How I feel about… being an artist and graphic designer in the age of Artificial Intelligence. I recognize that some aspects of the recent surge in AI features and tools may have value when used correctly, consciously, and cautiously (though diminished by the environmental impact). In my current role (as of time of writing this post) as an in-house Graphic Designer on a Global Marketing Team, we were broadly mandated to begin using AI in as many aspects of our role as possible. Over time, I would recognize that mandates like this were shared across industries and roles throughout the broader workforce as companies scrambled to position themselves as AI leaders, or at least as AI adoptive. From a design perspective, this meant an immediate transition away from traditional stock photography sources (ie: Shutterstock, iStock Photo etc) and a move to Midjourney as a ’stock photo creation’ tool (noted in my portfolio where applicable). Additionally as graphic design programs (Adobe, etc) grew their own AI footprint – tools were enhanced or created to utilize AI in their processing. Although there may be some debate over which tools are ’true AI’ or simply ‘AI programming enhanced’ – I generally refer to the tool capabilities as ‘Generative AI’. In some cases the tools previously existed, but lacked precision, quality or speed. In other cases, brand new tools emerged.
From a tools perspective, any enhancement that increases speed and promotes productivity is a welcome update (outside of negative environmental impact). One of the simplest examples is the expand image or ‘remove’ object using generative fill. Once time consuming or otherwise tedious tasks become optimized, increasing ease of workflow. These workflow tools alone fulfill the mandate of ‘daily use of AI’. Other AI related tools are not as valuable. Image generation is often a hit or miss for quality and accuracy. And, designers find themselves quickly gauging quality time spent attempting to generate positive outcomes. Finger counting. You know, the worst of the surrealists.
From a ’stock photo generating’ perspective (ie: Midjourney) I have a less favourable opinion. It’s important to note two things. First, I do not consider AI Generated images to be art, or design. They are, in their simplest forms, tools compiling results of detailed prompt writing at an advanced speed. Second, I consider AI Generated images (and text for that matter) to be theft. Neither are smarter or more creative than a human, but prove to be faster – and thus more cost effective. But also, at what cost? I acknowledge and struggle with the fact that models, photographers, illustrators, artists and designers alike are having their livelihoods taken away. Currently, in my daily practice I try to recycle as many of the previously purchased stock images as I can make use of while making plans for a shift away from ‘mandated AI measures’.
The breakdown… of how I use AI in my daily (in-house/remote B2B) design practice. I utilize Midjourney AI generated ’stock photos’ and background ‘graphics’ (as per company mandate)’ for implementation in human built design layouts and structures. Any further editing is primarily done within Photoshop using traditional tools. Some aspects of the editing may include using AI Generative tools for image expansion, object removal or general cleanup. I do not use AI to generate ‘design ideas’ or ‘design layouts’. Occasionally, text copy is provided to me as an image or PDF in which case, I may use ChatGPT for text extraction.
For the record, I did not use AI to research or otherwise write any part of this post (other than the experience of using AI in design related job). I am a human being, capable of independent thought translated to text through the use of a keyboard. Forgive the sentence structure and running thoughts. One day, this skill will be valued again.