Some partnerships are forged in conference rooms, others over coffee-fueled whiteboard sessions. But every so often, two teams just click – like a perfect focal point or a freshly cropped hero image. One dreams in bold palettes, the other builds the pixels to carry them. One curates the future of visual storytelling, the other delivers it, sharp and fast.

It’s the kind of creative chemistry where feedback loops turn into fan mail, and product demos feel more like show-and-tell. Where AI slop is banished, and good taste is sacred.

Turns out, it’s easy to collaborate when you’re also each other’s customers.

From side project to standout

Lummi.ai didn’t start with world domination in mind. No, it began like many great tech tales – with a curious designer, a late-night side project, and the irrepressible itch to see what AI could do if you just gave it a chance. Pablo Stanley and team were noodling with creative tools powered by AI, tossing ideas around like Musho and Folio. Then one day, they asked a simple question: “What if you could generate a whole website from a single prompt?”

As it turns out, you can. But there’s a catch.

Even the smartest AI-generated layouts needed beautiful visuals to feel complete. And let’s just say the early attempts at AI image generation? A little… haunting. Slow, pricey, and occasionally cursed with extra limbs, the images simply weren’t up to the task.

So the team did what any resourceful startup might be tempted to do: they built their own curated image library. Thousands of AI-generated images, all lovingly reviewed and taste-tested by humans with an eye for style and storytelling.

This was the genesis of Lummi.ai – where gorgeous, AI-generated stock images meet thoughtful curation and lightning-fast tools. But even robots need help sometimes. That’s where Imgix enters the picture.

The (beautifully optimized) magic behind the curtain

As Lummi’s image library grew, so did the need for speed, flexibility, and delivery. What started as a few thousand images quickly expanded into a sizable, fast-growing collection. Lummi needed a way to serve up curated visual experiences – fast, on any device, with all the modern bells and whistles.

That’s where our partnership clicked into place. Imgix didn’t just help Lummi scale – we helped them shine.

Using Imgix, Lummi was able to roll out premium features like background removal and smart cropping in hours. Not weeks, not quarters – hours.

Mariate Vallenilla, Lummi’s product manager, put it simply: “We knew we needed background removal. Turns out Imgix already had it. It took us an hour to implement and 15 minutes to market.” Talk about rapid deployment.

And then there’s Reframe – Lummi’s hit feature that intelligently crops images based on focal points and aspect ratios. It's powered in part by Imgix’s smart cropping. This isn’t just a “nice to have” for Lummi; it’s a core part of their monetization strategy. Reframe is their second most-converting feature of all time. Pretty snappy for a tool built on an API integration.

Good taste makes great tools

If you ask Pablo what really sets Lummi apart, he won’t say it’s the models. He won’t talk about the resolution. He’ll tell you it’s taste.

In a world drowning in AI-generated content – some of it beautiful, some of it… less so – Lummi stands out for what it chooses not to include. Their team built internal tools for curating AI images, filtering out the forgettable and the flawed (bye-bye, seven-fingered handshakes). They’ve created a space where AI imagery feels human, expressive, and surprisingly real.

And that’s exactly what drew Imgix to Lummi in the first place. When it came time for us to source fresh visuals for our own brand refresh, we noticed something about Lummi’s images. They didn’t just look good. They felt good. No awkward stock photo grins. No uncanny plastic skin. Just beautiful, natural-looking images that were compelling enough to make our own designer say, “Hey, let’s use this.”

Yes, Imgix powers Lummi – but Lummi powers Imgix, too. Their images have helped elevate our brand across social, web, and campaigns. We’re customers of each other, and happy ones at that.

Sharing a roadmap without ever syncing calendars

What makes this partnership special isn’t just the mutual admiration. It’s the way our tools fit together like puzzle pieces.

Lummi moves fast. They don’t have time for months of dev cycles. With Imgix, they can drop in new features – like watermarking, metadata tagging, or even blur hashes – without writing a single new backend service.

And because Imgix is always evolving – adding video generation, refining AI tools, improving performance – it’s almost as if our roadmaps are whispering to each other.

Mariate described it best: “It feels like we’re talking daily, even though we’re not. We’re just really aligned on what creators need next.”

It’s a vibe

We’re not saying every creative platform should look exactly like Lummi. But we are saying that behind every great visual experience is a reliable image delivery engine, one that makes it easy to experiment, launch, and scale without slowing down.

Lummi found that in Imgix – and in Lummi, we found a partner who’s just as passionate about quality, performance, and delight as we are.

If that kind of creative synergy sounds like your vibe… well, we should probably talk.