Graphic Designers and Generative AI: Friends or Foes?

A blaring alarm sounded for graphic designers when ChatGPT dropped the new image generation capability. The consequential trend, Ghibli-styled images, brought back the question, "Will graphic designers be soon out of a job with the growing capabilities of Generative AI?". As someone who is at the cusp of entering the field professionally through a formal education. I cannot but engage with the question.

I tried my hand at image generation with ChatGPT (I am yet to try it out with more advanced tools like Midjourney or Adobe's Firefly). And I have some thoughts about it.

The way I see it is that Generative AI is capable of replicating images and render them in a particular style. And is some cases imagine an entirely new compositions. You want a basic poster or illustration? Yes, you got it. Generative AI is cut out for it. You will get an artifact that feels as if put together by an amateur, someone who can use an image-editing software and replicate a poster, drawing inspiration from content spaces like Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

This democratization of design has already happened when tools like Canva and Adobe Express brought the possibilities of graphic design to the web. Simpler tools with friendlier interfaces along with access to a content library enabled quick composition of visual design. These tools made easy processes that were quite laborious. Prior to these apps, composing a visual design was a tedious task; scouring the internet for images, using the pen tool to extract the subject, having the knowledge to navigate the extensive UI of Photoshop or Illustrator to process them, etc. This has largely been made easy today with advancements in these tools. Generative AI here merely plays the role of the composer putting them together.

However, there are limitations. Let's say I like the design it gave me and I want to modify them a little bit. Can't do it now. Get the working files so I can work on the design further and improve them. Can't do that either. These are some of the use cases that will make me take Generative AI as a threat to this field. Until then, I feel that these are developments aimed at making graphic design processes easy.

I believe that these are opportunities. AI has shown that it can get some things right and not everything with regards to graphic design. This gap shows the expertise and knowledge that graphic designers bring to the table. With Generative AI designers can now complete their projects quicker than before, especially with regards to asset and element generation, customizing elements to fit a certain aesthetic, and the like. This can actually help designers flex their design muscles through repeated practice eventually becoming a better, valuable designer.

Lastly, our taste as people has been elevated. Through constant interaction with visual media, we come to expect a certain creativity and quality when it comes to visuals that we engage with. We are not going to appreciate some shoddy design that AI has put together. We are likely to walk or scroll past them it without giving it a second glance. I am pretty sure that businesses and personalities are also on the same boat, they will think twice before publishing a completely generated AI post if it does not meet their standard. But first, do they have the time to create their own graphics that meet their quality without some design experience?

However, I am excited to see an AI agent for designed for graphic design specifically. To whom, I can ask design related questions like color combinations, layout considerations, and it reasons to me why some approaches work and why some don't.