Discuss current trends in contemporary practice with at least three other industry professionals.
My questions are as follows:
Given the boom in AI technology, how do you think it will affect the future of the graphic design industry?
What are some of the main drawbacks of clean and minimal layouts?
Do you feel you are narrowing the demographic when using the 90’s nostalgia aesthetic?
Given the boom in AI technology, how do you think it will affect the future of the graphic design industry?
There will not be a future in graphic design. The upside is, there will also be no future in crowdsourcing competitions either. Kiosks wii be set up on street corners where anyone can walk by and insert credit card and out will come a perfect, lifeless “art”. Fast food will be dirt cheap because there will be a flood of ex-graphic designers looking for work and can be had for a song.
What are some of the main drawbacks of clean and minimal layouts?
See above.
Do you feel you are narrowing the demographic when using the 90’s nostalgia aesthetic?
See above.
You might get more people answering if you provide your own thoughts on those questions first. I hate doing other people’s homework, especially under the guise of “ask an industry professional.”
So what are YOUR answers to those questions?
There’s a difference between graphic design and illustration. Everything I’ve seen about AI so far has to do with illustration, rather than graphic design. But I have no doubt that will change at some point. I’m not optimistic about the future of graphic design. I’m 59 and have been doing this since I was 19. If I was doing it all over again, I most definitely would not get into this field.
I’ve tried doing that in the past and have always been rebuffed by clients, who feel like I’m being lazy and they aren’t getting their money’s worth. Or they look at it and say they could have done that by themselves. You don’t want your clients thinking or saying things like that. To hang around in this industry you have to do things your clients can’t… and things other designers can’t.
As a consumer, I love all things retro. As a designer, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to do a retro campaign. I would say yes, you are limiting the potential audience. But whether I design something like that is up to the client or the client’s marketing people, not me.
Discuss means a back-and-forth conversation, so I agree with PrintDriver; let’s hear your thoughts on it so that we can have that discussion.
I think the effects will be huge, but it’s too early to tell exactly what those effects will be and how they will play out over time as artificial intelligence improves.
I’m not sure that I agree with the premise of the question. There are no drawbacks when a project calls for a clean, minimal design. A clean and minimal approach would be inappropriate when the task calls for something else.
There is one practical drawback, though; clients sometimes expect something more elaborate and equate a minimal design with not getting their money’s worth — even when a minimal look is perfect for the job.
During the decades before the ’90s, each had characteristics that became synonymous with the time they were produced. However, any look associated with the ’90s was instigated by changes in technology (desktop publishing and the internet) that changed how graphic designers worked.
For example, the look of vector drawing became ubiquitous since the software imposed a look that wasn’t common before then. Website designs from the ’90s are certainly recognizable, but those characteristics were primarily the result of the nascent technology that imposed strict limitations on what could be done.
Since then, websites (and other digital interfaces) have matured, and the general look has become somewhat standardized and stale.
As for print design, I don’t see a significant difference between now and then — certainly not the differences that characterize the differences between the preceding decades.
To answer your question, giving a ’90s look to digital interface designs would be problematic and appropriate only for an intentionally retro look. On the other hand, a ’90s print design look might be essentially indistinguishable in most ways from what is designed today. A 1990s grunge look would be the exception, though.
I did this one a while back - the lecturer wants the student to get this feedback from designers who have been in the industry a while. So the homework is not to give your own opinion but to gain the input of others. I think it’s great because otherwise I would not have found this awesome forum with so many helpful guys and gals!!
It’s another shortcut.
The only drawback with any style of layout is mis-application. If you landed a new client who has been deploying a weekly ad like this for decades:
…trying to change their style to a refined, upscale, law firm letterhead look would obviously be an error.
LoL. For someone who grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, the notion of “90’s nostalgia” is pretty funny. But the answer is the same as previous; if it’s an appropriate strategy for the client’s purposes, perhaps the narrowed demographic that would respond to that particular aesthetic is exactly where market growth potential lies. You choose a target and aim at it.
Right, but this has been going on a while now and I’m turning the tables on these lazy instructors. I want to see if the person asking the question has any background in the topic to see if the answers are going to make sense.
Thank you so much for your assistance, I truly appreciate it! So good to know others have done this assessment and understand where my questions are coming from.
Thank you so very much for your extremely helpful feedback!
In high school, I was told by my computer arts teacher to study Graphic Design, however, I instead pursued Fashion Design and then went on to Interior Design, but recently realized I should have listened to that teacher as I have always had an interest and flair for Graphic Design. But worry I have chosen poorly or perhaps left it far too late, as with the various technologies available there won’t be much need for a trained Graphic Designer.
I really struggle with clean and minimal, as I tend to overthink and over ‘do’ the design. But I imagine with more practice, perhaps I will be able to create detailed yet simplistic designs when the brief requires it.
I am very much the same, there is something so pleasing and welcoming when seeing something from the past. Great thinking, it would be more of a client brief than what is on trend to just do.
Perhaps it has been going on for a while for you, but for those of us who are just starting out and studying Graphic Design and are new to the field and to these assessments- we actually don’t know what you have experienced. Also why I am asking said questions, is to get others’ opinions- professionals who are working in the field, who have a better understanding than someone who hasn’t worked as a Graphic Designer.
Thank you so much for your amazing incite and professional knowledge, I truly appreciate the time you have taken to answer my questions.
The reason I thought of this question is honestly that I have been questioning my choice of studies and the future of the said field. So it is great to hear your thoughts and it has given me back some confidence that I may still be on the right track.
I absolutely agree with you on the mis-application response. Don’t fix something that isn’t broken and don’t mess with something that is already highly recognised.
