WISE UP HUMAN
Abby Andruss
May 1st, 2024
Technology:
Creative’s
Friend or
Foe?
let me explain...
I chose to speak about AI in the creative space. To add a fun twist to it, I chose to write half of the copy of this site using the OpenAI chatbot Claude. Can you spot where it was used?
Creating for a Modern Digital Interaction
Software Used: Figma
This is a recreation and reimaging of the poster Berlin - die grösste Stadt Deutschlands by Emil Ruder in figma. I rebuilt the entire poster in figma, and then demonstrated some differnt ways a user could itneract with it in a digital space.
iPad Pro 11”
Creative Code in p5js
Josef Müller-Brockmann
1958
I bet that you’ve most likely seen this poster before. It’s a classic example of a perfectly applied Swiss Grid, designed by Josef Müller-Brockmann. This poster was orginally designed to advertise a concert in Zürich, Switzerland.
I’ve seen this poster a million times before, especially becuase I lived in Zürich for four months. I wanted to bring an interactive element to the poster. What would happen if you could place the dots in random order?
I whipped up a protype using creative code in p5js. To accomplish this, I used a mix of my own coding knowledge and some basic code generated by Chat GPT. Together, I was able to create this fun game.
CHECK IT OUT!
DIRECTIONS:
- click the poster to draw a dot in a random size
- refresh the page to clear and restart
- enjoy :)
Listen Up!
Alright, listen up all you young creative hotshots out there - we’re about to go on a mind-melting journey through the bleeding edge of artisitic innovation. If words like “ChatGPT” and DALL_E” don’t immeditialy spark your curiosity and maybe a little fear, you’re already behind the curve. Because make no mistake, an AI revolution is unfolding rapidly as we speak, and the creative world is headed straight into the blazing hot orbit of its all-consuming paradigm shift.
This isn’t some campy sci-fi hypothetical either - those of us who came of age in the last decade had front row seats to AI’s sudden glow-up from niche techno obscurity to an inescapable cultural force. One semester you’re hunched over a desktop worrying about propper MLA formatting, the next your profesor is rambling about catching “AL plagiarism” on your midterm essay. The tech hit the mainstream so fast it split the ivory towers into civil war.
My Experience with Technology
I was a junior in college when AI came to the forefront of everyone’s minds. OpenAI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Claude, all became key terms in college students’ vocabulary. Our papers were not only checked for plagiarism, but also AI usage, and our ideas as well. Teachers were divided between encouraging students to leverage this new technology and punishing them for the thought of even using it. Society has been divided on this issue. I’m just a girl with an opinion, not saying this is the right or wrong thing to do because this topic is very complicated. I think that everyone, especially those in the creative space, should take advantage of these new technologies. If we don’t learn how to use these new technologies as tools, they will use us and take our jobs. The field of graphic design is constantly being flipped on its head throughout history, every time a new revolutionary technology emerges. Think of how different graphic design was in the 1960s, having to hand cut every design, compared to the computer software like Figma and Adobe that are used today. Humanity is on the cusp of another technological revolution, and the field of graphic design is at the forefront of the revolution.
I think of myself more of an artist than a designer at heart. All of my projects usually have a preliminary sketch component to them to accompany the initial brianstorm. I was originally a painting major, and that’s where my true love really lies. That being said, I usually only use AI when it comes to writing copy. I don’t usually love the visuals or the videos that AI comes up with, as of April 2024.
AI in the Creative Space and the Concerns
When Tools like ChatGPT and DALL_E started going mainstream, it felt liek the creative world got flipped upside down overnight. One minute, these were just geeky experiments barely on anyone’s radar. The next, they were unavoidable talking points on every designer’s lips. Older folks reminisced over about the 1960’s when you had to physically cut stuff out with X-Acto knives and obsess over kerning with absolute precision. Kids today have no idea how easy they have it with AI whipping up designs and copy on demand! Ofcourse, not everyone was psyched about this brave new world. Plenty of stuck-in-the-mud traditionalists acted like AI inputs were basically plagraism ot cheating. They dug their heels in, rebuffing suggestions that students and professionals alike should start wrapping their heads around using ChatGPT on an assignment. Corporately, dbates raged about wheter to let creatives leverage these tools or ban them outright. I want to make one thing very clear, I think that if you do use AI you should state it. Like this essay for example. Half I wrote myself, and the other half Calude, and OpenAI chatbot trained on my writing tone wrote. Can you tell the difference?
Personally, I think that mindset is naive at best and dangerously ostrich-like at worst. Love it or hate it, AI isn’t just another passing fad - it’s an paradigm shift on par with the brith of computers themselves. The genie’s out of the bottle, so you can either learn to wield it expertly or get trampled underfoot. Creatives especially have to lead the charge in mastering these new capabilities, not cling to 20th-century skillsets.
