Graphic Designers are concerned about how AI images affect their careers and livelihoods. AI is being used by everyone to make images and logos for their clubs or personal projects. So, where does that leave Graphic Designers? The good news is that graphic design is not obsolete. AI doesn’t have good taste, imagination or vision. It can’t research the client’s rivals and entire industry to create a clever marketing plan. AI works only as well as your prompts, so humans are still needed to fine tune the work that AI does. Think of AI as a useful tool and strive to learn more about it.
The Truth about the Graphic Design Industry
The Graphic Design industry has always been fluid, changing constantly as new trends or new technologies appear. It has always rewarded graphic designers who are willing to learn new things: writing, photography, illustration, strategic thinking, or even a little code. And the expectations of employers, as well as clients, are repeatedly evolving. Therefore, successful graphic designers are continuously acquiring new skills.
Don’t let new technology scare you.
For a long time, graphic designers created their designs on art boards, hired typesetters to print out streamers of text, which were then run through a waxing machine and pasted onto the art boards. Then desktop computers were invented and the traditional workflow became obsolete. Entire industries disappeared seemingly overnight. Everybody had to adapt to remain employable. AI is arguably not as disruptive a technology as computers.
“AI is just a tool that helps us to think outside the box.”
In fact, graphic designers have been using AI already and may not even realize it. Adobe has had AI tools in their programs for many years. Photoshop has AI-based selection tools that has made tedious-to-draw clipping paths unnecessary for many photos. Illustrator uses AI to image trace, then allows you to preview the image trace result so that you can tweak your selections on the fly. These are just a few examples of the AI tools that graphic designers have been using everyday for years. Therefore, it should not be too difficult to learn how to use AI images.
Meanwhile, creative agencies have already been using AI image generation for brainstorming ideas, to explore multiple visual directions quickly, or as a shortcut to create alternative comps for clients. AI image generators allow creative agencies to shorten the length of time needed to prototype and validate concepts. It allows creatives to test copy or layout options while the design process is ongoing. Consequently, AI image generators have not eliminated graphic designers, but they have changed the creative workflow.
Going Forward with AI Images
And that has changed which skills employers are looking for in graphic designers. Employers aren’t looking for technical mastery; they’re looking for designers who know how to think with AI. Knowing how write prompts is key. AI needs clear, thoughtful and creative direction; one that includes suggestions about the lighting, the camera angle, the background, and more. AI image generators are not merely search engines that give the final answer, but rather they are tools that must be guided towards the designer’s vision. Graphic designers still need to filter the AI-generated results. Everyone seems to agree that AI will achieve 80% of what designers want, but that last 20% is where the designer’s creative ability completes the final art.
“While AI proficiency is important, the world still needs the human abilities of graphic designers.”
Tom May at Creative Bloq says, “Here’s another important point to understand. As AI tools get better, what a designer actually does is changing. The job is now less about being a hands-on creator, and more about being a director who guides both AI and human teams.” Going forward, graphic designers need to exercise critical thinking, strategic thinking, and to ensure that everything is correct. Employers expect designers to manually combine the AI results to fit the design objective, as well as to create ideas that are unexpected, unusual, and irresistible. Graphic Design has always been focused on creativity. AI is just a tool that helps us to think outside the box.
Which tools for AI images should a graphic designer learn?
AI technology is evolving too fast for employers to demand that graphic designers learn a specific AI tool. Doing so would risk that the requested skills will be obsolete tomorrow. That said, Midjourney is frequently mentioned, as are Firefly, Runway and ChatGPT. Graphic designers should be prepared to talk about how they used AI to create the items in their portfolio. While AI proficiency is important, the world still needs the human abilities of graphic designers.
I hope you enjoyed this article. I am a graphic designer who writes a lot of blogs. Please take a look at my tutorials and resources.
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By Martha Ridgeway, Graphic Designer