AI Doesn’t Belong on a Designer’s Desktop.
I fear I’m turning into my parents. As a 21-year-old, I’m physically turning my nose up at new technology, specifically artificial intelligence. I’m scowling at it, disappointed in its existence and those who use it, especially those studying creative fields in higher education. Seeing AI used within these spaces in real-time is like watching bills burn in a trash bin.
Why does one get a degree in graphic design? Communication design, to be more specific. You’ll hear many different answers to this very open-ended question. Still, the overarching theme is likely learning to think differently, to express yourself, and just to make something really damn cool sometimes. Communication design is a field where the designer conveys a message through visual elements. It’s branding, UX/UI, advertising, etc. Communication is, and will always be, human. Design is, and always will be, human. Yet, day after day, I see both of these things replaced by AI while attending the communication design program.
AI is a machine that steals and misinforms. It takes art styles from artists and gives them no credit. It’s constantly fed information, but somehow continually reproduces misinformation. It scrapes and loots across the internet, and it inauthentically replicates the process and pride of what art is. It’s an insult, and it’s slop. I hope designers agree that using software that does all of these terrible things is bad. I am, unfortunately, proven wrong every time I step foot into a classroom. It’s incredibly disheartening to work with peers and watch as they copy and paste directly from AI, saying, “Here are my ideas!” Those ideas are stolen; they are not yours, and I expect better.
As a communication design student, we’re challenged to push concepts while studying in the classroom, which we pay a couple grand to sit in. Every day, I hear the words think deeper, push ideas farther, or make designs more conceptual. Directly following, I watch as students open up some form of artificial intelligence and “think deeper” as their professor told them to. Really? It’s an insult to the tuition bill sitting in their payment portals. I’d like to believe that designers, who are supposed to think outside of the box, are actually, at the bare minimum, thinking. AI does nothing but pull from those often stolen databases and regurgitate things that’ve already been done. It produces surface-level ideas and does absolutely nothing to sharpen one’s creative abilities. It does all the work for them, and they gain nothing from the process.
I don’t think AI is out to take a designer’s job any time soon, but it’s definitely getting better every day. Just a few days ago, some classmates of mine were talking about how good AI has gotten compared to a few years ago. They reveled in how relieved they were that it’s now so easy to generate images. That fact shouldn’t be a feat that deserves praise. That fact should, quite frankly, scare you. While it won’t eliminate a designer’s job, it will most definitely shrink the market. You’re wondering how AI’s gotten so good at image generation? You’ve been teaching it! Each time you ask AI to adjust a graphic to make it what you want, it learns. In short, you’re teaching it how to do your job for you. The job you’re, again, paying money to study for.
There is also, of course, the argument of ease. It’s easier and saves me time! My question is, why do you, as a designer, opt for the easy cop-out? From where I’m standing, the time you’ve “saved” is, in reality, more distance you’ve created from yourself and your project. Another technique you didn’t learn, and another concept you didn’t physically feel out because you generated it instead of crafting it by hand (or mouse). So many ideas and revelations bloom from the creative process alone, but I frustratingly watch as it gets replaced with “ease.”
Just today, one of my professors told us about this “amazing” AI software that would put labels you’ve designed onto mockups for you. Mockups! Putting a picture on a blank billboard or a logo on a shirt! Something that should be elementary to us, and yet I listen with disappointed ears as a professor suggests we do not use industry-standard software (that we get with our tuition) to do something that should be second nature. Skills are deteriorating. I watch as many of my classmates are unable to create something using Adobe software because they don’t know how.
Every day, more and more professors are advocating for the use of AI. Some even mandated its use within the classroom, saying that it’s going to be a very standard tool in the near future (if it isn’t already). I am afraid of what that future will look like. What happens when we stop thinking creatively? That ball’s already rolling, and I see this in the classroom every day. Students are using AI more and more to generate work that they often cannot explain, and that work is getting lazier. When asked why they chose a specific visual, the response is, “That’s how AI generated it.” What’s the point of creating at all? What’s the point of being in a creative degree if you’re not going to be purposeful?
Why are we, as designers, opting for convenience over customization? The process of design should be exciting. It should be thorough, thoughtful, and done with intent. Has this concept been done before? How do I make it visually stand out? How can I make it more digestible? That’s the process we pay to learn and hope to one day practice professionally. There is beauty in labor and carefully crafting. There is ugliness in being spoon-fed by technology and settling for the generated surface level, rather than digging deep and making it your own way.
You’re wasting money and losing your ability to think creatively every time AI solves a problem for you. It’s not a tool. It’s a crutch.