My New Graphic Design Assistant

Exploring AI

Image generated using Photoshop’s Generative Fill tool,
Prompt: Robot graphic designer sketching at office desk

Common Misconception: AI= The Terminator

Technology is transforming and evolving everyday, and it is our job as designers to stay updated on the latest technology and use it to our advantage. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a game changer for graphic designers. Many people fear that AI and Robots will steal our jobs and eventually take over the world, but that is not the case. Rather than stealing our jobs as designers, we are almost given an assistant to help us with the small things so we can focus on the bigger pieces. 

Graphic Designers are not being replaced by robots; we can think of AI as adding a new member to our design team. AI makes repetitive tasks easy, which frees up time for us as graphic designers to do all the creative thinking. Some strengths of AI are Dynamic Personalization, handling multiple variables, and creating variations. Jasmine Oh explains, “Once AI recognizes a pattern, it can apply the pattern to generate multiple variations at an instant.” Nutella used AI's strength in pattern generation for their unique new campaign. Nutella Unica was a project in which AI combined dozens of patterns and colors to create millions of package design combinations for Nutella. 

AI is NOT Human

Although in the Nutella case AI did a great job of creating patterns for a package design project, it still doesn’t mean our jobs are being stolen. AI has many weaknesses, most importantly the computer can’t comprehend human emotion making the design thinking process impossible. In an article by Medium it explains that without human emotion, designs lack depth and human connection, “Design is not solely about adhering to predefined patterns; it involves a level of originality, emotional connection, and an understanding of cultural nuances that AI currently struggles to emulate.”

Keep the Creativity Going

AI can not create designs that are influenced by human emotions and experiences, but it can help inspire us and spark ideas that we may not have thought of. Personally, I use AI as a tool to brainstorm when I am feeling uncreative. When I am starting a new project, I will ask AI to create a list of words that are associated with the given industry or brand it is associated with. This really helps me to get my mind flowing with ideas. In this case, AI doesn’t give me an exact path to follow, instead it gives me a whole bunch of paths to experiment with that helps me think of new ideas and solutions.

AI tools in Photoshop

Generative AI is an artificial intelligence tool that generates a picture based on your prompt. There are different generative AI tools that can aid us as designers in tedious tasks.

Adobe has many new generative AI tools to use that are built into their software (Adobe). In Photoshop you can use generative fill which allows you to add or remove content in your image just by typing in a prompt. Although it’s not perfect, it is extremely helpful and much quicker than doing the steps on your own. 

In the photos below I used the prompt “Arial view of desk with paper and post it notes on it.” You can see in the first design, the letters on the keyboard don’t make sense, but the second photo is pretty pleasing.

Photoshop also has a tool called Face Aware Liquify that can help you manipulate a persons facial expression or features in an image. Below I experimented with this Photoshop tool, you can see I changed the size of my nose and lips, and I made my smile a little more "smile-y." I also made my face a bit thinner and forehead a bit smaller. I did all of this just by playing around with some sliders. This took 3 minutes for me to change my appearance. 

AI tools in Illustrator

One new AI tool in Illustrator is the Text to Vector tool which allows you to input a text prompt to create an editable vector. These are what I got from the prompt: "dog with sunglasses on" using the subject option.

Adapt or Fall Behind

While AI might be scary, it is important that we regularly adopt the newest technology into our design process. It is like any other new technology, at first it is scary but when you get the hang of it it’s a game changer. It Is Important to continue learning new ways to create and think like a designer otherwise your ideas and designs will get stale and boring while your competetors are flourishing and growing.

In an article Adobe released about Artificial Intelligence they made a good point when it comes to new technology,

“Like the printing press in the 15th century and the personal computer in the 20th, artificial intelligence is disrupting how people create in the 21st. Though it may take some time to get used to new AI-powered tools, you’ll find that they can eliminate old headaches and open up new possibilities for your work.”

Hi! I’m Chloe!

A Graphic Designer from Westchester, New York.

Let's create something extraordinary together!