The Art of authenticity: Human designers vs aRTIFICIAL iNTELLIGENCE
The ripples artificial intelligence has been creating are only just beginning. Rapid advancements are transforming the way we work. Should we all be flocking to classes in Prompt Engineering? Maybe. Does AI spell the end of true design thinking strategies? Perhaps. Listening, and how we listen makes any design studio or service provider unique. We take care over understanding a client’s brief by asking the right questions and paraphrasing back to a client what we think they want; this conversational element is what makes our design process unique and enjoyable. Take the human element out, and what have you got?
Design is about more than making something look pretty; it's about getting into the nitty–gritty of what makes your project unique; it tells a story, conveys a message, and expresses ideas that resonate with people. One of the most exciting aspects of the design can be the concept simmering below the surface - from symbolism in fine art to the references enjoyed by fashion lovers, humans' innate understanding and empathy are necessary to craft designs that reach the right audience.
AI can produce visually impressive work, but successful results require carefully engineered prompts; finding the right combination of words can be a frustrating experience––ask AI artists who spend hours honing their requests, leading AI by the hand to the solution they're looking for. One of the essential tools in a designer's kit is the ability to take a brief, get to know a client and who their audience are and respond creatively. Identifying what a client is looking for involves as much skill as delivering work. Most designers can tell you how rare it is for somebody to arrive with a finished brief. Usually, there's some back-and-forth to nurture a general idea into something robust. A human might not be able to offer you immediate access to a database compiling every piece of art ever created - but for now, we're able to help you fine-tune your brief and respond in an intelligent way; creating design that has substance as well as style.
“Firefly is the natural extension of the technology Adobe has produced over the past 40 years, driven by the belief that people should be empowered to bring their ideas into the world precisely as they imagine them.”
In branding, most clients have a hard time describing what they want; it can take someone else to help them to figure it out. Chat GPT is a language model that is trained on a variety of sources. It is yet able to offer original work. However, with the technology developing rapidly, it could be only a matter of time before AI can interpret a brief with a similar level of creativity and flair as a designer can.
Logos can be created quickly and easily with the help of AI logo generators, to create logo ideas depending on your preferences. There’s a wide selection of layouts available to suit a wide range of businesses that might be useful if you wanting to create a quick logo but when it’s been generated from the internet, will it stand out from the crowd? You may think that they save time, money, and effort, but can they really create a brand that. you’re proud of?
While AI has made significant strides in copywriting, it still needs to improve to compare to the human touch. Good copywriting is more than stringing words together; it's about understanding the target audience's pain points, desires, and motivations while crafting a message that speaks directly to their hearts. Although it’s increasingly sophisticated, AI-generated copy often needs more warmth, empathy, and personality to engage readers––and even when the prompt specifically requests these qualities in the generated content, a lack of nuance results in a great deal of exclamation marks and stiff-sounding copy, littered with tone-of-voice mistakes a seasoned professional would intuitively avoid.
AI can be a valuable tool for streamlining specific tasks and establishing a foundation of rough ideas for human designers to build on. Variations sit at the heart of good design, and if there’s one thing AI has infinite patience for, it’s variations.
Style Drop has to be our favourite AI tool right now. StyleDrop learns and fine-tunes new styles with impressive efficiency and can be trained with your brand assets, enabling you to prototype ideas in your unique style quickly. You can generate images of "your subject" in "your style," opening up a new dimension of personalised creativity. Imagine the possibilities: generating a series of images in a "vintage sepia-toned photograph" style or a "vibrant pop-art" style, simply by describing and referencing one image.
Here’s what happened when we typed in ‘Beast’ to an AI logo generator. AI puls images from a vast database, so what does it say about the individuality of your brand? When creating the Beast Casting brand identity, we questioned the founders to understand what BEAST should be and gauge all aspects of the business; its personality, vision, and values.
Setting up the eponymous brand in 1985, Lesley Beastall has been the go-to casting director across the UK and Europe. She’s sourced the best talent for award-winning advertisements. Lesley approached us when she needed a brand refresh for her existing brand and a brand new identity for her little sister company– Beast Casting. More on our creative process behind creating the brand identity for Beast Casting can be found below:
Research:
After a strategy session with our client, we found that Beast’s characteristics were trustworthy, reliable, informal, and disruptive. We worked alongside specialist type designer Marie Boulanger to create a hand-drawn logo combining the typography of old movie posters and including elements of cheekiness within the letterforms. The final logo was treated with animated elements to create playful moments of interaction for website visitors to experience. We also developed an illustrative system to complement Beast’s colour palette, inspired by recent television shows. We experimented with a variety of illustrative styles, including silhouetted animal shapes, before finding success with drawings inspired by expressive modern art - complementing the founder’s passion for the artistic world. Alexandra drew horns, snouts and eyes in textured ink illustrations, and their irregular placements communicate the cheekiness of Lesley Beastall Casting’s playful but fierce little sister. These were used as graphic elements throughout the digital design assets, which we presented to BEAST alongside a comprehensive online design training workshop for their team.
Disruption is inevitable. How long can the human designer continue to come out on top, thanks to our emotional intelligence, creativity and cultural understanding? Who knows, but as we move forward into this brave new world, let’s remember the value of a conversation with another human being when it comes to creating designs that make us feel something.
FURTHER READING / TESTING
How to Create Oil Paintings with AI
A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn
Whispers of A.I.’s Modular Future by The New Yorker Magazine
AI creator on the risks, opportunities and how it may make humans 'boring'
