Marketers and graphic designers have been using tools to speed up their work for decades. Take, for example, stock images. Before Getty, iStock, and the like, designers spent hours upon hours creating graphics from scratch. Similarly, the industry now has another creative shortcut with the potential to revolutionize the industry — AI-generated images.
In fact, you’ll see AI graphic design in action today. That’s right, we used DALL·E 2 to create the images below in this blog post.
HOW AI DESIGN TOOLS WORK
Whether for logos or entire website layouts, AI tools like Midjourney, Adobe Firefly and DALL·E 2 create images based on a user-generated prompt that not only includes the subject but also details on the artistic style, color scheme, and more. The better the prompts you give, the better image you’ll receive. That’s because these tools can’t read between the lines and they can’t imagine more — they can only use the direction you provide.
For example, if you ask for a dog, most tools will create a basic image of a dog by itself. But if you ask it to create a watercolor painting of a chihuahua wearing sunglasses sitting in a rocking chair and sipping lemonade on a porch — well, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
WHY 2RM EMBRACES AI DESIGN
AI technology can streamline some of the repetitive tasks of graphic design, such as image resizing and sharpening, allowing designers to focus on more creative elements of their work. Currently, we use AI mainly for these kinds of tasks, but we have also used it to create concept art.
Recently, we had a pretty out-there, complex social media idea and a very short turnaround time. Enter Midjourney. With this tool, we were able to render a variety of images in a matter of minutes. Sure, we needed to tweak some things, but the AI-generated images worked to achieve client buy-in and give our designers a solid point of reference from which to begin their work.
WHEN AI IS NOT THE ANSWER
Like stock images, designs generated by AI-powered tools run the risk of being overused and blending into the noise. That’s because these images typically don’t deliver the creative flair, emotional depth, or refinement that you would find in the work of an experienced designer.
Simply put, AI is not the whole answer. Rather, it’s part of a complex equation. And at this point in the AI story, our associates play a much bigger role in that equation than AI does.
WHAT’S NEXT?
At 2RM, we see AI design tools as just that. They’re tools we can utilize to improve efficiency and bring concepts to life without investing hours and hours in design time. For now, we’ll continue to research all things AI, test and demo new design tools, stay up to date with trends and best practices, and provide guidance to our associates and clients on when and how to use this technology.
We’re also experimenting with AI-generated copy! See how we’re exploring the potential and limitations of AI copywriting. Ready to partner with us and harness the power of AI for your content creation needs? Connect with us today to explore how we can enhance and optimize your content strategy together.
By Two Rivers Marketing
By Brad Olson