I've spoken to several junior creatives in the past year, and one thing they all have in common: they are anxious about AI. One designer told me "I'm scared because its coming for us all."
Hold your horses, dear reader. AI isn't "coming for us all." AI can't even draw hands! AI can't create nuanced and exciting logos and branding. I'm thinking of the wildly clever and iconic logos like the Fed Ex (some people still don't notice the giant arrow in the center of the logo in the negative space), Toyota (did you know it spells the word?), Baskin Robbins (31 flavors!) and the Milwaukee Brewers logo (cleverly arranged in the shape of a baseball glove).
AI cannot capture uniquely human experiences that creatives tap into and draw inspiration from. While I understand the concerns and I hate to see my fellow creatives feeling anxiety and self doubt (a thief of creativity), ai will never be capable of executing true creativity all on its own. The lifers know ai merely mimics - forever committed to derivative creative work. No fresh ideas.
Artificial Intelligence can be an extremely useful tool for creatives to help us automate some of the more tedious parts of our creative processes. It can also help us expand on them.
So lean into it. Need a specific (and FREE) photo with a particular color palette? Ask ai to make one for you. Need to expand an image's canvas and don't want to spend hours cloning in photoshop only to have your image look bad? Ask ai to do it! The possibilities are endless and this exciting new tool can expedite processes that would've taken us hours of intensive work in the past.
Got it? Good. Now that we've all chosen to embrace this exciting new tool, there is just one thing left to consider: just because designers have better tools that can help us create things faster - how do we invoice our clients? When freelancing, I live by the motto "You aren't paying me to JUST create this piece for you. You are paying for the training and skills I've acquired over my entire career to enable me to create this piece for you." In other words, I wouldn't charge by the hour.
Any designer who is truly creative - executing new ideas and pushing the boundaries of visual communication needn't worry about AI. But if you are a designer who does not embrace new technology, who neglects to stay on top of trends or further your education - I'd say you are in trouble. But I'd also argue that those are the type of designers who lack passion and just don't care.
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