New frontiers, same essence: how AI will change the design process
Like it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) tools are here to stay. From advanced chatbots like ChatGPT and Copy.ai to text-to-image and image-to-image generators like Midjourney and Runway, AI has taken the world by storm, and it is discussed widely by all, from business tycoons to university students. With endless possibilities to utilise the tools, there will be a seismic shift of job roles. Some jobs will be replaced, while new jobs will appear.
The development of the communication design industry is highly intertwined with technology and media. AI will undoubtedly challenge and shape the industry in terms of the role of communication designers as well as the workflow of communication design projects. With the help of AI tools, the role of the designer will shift from a ‘maker’ who focuses on the production of visual artefacts to a ‘visionary strategist’ who dedicates her efforts to decision-making rather than implementation in the design process.
As technology advances rapidly, new tools specialising in different aspects of design will be created, and there will be a group of designers who manage and create designs as building blocks for these tools.
Re-focusing on the roots
Before we delve into our discussion, let’s first look at the meaning of the term ‘design’. The Oxford dictionary defines design as ‘the art or process of deciding how something will look, work, etc. by drawing plans, making computer models, etc.’. It’s clear from this definition that there is a lot of decision-making involved in design, regardless of project nature. It is a constant in the role of a designer. The second part of the definition describes how that ‘something’ that is designed will be carried out, for instance, making computer models. This part of the definition is about how to get things done, and is bound by existing technology, and is prone to change according to its development.
Going back to the context of generative AI, while the technology is yet to become highly sophisticated, in the foreseeable future, images with great finesse can be generated by using text-based prompts and image databases, and layouts can be made within minutes or seconds. This can feel unsettling, as we are used to carrying out this part of the design process by ourselves (think digital artists, illustrators, animators, photographers etc.). Instead of focussing on how to get things done, designers could focus more on why we need to get things done. The emergence of AI prompts us to rethink the process of design decision-making and experiment with different thinking and analytical approaches. The technology can help us get the design deliverables done more efficiently, while leaving us with more time to strategise and make decisions. Of course the act of creation and craftsmanship are still important, as artistic ingenuity is a major way to display human values. However, to stay relevant, creative specialists need to develop a strong sense for art direction and storytelling, which AI cannot replicate as it does not have emotions.
Speed, automation, and precision
But how exactly can AI help us streamline the design process? Let’s use branding as an example to illustrate. A branding project usually covers things such as brand positioning, strategy, persona creation, brainstorming design ideas, and production and implementation. We will use these steps to elaborate on how AI can speed up and enrich the design process.
Brand positioning and strategy development
With the help of AI chatbots, design teams can come up with a more comprehensive brand positioning and strategy by using different prompts, which can generate related questions. By answering them and combining with data, designers can identify the current and potential market, spot the pain points and customer needs more easily, and see the blind spots which cannot be observed by human beings. In the foreseeable future, there will be AI tools specialising in marketing. We will be able to build a vast database by entering details of notable case studies, past projects, and passion projects, with parameters like pain points, customer age, interest, cultural background, income etc, all listed in the tools. Initially these tools will be used by larger agencies who can afford them, but as the cost of AI development lowers, freelance designers and smaller agencies can also use them.
Brainstorming
A new world of endless design possibilities is unlocked by AI when it comes to brainstorming ideas. By feeding similar images and text prompts, designers can explore more ideas, style variations as well as composition and layout possibilities. This is not only useful when designers are facing creative blocks; this can also be helpful for projects that focus on usability and require rapid prototyping like UI and UX design projects. Designers can test and experiment with different wireframes, and refine the design after rounds of user testing.
When it comes to art direction, in the future, we may be able to feed moodboard images and similar images to the system to refine the art direction of a project, or have a clearer idea on what the next product photoshoot should look like.
For branding and logo design, AI is still at its beginning when it comes to understanding metaphors, cultural associations and implications. But as we feed the database more data fields and information, it will be able to generate ideas which are more precise, less cliche and more humanised.
When it comes to video making, one can use 3D to video technology to test storyboards quickly without creating the props and scenery for shooting beforehand, to quickly visualise if the idea works at all.
Moreover, there’s technology that can train your AI model. Take logo design as an example, designers can work on a bunch of sketches and ideas, and feed them to the AI tool and enter keywords in the model. Once the button is clicked, in a short period of time the customised AI model can generate some more ideas which are based on the designer’s thinking, which brings more tailored results. In short, AI tools will become a crucial part in brainstorming. Since there are so many options out there, designers need to make more discerning and informed decisions, and storytelling will become an essential competency and a basic requirement in branding.
Production and implementation
With the use of AI, the efficiency of production and design implementation will increase.
Take typesetting and layout for example. With AI, these processes can be automated, though it doesn’t mean designers won’t be involved in it. Instead, we need to rethink layout as a fluid and flexible concept that can suit different situations and communication contexts. Say if one more fields of data are added, the layout could shift responsively to something totally different. Likewise for different audiences and viewports, etc. This would mean that more careful planning and anticipation in the form of design parameters before production.
When it comes to digital art, with the help of such technologies as Stable Diffusion, highly precise and detailed images can be generated quickly, leading to less demand for production staff. Again, the setting of design parameters and art direction will still involve human intervention.
With the anticipated prevalence of AI in design, there will surely be more small- and middle-scale businesses utilising them to build brands. This would suffice on the outset, but when it comes to growth and breakthrough, they still need high calibre designers who can harness the power of AI and human intuition to come up with comprehensive design strategies. The design offerings could range from semi-customised to fully customised plans, depending on the use of preset AI-generated assets. Overall, the industry standards will be raised.
A new breed is here
With AI technologies developing at breakneck speed and an ever-increasing appetite for new design tools, AI tools specialising in different aspects of design will be introduced. We can already see AI logo generators and built-in web layout generators in their nascent stage. These will only become more precise and mature over time.
There will be a new breed of designers who will design for and manage AI tools. They will be designing different visual elements for the platforms, with information and parameters like symbolic meanings and cultural associations of visual elements, and context of use all fed into the system. They will monitor visual trends and help the system keep up with, or even exceed the prevailing market standards. With related protection laws established and implemented, they will be employed and paid in different ways, whether monthly or on a royalty basis.
The job roles of graphic design have always been changing along with technology and media, from Gutenberg’s letterpress printing and codex books to World Wide Web and digital screens. Craftsmen had been replaced along the way, and new jobs were constantly introduced to the evolving market. This will continue to happen.
AI is stirring up unprecedented panic with a good reason — it challenges the expanse of human creativity and intelligence, not only production skills and speed. But after all it’s still a tool created by human beings no different than an axe or a sewing machine. If we can be forward-thinking on how to utilise these tools and develop new ways solving problems to respond to the needs of the ever-changing society, then we will definitely survive and thrive.
