A restoration of faith in creativity in the face of the AI revolution

(You can listen to this article in podcast format further down in this article!)

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Last week I did a live ‘The Creative Condition’ podcast with Ragged Edge founder Max Ottignon at D&AD New Blood Festival. I met Max at OFFF Festival 2024, and loved his talk about branding in the age of convergence.

His concern over the homogenisation of creativity is not an isolated take. While Max provides an intriguing perspective, many people in the creative industry recognise the ill effects of the twin assault by overreliance on data and the resulting client restrictions, but also algorithms flattening culture, creating a sea of same as we all serve big online platforms, rewarding conformity in exchange for engagement.

Following the show, we hung around to watch a fascinating panel discussion between D&AD President Jack Renwick , Adobe 's Executive Creative Director Tasnim Bhuiyan , Chris Moody , Landy Slattery , and Jeff Bowerman . It was clear to see that there are still many unknowns as this new, revolutionary technology is still taking baby steps. Viewpoints varied, but whether it was Jack, Max, or my interpretation, everyone agreed that the tool is a distant second to the idea, the approach, and human creativity.

The day before, I’d created the cover art for The Guardian’s G2 section, supporting an opinion piece by author Zadie Smith. The whole process was a beautiful reminder of what cannot be replaced by any calibre of automation. Lately, I’ve been down a few rabbit holes, envisioning a Terminator 2-style wipeout of creative professionals. This was slightly inflated. I’ve evolved to identify and eliminate threats, so my brain will do its best to alarm me out of proportion when faced with what I perceive as danger. But there will be change. We’re in a revolution. What is replicable, what lacks soul, ideas, and identity will become the product of the software because it costs less, and will improve the bottom line of businesses in challenging economic times.

This shrinks the work pool, so the feeding frenzy for opportunities for the rest of us will be feverish. So, what’s the response? Last week, on episode 232 of the podcast, Brandon Consultants’ Richard Taylor spoke of the creative industry as being ‘a relationship game,’ and it’s hard to disagree. Bringing value that simply cannot be achieved with prompts is going to be essential.

The Guardian job reminded me of why human creativity, empathy, adaptability, and the lived experience matters.

I got the call on Sunday night. Would I be available on Monday to create a cover illustration and a double-page spread for Zadie Smith’s opinion piece? It was about hope for a new dawn with a new government after years of corruption and the destruction of the fabric of the UK.

We’d have around 6 hours from the time the editor ( Kira Cochrane ), art director ( Sarah Habershon ), and I started work.

First, I read the article. Then I listened to the opening ideas from Kira and Sarah. We felt that healthcare and poverty would provide relevant and striking concepts with which to lead the visual direction. Even here, in this quickfire session, the instincts, sensitivity, understanding and lived experience, the flow of dialogue and thought demanded human adaptability and responsive imagination, not prompts.?

I had been commissioned because this topic was raw and real, and so was my art style, and my creative voice. The process of my work welcomes mistakes, and unpredictable bursts of artistic flair that algorithms cannot provide. I felt valued, and part of a momentary human tribe, and so I brought everything to the table.

There was emotion in Zadie’s piece, emotion that ran through my pen and brush as I began to work around possible layouts and illustrative elements.

Then it went quiet. This was election week, so an editor at a national newspaper is needed everywhere by everyone.

When Sarah and I received word from Kira, perhaps two hours later, the goalposts had moved. During our opening chat, I put forward a case for visual representation of the homeless problem. This had visibly worsened throughout the last 14 years under cruel Tory austerity policies, and I saw it daily while living in Manchester. Kira had spent a little more time with my portfolio and saw the opportunity for something very impactful and minimal. This was music to my ears. Given too much time to think, I sometimes overwork, and as a long-time fan of powerful minimalism in design, I knew this would work well for the job at hand. We would use the sunrise of a new day and juxtapose it with a single rough sleeper. It would conjure a blend of cautious optimism while condemning the brutality of a shameful state of affairs in the UK.

Now we had an idea, it was onto the technical matters. Print, web, desktop, mobile, banner. One illustration had to work effectively on all formats. Restrictive if you allow it to be, but Sarah and I started our game of image tennis to find the solution.

Here I have no doubt a person efficient with AI could have performed this task, but without opinion, without feeling or instincts, and in isolation with no critical feedback.

Then, colour palettes. What worked? On what grounds? Why? What mood does the yellow or orange of that sun conjure? And is it from sunrise or sunset? Who is the person in the sleeping bag? I spent time instilling gender neutrality not because anybody asked me to, but because I’ve seen many homeless people in my 41 years on this planet, in this country riddled with it, and it is a rotten misfortune that can claim anyone. The machines can’t give you that witness perspective.

Then the double-page spread. This narrow, landscape image format sat across the page gutter, so I set about building a scene of a busy foodbank, another legacy emblem of the last 14 years, populating it with nurses, teachers, and builders alike. Crucial professions have been divided, undermined, and scapegoated like never before. What was their body language? What are they to wear? Are they facing the camera, or does a turned-back say more about the removal of their identity to the viewer? Remember that all of this is happening at warp speed as the press deadline looms at 5 pm.

In the end, we found a great balance of input between the three of us, and other editors, and we knew we’d nailed a good one. This was topical, in the here and now, and it required so much of what comprises human creativity. It was forward-facing, and yet reflective, and while AI will undoubtedly bring much awe-inspiring possibility to our lives and societies, it is made up of the past, and its nervous system a dense mesh of averages. Creativity is uniquely human, and I had to return to the magic that attracted me to a career in the creative industry in the first place: the possibility, the wonder, the warmth, and the absolute prerequisite for the utilisation of the lived experience. Having done so, my faith in my professional future has been somewhat restored, even if it must be reshaped.

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