Hi friends,
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
More designers join this little learning community every week, and this week we hit a new milestone: 100 subscribers! 🎉
That’s 100 of you who trust me to drop something helpful in your inbox each week. (I’m doing my best to keep up. 😅)
To everyone who’s been here for a while — thank you for sticking around.
And if you’re new here, welcome! I’m MengChi.
Meng Design is where I share clear, digestible tutorials that help product designers grow strong design skills and achieve results.
I promise to make design learning approachable — breaking complex results into clear steps that you can confidently apply.
This week, I got curious about how to apply duotone effect on any imagery that look clean and pleasing, especially with portraits
Now, let’s dive into this week’s tutorial: Duotone Imagery.
LEARN DESIGN
Ever seen those bold duotone backgrounds on landing pages?
Here’s how to make them in Figma — two quick methods, no guesswork 👇

Duotone Imagery cover
🎁 Grab your starter file and follow along!
Video Tutorial is linked below.
Step 1 - Simple way
For background image.
Open Lummi → search your subject (“plant,” “texture,” etc.).
Use the Duotone tool, pick two brand colors, and set intensity to 100%.
Duotone background ready in under a minute

Use Duotone tool in Lummi plugin
Step 2 – Pro-level Control
For professional headshot.
Search for a clean headshot → use Remove Background
Before coloring, set the image to black & white — helps check lighting and contrast.

Use background removal and duotone tool in Lummi.
Step 3 – Gradient Map
Then open the Gradient Map plugin.
Add a two-stop gradient using your brand colors.
If nothing happens right away, nudge the stops slightly — you’ll see the effect pop instantly.

Use Gradient Map plugin to apply duotone effect
Step 4 – Tada!
That’s it.
Two simple ways to create bold, on-brand imagery that looks professional — without Photoshop.
Complex results can always be broken down into clear steps.

Final result.
Watch on Youtube
Like and share the video.
Leave a comment if you got any questions!
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