AI can generate a thousand designs. But only humans know which one will speak to your audience.
In art school, we were taught the rules of good design — the golden ratio, the rule of thirds, color theory — as an attempt to define visual success through a framework. But layered in with those rules is the understanding that there are no rigid laws around effective design, and that it’s often necessary to intentionally break norms for dynamic results.
Design has always been more than formulaic visuals. It’s about telling stories, evoking emotion, and understanding the human experience, all of which, at the end of the day, can’t simply be generated via data sets and prompts.
Design starts and ends with human input
While AI-powered campaigns are exciting and offer tempting promises (scale, automation, and cost savings), they also run the risk of falling flat, or worse, backfiring. Coca-Cola’s AI-generated holiday spots sparked online backlash for their use of AI in producing a soulless, cheap version of their traditionally magical, human-crafted holiday charm. Volvo is another example of a brand missing the mark with its Saudi Arabia video ad that resembled an unfinished brainstorming concept rather than a polished final product.
That said, AI and its ability to create compelling visuals at the click of a prompt is powerful, enhancing output and democratizing skill sets. And when used as a collaborative tool, designers can focus their efforts on problem-solving and creative intuition to produce thoughtful solutions for clients’ goals, while retaining an authentic branded voice.
Using AI as a partner, not a crutch
Here are some ways we use AI in our design process at Inkhouse:
Efficiency and workflow. AI tools can help us iterate faster, automate repetitive tasks, and refine our starting point so we don’t waste energy on grunt work. By offloading some of the efficiency-driven tasks, AI gives us more bandwidth to explore and iterate.
Research and exploration. AI can also provide competitive analysis to help us better understand industry trends and how other brands or products are positioning themselves comparatively. In addition to analytical assessments, AI can also be used to put together moodboards as a visual starting point.
Our new brainstorming partner. AI can quickly generate alternatives we may not have considered, or surface patterns we might have overlooked. It’s important here to be conscious of bias and the tendency towards homogenization. What AI says isn’t always right — take its opinion with a grain of salt. Understanding your client’s goals and having a human perspective here is key.
As exciting as AI is for our industry, it’s essential to remember that good design is shaped by years of lived experience, exposure, culture, trial and error, human touch, and creative intuition. AI has enabled (and is continuing to enable) a sharp increase in the volume of designs produced, but the differentiator remains in quality vs. quantity.
In the end, creativity and design aren’t about what can be generated, but what resonates.
