The Creative Brief: AI Will Add Creative Jobs, Another Text-to-Video AI tool, What is “Post-Branding?”, and What if Designers Went on Strike?

Welcome to another edition of?The Creative Brief, my roundup of news and trends for graphic designers, video producers, and creative professionals of all kinds. These roundup editions usually publish every other week, and I often publish topic-specific “sidebar” editions in between.

In this issue: AI will add creative jobs, according to a study; a new text-to-video tool; a (very critical) look at branding; and what if creatives went on strike?

AI will add creative jobs

So says a major report released in late July by McKinsey Global Institute, the big global management consulting firm. You can read a summary at the (very nice) website, and download the full, 72-page report after you register (it's free).

A few interesting takeways (boldface emphasis is mine):

• Demand for “creatives and arts management” jobs will increase 11 percent by 2030.
• By 2030, activities that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated—a trend accelerated by generative AI. However, we see generative AI enhancing the way STEM, creative, and business and legal professionals work rather than eliminating a significant number of jobs outright.
• At the moment, [gen AI] tools might be best used to produce first drafts in creative fields—but assistance with first drafts can be a major productivity lift.

Hot take: I can't speak to the accuracy of the hiring prediction?— and I sometimes wonder how these big consultancies come up with figures like this — but I completely agree with the second two bullet points. We’re seeing it everywhere: creatives are embracing these tools not to AI themselves out of jobs, but to speed up the brainstorming and ideation process and to create assets for projects they're creative in Photoshop and other tools.

Also worth checking out: How Generative AI Is Changing Creative Work, Harvard Business Review, November 2022.

• Watch: For a great look at how to employ AI imaging tools in real-world illustration and design workflows, check out the latest LinkedIn course by animator, director, and illustrator George Maestri . In Using AI Imagery for Illustration and Design, George shows how to use Midjourney, Firefly, DALL-E, and other AI imaging tools to create components that are destined for finished work being created in Photoshop.

Pika: a text-to-video generator

I've written about Runway's Gen-2 AI tool, which generates video clips in response to text prompts or still images. Gen-2 has company: a new tool called Pika is in beta testing and available through its Discord interface. (Yay — all that time you spent learning Discord in order to use Midjourney will pay off.) It's currently limited to creating three-second clips.

I haven't tried it yet, but it's getting good feedback. Here's a short ”movie trailer“ the company created.

Is post-branding a thing? (Also, wut?)

I always enjoy Steven Heller's columns in PRINT magazine. In a recent installment called Post-Branding a Thing?, Heller interviews the authors of a book “exposing the ideological underbelly and real-world impact of branding.”

The interview is a dense read. For example:

There are several problems with branding, as we see it. A big problem is the reinforcement of neoliberal capitalism through an imposed consensus, through which our imagination for (designing) alternatives is colonized and our social relations are atomized. Branding diminishes our relations by filtering the world through a neoliberal market lens.

And here I thought branding was about putting a swoosh on an athlete's shoes in order to encourage me to buy the same shoes even though I'll never be an athlete.

Anyway. The book looks beautiful, and its underlying thesis is thought provoking. Branding is a form of mind control, I suppose, or at least thought shaping. And when governments and political parties practice it, that’s dangerous.

But I think the authors paint the practice of branding with too bleak a brush. Drawing comparisons between company branding and the practice of branding cattle —?and, in the case of humanity's darkest days, people — is a little...intense.

Still, the interview is worth the read. The book is called What is post-branding? How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics; learn more.

What if creatives went on strike?

Speaking of thought provoking, in a recent article in PRINT, branding consultant Ricardo Saca looks at the professional lives of creative pros through the lens of a couple of the high-profile actor and writer labor strikes currently taking place in the US.

What would happen if all creatives united to ask for better working environments, or fair and level pitching grounds? One potential result could be that creative agencies would get invited to participate or compete only in projects where their credentials, expertise, and costs are in line with what the client is looking for— in other words, projects they can actually win. Creatives could also demand accountability from agencies to offer fair pay, benefits, and an inspiring, inclusive working environment — you know, to walk the walk.

Worth reading. And...worth organizing?

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I’m a senior content manager for the?Creative library?at LinkedIn Learning, responsible for planning courses on graphic design, video production, art and illustration, and related topics.?The Creative Brief?is my biweekly newsletter spotlighting news, trends, and data points of interest to creative professionals. Please consider sharing it, and thanks for reading!