Branding is just as important as the products and services your company offers. Whether it be the Apple logo or Nike Swoosh, it’s hard to forget impactful branding. Each company must spend time and money on memorable graphics, and there have never been so many options.
Artificial intelligence programs let brands generate art in seconds, but is it worth it? Many people debate how effective and impressive AI-generated art is while others embrace it. This leaves brands torn on whether to stick with graphic designers and design tools or embrace AI.
Follow along as we explore the many nuances involved in the design tool vs. AI debate.
Does AI Offer as Much Value as Designers?
The rise of AI technology has made many graphic designers worry about job stability. After all, AI can create interesting graphics and logos in seemingly no time and at little cost. However, many seasoned designers argue that the difference in quality between AI-generated art and hand-created graphics is profound.
Many business owners are torn between saving money and using AI or hiring a graphic designer proficient with design tools. It’s important to consider many factors before you choose one over the other, such as:
Personal Touch
Each graphic designer has something unique to offer: their perspective. This affects their style, contributing to how their aesthetic aligns with your branding vision. Consumers can often easily tell that someone put a lot of work and nuance into a design.
That is something you can only achieve with design tools and hand-drawn graphics. Today, that is an area where AI art is lacking. Think about all the memes and posts online pointing out strange details in AI-generated art.
Such details stand out and distract the consumer who is now focused on whether the art is “real” or AI-generated. A nice personal touch can work wonders to make a graphic resonate with the consumer. It may become harder to distinguish between the two, but the human touch is currently unmistakable.
Brand Identity
The branding choices that consumers are familiar with are the result of choices made by artists. Think about the classic Coca-Cola font and logo. Many people can see that font and associate it with Coca-Cola even if someone uses it for another word as a reference.
Custom-made logos and fonts are so powerful that you can see them with different words and associate them with the original brand. From there, brands can use their human-made aesthetic for other ad campaigns and products using the same artist. This is much harder to achieve when you use an AI program.
That’s because AI programs often deliver a different outcome with each input. Because of that, you may struggle to maintain a consistent performance when using the same style for other branches of your branding. This can require much more trial and error compared to using trusted design tools.
Articulating Goals
Think of how many amazing logos and graphics have come from great conversations. Project managers and business owners tell a graphic designer what they want, and the artist creates the graphic. This process makes it easy for brands to articulate their goals, and for artists to ask questions as needed.
Such articulation is not yet possible when using AI for branding. That’s because AI programs require users to input a description of what the design they want. While this can be convenient, it can also lead to many issues with the final product.
Any mistake or indirect sentence can confuse the AI program and result in a bad design. After all, AI programs aren’t as familiar with nuance as seasoned graphic designers. That said, you can get a great AI design if you are as direct as possible, even if it’s easier with a human designer.
Timeline
Time is of the essence whether you start a new brand or launch a new ad campaign. This is why many brands have turned to AI to get a quick turnaround on new designs. There is no doubt that you can get new designs much faster when you use an AI program.
The results are almost instantaneous, which saves plenty of time and money. However, you must account for the troubleshooting process that often accompanies AI designs. AI programs can often misinterpret inputs and result in off-kilter designs.
You may need to go back and forth trying new descriptions and inputs until you get the best result. In that way, AI isn’t too different from trusted design tools that graphic designers use. It’s worth experimenting with AI to see if you can get satisfactory results before choosing it over a designer.
Why Not Use Both?
While some graphic designers feel threatened by AI, others embrace it. AI isn’t perfect, but seasoned graphic designers can perfect an AI-generated graphic using design tools. Graphic designers have the skill and experience to give AI art a human touch and even make it look better.
Pairing human experience and judgment with AI programs that work on algorithms is quite effective. Impactful branding is all about creating a strong image that consumers instantly associate with your brand. This can keep your brand in consumers’ minds and appeal to new consumers unfamiliar with your brand. Brands can save time and money by hiring graphic designers who combine AI algorithms with a personal touch. Doing so gives brands, artists, and consumers the best of both worlds. That can keep graphic designers working, save money, and help ingrain your brand’s identity in consumers’ minds.
