AI impact on branding and design

As new AI programs emerge and we find innovative ways to incorporate them into products, it's common to feel overwhelmed and apprehensive about the potential outcomes.

When some of these engines began to hit the mainstream and pick up steam from 2022 to 2023, visions of terminator-esque battles occupied more of our slack channels than we'd like to admit. It seemed that floor length leather coats and tiny earpieces were in our future. And on top of being unsure of how to navigate all of the new (and completely valid) ethical debates around the use of AI, we don’t even know how to do a slow-mo backflips for inevitable robot battling.

It became clear that there are avenues us to integrate AI into our workflow without having to change our wardrobes, perform acrobatics, or realize a dystopian future.

Over the past six months, we've discovered tremendous value in utilizing AI to assist with mundane tasks designers encounter daily, facilitating our clients' ability to envision the expansive future of emerging brands.

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Midjourney: Building brand design mockups from scratch

Previously, we spent considerable time as a studio searching for the perfect stock photos or mockups. Midjourney has proven to be an excellent tool for assembling images as the foundation for mockups. Sure, it takes a little bit of Photoshop know-how - but we have our childhood Jonas brothers fan edits to thank for that.

Here’s a tutorial we've found helpful for using midjourney. Once you have your images created, you can even tell the engine to change things as you want- it’s called seeding.

We view Midjourney not as a standalone solution for generating fully realized ideas or final designs, but rather as a helpful resource for streamlining the stock photo search and aiding clients in envisioning their products within relevant environments when conceptualizing and compiling internal presentations.

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Photoshop Generative AI: Enhancing imagery in brand design

We use Photoshop Generative AI to make small edits to stock and client photos. Sure, this image is great, but what if Iwe removed that load-bearing beam to focus on the billboard design? Or changed the season? Maybe the orientation isn't correct? Easy peasy, all with the help of Generative AI.

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ChatGPT: Generating brand language & writing placeholder copy

ChatGPT has become our go-to for generating word lists, including synonyms, antonyms, and finding more approachable alternatives to snooty terms like "juxtapose." Its versatility knows no bounds. Moreover, it's an invaluable tool for crafting placeholder copy for mockups and presentations. For small business owners and CEOs, visualizing brand concepts in action can be challenging. Anything that bridges the gap between the present reality and future possibilities in clients' minds aids in presenting creative concepts seamlessly.

Here's a selection of prompts we've utilized recently:

• Write a short letter from the editor from the perspective of the director of a nonprofit. (To create dummy text for an email template example)
• Write a list of things new college students have to deal with when moving into dorms (To help with ideas for an instagram caption)
• Generate a list of Names. (We occasionally use ChatGPT to word list diverse names for dummy text in print materials and web design applications in an effort to not simply use the rather Eurocentric “Jane Doe” or “John Smith” forever).

It's crucial to acknowledge the limitations of AI programs.

However, ChatGPT and other programs have the eyes of the international tech community on them, and with the right inclusion of diverse teams and data at the helm of the ship, we believe these tools have the potential to be a tool for expanding our perspectives and achieving unprecedented global collaboration.

It's vital to understand that AI doesn't aim to replace the vital contributions of photographers, copywriters, or designers in our studio. Each individual brings a wealth of diverse knowledge and perspectives to a project that cannot be encapsulated by data or code. Projects exist within multifaceted contexts that can't be encapsulated in a Midjourney prompt.

In conclusion, by delegating robotic tasks in our workflow to AI, we create more room for humanity in design, freeing up time and energy for tasks where our unique insights and perspectives shine through.