and fine art photography alike look to the kitchen, the plate, the field, the market, and the café for inspiration. Chances are you’ve got a stunning still life of your own sitting in the fridge.
Find something that looks delicious to you. But before you take a bite with your mouth, take one with your eyes: what are the defining textures, colors, and aesthetics of what you’re about to savor? Is it the dusty sugar and salt on a piece of sour candy, the dew-drop moisture misted over the contents of the product aisle, maybe the latticework atop a homemade pie, or the near-molten cheese on your perfect New York slice?
Take in all the small visual details of the food and of the overall experience. Then, try to name them, or break it down into simple, descriptive words. Try saying it out loud. If your appetite is up and your mouth is watering, then you’re ready to write the recipe for your text prompt and head to the generative AI kitchen to create the best food background for a visual feast.
Yes, chef: Text to Image recipes for cooking up the best food backgrounds and wallpapers
Your imagination is the cookbook and the pantry, and we’re your dream kitchen. Text to Image from Adobe Express begins with a description of the image you want to create. Take a little time practicing prompts to hone your craft — be specific, be descriptive, and be original.
It can be helpful to tinker with settings to explore different variations on visual style. You can add more detail to your text prompt to generate completely new images — just be sure to save any images you like before you create new ones. For the best food backgrounds, selecting the “Photo” setting helps ensure a reliable culinary photography quality to the images you generate.
The Text to Image prompts below can serve as recipes to structure your own. Bring these prompts into your workspace, add a pinch of this or a dash of that, and begin creating a delicious menu of the best food backgrounds for your own design projects.
Raw diet
Analyze and follow these prompts to create images featuring foods like raw whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables.
“A full-frame image of a single large navel orange fruit covered in misty water sitting atop a bright white matte surface.”
“Top view bright photo of a flat wide rounded triangle quarter slice of watermelon over a clean white surface.”
“Top view photo of raw oatmeal in a burlap sack.”
“Leafy red kale texture.”
Major food groups
These prompts generate food images representing the major dietary food groups, but this time, you can have it made to order: foodstuffs in abundance — sliced, arranged, seasoned, uncooked, or even fried with crispy edges.
“Slices from a loaf of crusty sourdough bread stacked vertically on a wood butcher block counter.”
“A huge pile of raw avocados with a single avocado cut in half sitting on top.”
“Ethereal top view close-up soft-focus photo of raw rigatoni pasta pieces arranged in neat spacious rows over a light pink-white surface.”
“Wide shot photo of a lightly peppered fried egg with crispy edges on a clean white table surface.”
Good plating, nice presentation
At this point we’re getting hungry, so let’s fire up the stove and generate some images of fully prepared dishes. Don’t skimp on the details in your prompt.
“A full-bleed close-up photo of steamed jasmine rice with small toasted black sesame seeds.”
“Photo of crunchy fried tostones on a white plate with a large pile of ripe unpeeled plantains in the background.”
“Close-up soft-focus photo of a brass fork, with Bolognese sauce-covered spaghetti twirled on the fork. Give the photo a bright white background.”
“Close-up photo of a double tall stack of buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup running down the sides of the stack with a large square piece of butter on top. Give the background a diner environment.”
Charcuterie is a whole mood(board)
Ordering off the menu can be a bold choice in some restaurants, but not in Adobe Express. You’re the cook, so feel empowered to be picky. Include everything you want to see in your perfect meal and be sure to keep up with the little touches in your prompt for a Michelin-starred image.
“Top view of a long rectangular charcuterie board the following ingredients arranged in neat rows: a wheel of brie cheese covered in honey, thin salami slices, capicola, thin rectangular crackers, and toasted almonds in a small bowl.”
“Create a high contrast soft focus photograph from a ceiling height perspective: On a clean light pink formica table, a white plate containing a greasy diner breakfast with 2 peppered fried eggs, crispy bacon, buttered and burnt white toast. Place a salt shaker and a pepper shaker and a mug of black coffee on the table.”
“A large terra cotta ceramic bowl containing mixed-up baby spinach, cooked bulgar wheat, fried chickpeas all mixed together, topped with avocado slices and garnished with bright pink pickled red onions and sesame seeds.”
“A low contrast photograph of a single slice of pizza with a whole anchovy sitting on top, placed on a lime green plate sitting on a white marble surface.”
Hearty stock for a good soup
You can explore and select countless royalty-free and ready-to-go culinary images to create the best food backgrounds directly within Adobe Express. Powered by Adobe Stock, search for your desired image — an “apple” or “Parisian café," for example — and select one to use in your Adobe Express project.
Substitutions allowed: order off the menu with thousands of free remixable templates
Free remixable templates from Adobe Express are the perfect setting to put your best food backgrounds to work. Drop your choice of Adobe Stock imagery or a generative AI image into a simple template for social media posts, flyers, posters, marketing emails, and more. Or, pick out a ready-to-go food-themed template. The options and combinations are nearly endless.
