I’m certain that will happen and already is happening. However, I’ve seen three major upheavals in graphic design during my career: AI, the internet, and desktop publishing. Instead of viewing them as catastrophes that would leave me in the dust, I’ve seen them as opportunities to get in on the ground floor of something new.
Marketing firms are already laying off junior staff who have traditionally handled the boring, basic tasks. Just for fun, I wanted to see what Anthropic’s Claude could do when asked to develop a marketing plan. I made up a company: its products, goals, size, challenges, competitors, target audiences, financial resources, and so on. I gave Claude all the information. It asked me for some additional information and, within seconds, gave me a realistic plan framework. It’s a little bit scary.
On the other hand…
Clients don’t know anything about design, even though many of them think they do. For example, I can’t count how many times a client has asked me to design a brochure. They could ask the same question of AI, or an AI-enabled platform (like Canva), and it might give them something they like. However, what clients like and think they need rarely matches what they actually need.
When a new client has approached me about needing a brochure, I’ve typically asked them why they need one. Half the time, the answer is good. For example, “we have a tradeshow coming up, and last year we handed out 10,000 brochures.” The other half of the time, they’ll come up with a shallow, thoughtless answer, such as they have a new product. When I ask them how they plan on distributing 50,000 brochures, they typically have no clue; they’ve never thought it through. I might end up talking them out of the brochure they think they wanted and convincing them that investing the same amount in highly targeted social media ads will produce better results.
That was just one example among hundreds, but my point is that clients using AI to implement their own naive design visions won’t turn out well for them. This won’t stop them, of course, but I’ve never wanted to work with naive clients anyway. Working with the savvy ones who have money and know the value of good design is always preferable.
Similarly, if I need a suit to wear every now and again for funerals or weddings, I can go to a department store and buy one off the rack. It might work fine for what I need. However, if I were a $ 600-per-hour business attorney, I’d probably opt to rely on a tailor who specializes in business suits. It would cost ten times as much as that off-the-rack suit at the department store, but the attorney realizes that he has an image to maintain and that the expensive, bespoke suit is a good investment.
Going forward, I think beginning designers can be bottom-feeders who pick up small jobs here and there on the side, or they can learn to use AI to their advantage and do whatever it takes (talent, education, experience) to aim for the higher-end, savvy clients who know that achieving their goals depends on hiring the right people with the right experience, insight, and intuition to make it happen.
). I am still developing my drawing skills, but I am eager to continue learning. May I ask if you created this from memory or used a visual reference?