To Ai or not to Ai?

Let’s start with some points which I have collected about this topic:

• Show process, be able to discuss your process, be available to explain all of your ‘real’ work aspects of the project - the creative and the technical … So how do you protect ‘from Ai’ in your design output?

• Ai is a software tool the same way illustrator is a software tool, which by the way, we as creatives mostly fought when it first came into being. Was the software going to take the place of the illustrator?

• Ai must be learned by practicing to use it. Only then can we really understand what it is capable of and how to properly use it, as a tool. This will lead to creative and wise usage. I would say, it is not here to replace the creative concept but to guide it efficiently.

(There definitely are intellectual property issues and one needs to learn about them).

A federal government website (performance.gov) was recently designed by Paula Scher and her team at PENTAGRAM.

Mark Wilson, Global Design Editor at Fast Company wrote Dec. 5/2024 that Bruno Bergallo a designer on the team at PENTAGRAM “used illustrations produced by Midjourney, prompted and inspired by handcrafted samples”.

An important point necessary to clear up is that the illustrations were produced NOT DESIGNED by the software.

Paula Scher said in an article on Creative Bloq written by Daniel John on Dec. 14/2024 - “He (Bruno) designed an entire style, made with paint and tape. They are originals. He is an illustrator.”

They then programmed all of these originals and worked hours training the Ai tool on the particular customized style and then went through many rounds of prompts to get to the ones that WORKED.

They had to sift down to the exact prompts necessary to produce 1500 illustrations in that style. 

Paula Scher continued - “AI is another tool, and how it’s used is the responsibility of the designer who is charged with delivering the project.”

You as a designer need to think back upon the flow of tools that have constantly come into being over your career, and how you have incorporated them into your process. I know that you have said privately about someone who resisted and thought they were silly not to be realistic and take the challenge to become BETTER designers, I know you have!

unknown illustrator

Just think if we had shunned the wheel, a tool - where would we all be!!! Embrace the creative challenge everyday.

— the brand auditor —