Look, I’m just some girl sharing her opinion, not claiming to be an authority on the subject. AI’s creative impacts are still emerging and the ethical implications are incredibly nuanced. But rebuffing the technology outright feels like a head-in-the-sand approach that’ll leave you obsolete. The future belongs to those willing to be trailblazers.
“Prompt Poetry”
I was introduced to the phrase “Prompt Poetry” during my internship at Publicis Groupe last summer. The executives at the advertising firm pushed everyone, especially the creatives, to utilize the new tools that are being invented. They even went so far as to make their own OpenAI platform and AI image generator, as many large firms are doing now. It was stressed that the next wave of talent was going to be able to create “Prompt Poetry”. This means that it is encouraged that the next generation coming into the workforce has a strong understanding of how to phrase their input into the OpenAi chatbots. I would even go so far as to say that this phrasing is going to go so far as to become a new art form. Those who can create the most depictive inputs will have a competitive advantage in the workforce over those who don’t.
Why it matters for Young Creatives
Alright, let’s get one thing straight right up front - the creative world is undergoing some mind-blowing technological disruptions, and anyone trying to cling to old ways of doing things is essentially signing their own career death warrant. I’m talking revolutionary shifts that’ll make today’s design and advertsing practices look as archaic as hand-cutting typographic layouts with an X-Acto knife by the end of this decade.We’re smack dab in the middle of an AI renaissance that’s unfolding at light speed. Just a couple of years ago, ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney - hell, even the buzzword “AI” itself - were bizarre strings of letters reserved for niche tech circles. Now they’re ubiquitous parts of our vernacular and transforming how we create content daily. Seasoned pros are still feebly trying to wrap their heads around this fundamental; shift in the creative process.
Meanwhile, if you’re a young gun just getting started in your career, you have a once-in-an-epoch epproutinity to grab AI mastery by the horns and gain a massive competitive edge. Seriously, while the old guard is stubbornly resisting and debating whether this stuff is even ethical to use, you could be first in line getting credentialed in prompt engineering, generative AI, and whatever crazy new tools emerge next month.
Look, I’m just some rando gen z creative calling it like I see it, not making any authoritative claims here. Lord knows the ethics and implications of AI-powered creativity are still being hashed out in real time. But from where I’m standing, the echelons of the design and advertising world a decade form now will be populated primarily by the cohorts who successful rose this tsnumi of technological change from the start. The choice is your - embrace the machine mind messiah, or get swallowed by it’s rising tide.
What can YOU do about it?
So how can ambitious creatives get up to speed? Step one is ditching pre-conceived notions that AI is just a fad or fearing it as a job-killer. These tools are incredibilty powerful but also just that - tools to augment your skills, not replace you entirely. Start exeriemnting with prompting AI models fot ideation, copywriting, image generation, and more! Seek out online courses, YouTube tutorials, and social media communities teaching prompt craft. Keep an open mind and start viewing AI as your creative co-pilot , not a threatening other. With intentional learning, you can shape this technological revolution, not be shaped by it.
Some Closing Thoughts
At the end of the day, there’s no stopping the AI typhooon headed straight got the creative industry’d coast. You can stick you head deep in the sand and stubbornly discount it all as a passing fad. OR you can stop questioning the “if” and start mastering the “how” of incorporating these powerful but complicated tools into your unique artistic process.
Please PLEEEEASE do not let all of this new technology replace your own creative techincal skills. Being able to draw is a skill that is even more valuable in a time when there is a misconception that just anyone can pick up a laptop and be an artist (totally not the case BTW). If you have natrual artisit talent, make sure that you make it known you possess it!
Look, I’m just some opinionated creative college student who happened to have a frontline seat to AI’s cultural big bang. I don’t have all the answers - hell, I’m still grappling with the ethical implications myself daily. But from where I’m standing, the furure belongs to the young visionaries brave enough to be unabashed early explorers.
Those willing to pour their creativity into crafting poeti ne wprompts from the jump. Those unafraid of totally reimaging their practiceby welcoming an AI co-pilot into their workflow. The cohorts who shape this technological revolution by keeping open minds, rather than getting flattened under its weight.
The choice is yours.I know which path I’ve chosen.
Do you?
Do you?
ZINE
Software Used: Adobe InDesign
This website goets TRANSFORMED into a campy and wack zine. It is the 8 box zine folds into a booklet and has a 11 x 17 inch poster on the back. Ironically, technolgy had it’s own hand in designing this zine. The printer left it’s own personal touch on every one.
Re-Making the Old
Software Used: Adobe InDesign
A curated collection of Swiss Grid style posters that I rebuilt and digitalized in Adobe InDesign.