I also find it rather odd to say nostalgic with regard to the 90’s being as such, as a child born in the 80’s and growing up in the 90’s it still feels like it was only last year… Love your thoughts, it has helped me to understand much better.
Given the boom in AI technology, how do you think it will affect the future of the graphic design industry?
I think we could look at this from two angles: from the designer’s perspective and a business perspective
From a design standpoint, all I’m seeing is that actual graphic designers’ demand will increase (you know, the ones who can think beyond Canva). That’s mainly because all these latest AI tools are based on repeated patterns and algorithims which makes them generic - copy-paste stuff. It’s like eating the same food every day. Can you live off eating the same kind of food everyday? Yes. Would you want to? Probably not.
However, at the same time corporations are mostly concerned with making a handsome profit. If they could get a design that’s good enough and gets the job done without paying a designer - they’ll see it as an absolute win. So, I guess it’s a bit early to say what impact, whether positive or negative, this will have on the industry overall but my advice for designers getting into this field in this day and age - diversify. Don’t specialize in logo design thinking it’s going to be here forever rather be flexible and adapt to the changes. Learn what the AI can and can’t do and plan accordingly.
What are some of the main drawbacks of clean and minimal layouts?
Ask Twitter and you’ll get some fun replies. Speaking as a consumer, I think it would be the lack of personality/uniqueness. But then again this widely varies from company to company. If the best approach is to have a clean and minimal design then there’s virtually no drawback. Imagine Wikipedia with cool graphics and colorful backgrounds. Sure, it’ll look better aesthetically but with the main purpose being to inform people with written information - it’ll benefit from a cleaner layout, not fancy graphics
Other than that, I agree with everyone else here. Clients usually except to get some over-the-top design when they pay big bucks and might be dissapointed with a clean and minimal look - despite it being the best for their brand.
Do you feel you are narrowing the demographic when using the 90’s nostalgia aesthetic?
Yes. It’s taken me some time to come to terms with the fact that not everyone will jump up in joy from seeing the retro look make a comeback. But that won’t stop me from starting up my PS2 and playing metal gear solid while sitting down for hours on my beanbag couch, sipping my coke from those weird, mulit-colored funky-shaped straws that are extremely difficult to get your mouth on without them dangling around the glass
Oh my goodness best response yet! Warmed my heart and give me a good giggle along the way!
Thank you so much for your amazing insight and professional knowledge! It really helped make me think more positively toward studying Graphic Design, in a time where there are so many various programs to ‘do the job quicker and cheaper’. But agree with diversifying and calling on what makes me different to a program and what allows me to bring my life experience to the table, so to speak!
That is how humans learn too. From the moment we’re born, we learn through our senses from the world around us, then reguritate what we’ve learned in various novel combinations that sometimes pass as insight and creativity.
Back in the early '80s people often dimissed personal computers as expensive recipe storage devices. They failed to understand they were on the cusp of a technological revolution and only seeing the present state of the technology without considering the rapid advances in that technology that were on and just over the horizon.
As far as I can see into the future, I can only imagine AI becoming more capable and powerful in ways that will profoundly affect the world – graphic design being just one of them.
Back in the early '80s people often dimissed personal computers as expensive recipe storage devices. They failed to understand they were on the cusp of a technological revolution and only seeing the present state of the technology without considering the rapid advances in that technology that were on and just over the horizon.
Yeah, but computers were and are still seen as tools to the average person that help aid them in their work. On the other hand, artificial intellignece is specifically designed to replace human intelligence - which is the foundation for most of everything.
The only people able to convince others that AI just like the computer is just a tool to help people become more productive are clever marketers trying to tap into the human mind - that’s it.
Just look at every other artifical thing you see around you. Does it enhance what you currently do or does it replace it?
Do artificial plants enhance the look and feel of real plants? No, people instead use them to replace real plants to put them in their homes to beautify it and probably because they don’t have the time, discipline, or knowledge to keep real plants.
What about artificial limbs? Do they make your current body parts more productive and function better? Or were they designed specifically to replace actual body parts of people that had been lost due to some disability or accident?
As far as I can see into the future, I can only imagine AI becoming more capable and powerful in ways that will profoundly affect the world – graphic design being just one of them.
That’s how I view AI as well. I never said it won’t stop developing but I’m just saying people, especially those in creative fields, need to diversify to keep their moat intact. Because for some people this isn’t a debate about whether AI is as good as humans or not - it’s about whether people would be able to put food on the table for their family or not.
The way I see it is that, as AI develops more and becomes more efficient it’s going to be more rigidly regulated. Think nuclear bombs
We have the tech to make it but it’s not freely available at your local store. Nor in a guns or demolitions site either - why? Because it’s too dangerous to release to the public and people seemed to have accepted that. With AI though, many people start with the notion “but what about democracy?” If we go to the stage of Generative AI, me and you could probably use it to make a design 10x faster for a client but some sickos are going to be using it to create some advacned weaponry that hasn’t been released yet to dominate the world
Sure, that sounds like something from a sci-fi movie - but everything about AI sounds like a sci-fi movie. So, I guess Advanced AI, Generative AI, would be better locked up somewhere safe to achieve things like ending world hunger or something not for a lazy person with 0 skills and creativity to make a quick buck out of
Same thing happened at ford factories with machine automation.
You were all warned by Isaac Asimov. Back in the 40s.
The problem is, no one is considering using those Three Rules these days. And who’s to say an AI would follow them. “The rules are a work of fiction,” is all too easy to rationalize.
Just looked up his 3 rules and couldn’t agree more. Nowadays it just seems like some highly curious people have been binge-watching the Black Mirror series in their basement and started noting down every dystopian thing as potential “I wonder if we could actually do that” ideas.
I’m not sure if I should be surprised or appalled…Hence the problem I guess.
