The importance of context and nuance when designing with Ai
Direct Ai not prompt it. That is what I recently heard on an Adobe Live talk with PJ Pereira of Pereira & O’Dell, April 24th. (fyi - I understand that the correct spelling of artificial intelligence is AI, but I don’t like that typographically, it is confusing due to the ‘I’, therefore I will be using the short-form, Ai - I prefer its visual impact better).
There’s a lot to talk about so let’s have a chat about Ai - Ai is very efficient at producing for example, illustrations, where the exact details aren't important. This can work beautifully for prototypes. The generative Ai within photoshop is the same, it compiles and searches to combine multiple prototypes as we now have become aware. Therefore it follows that Ai images can also be used for … 'filler' online content - ‘attention grabbers’ shall we call them. For those who remember clip art, it’s the newest equivalent. And we all know how we feel about them, yikes.
They are repetitive, they have sameness and therefore they risk mundanity and boredom. BUT, with Ai they create a much better more diverse opportunity of clip art. huummmmm.
Well then, what does it mean to ‘direct not prompt it’? And, how do you not allow it, Ai, to ultimately not take over your job?
We’ve all heard how important it is to give the right prompts to the ‘artificial intelligence’ tool. If this is not done, then when you utilize this feature, you end up wasting a lot of time producing multiple odd creations (which are fun but not productive).
Here’s an analogy - When you are directing a junior designer you do your best to ‘prompt them’ rather than tell them exactly what to do. You want to help them get inspiration to find their own path to the (or many) solutions. Once they produce those and bring them to you for review, that’s when you ‘direct them’ to help them see how to refine, or redirect their novice results.
This is the same for employing Ai. It is still a very junior designer, and you the illustrator/conceptor are the art director. There will be a time when it learns more and becomes better, but now it is still a beginner.
It is a good idea, as was before to continue to collect and retain your sketches. These today will include your start up concepts, your Ai generations of illustrations and imagery as well as your future variations and their refinements - remember how you were taught to ‘show your process, be able to discuss that process and explain all of your work, ‘real’ and ‘generated’, all aspects of it, the creative and the technical. This is how to ‘defend’ and keep your work yours!
Your ability to see and to think about the concept behind the image, is a specialized and unique skill that defines each designer and illustrator. With the polishing of this skill you can keep Ai on its toes! When I have had the pleasure of working with a terrific illustrator, the added bonus does not disappoint, it’s much better than working with a ‘bot’.
Today Ai is definitely a tool for assembling multiple, very basic images, and their extensive combinations - whether they be photos or vector illustrations. It is therefore a great tool for the task-oriented, and the administrative part of the creative process, so use it. Learn to talk to it. The better you learn its language the better prepared you will be to stay in front of it.
A really interesting article can be found here, check it out. Rise of the machines: How illustrators can avoid being replaced by AI 11 February 2025, guest author, Creative Boom.
One final thought - we’ve all heard that ‘everything will start looking the same, ideas will only be regurgitated’. But, given that an Ai model is compiling and analyzing from MANY, MANY, MANY different sources, you’d be silly to not recognize that the mathematical number of combinations are VERY large. Therefore one answer is to give anything and everything you design and illustrate, you’re final touch. Something that only you would and could do. Actually you should have been designing this way long before Ai entered our world. That is and always will be why someone hires you - for what only you think about, create and offer.
Always be unique. If you like the pen, with black ink of course like I do, then carry it around and a notebook of blank pages, to capture anything and everything. I still haven’t seen a robot do that yet!
— the brand auditor —