Why AI is designer's new creative partner.

"The best way to predict your future, is to create it" ~Abraham Lincoln

It was only a few years ago that many designers were worried that AI and machine learning were coming to take away their jobs. If you’re still feeling a bit panicky about it, here are a handful groundbreaking projects to prove that new technology is here to help us, not replace us. 

The impact of AI isn’t just felt by the creative industry. Today, robots are reading the news in national publications, computer-generated songs are streamed on Spotify, and paintings by AI machines are giving international art fairs a run for their money. The definition of creative roles is being dramatically upended. As impossible as a potential “obsolescence” of designers might have seemed, a logo maker called Looka (https://looka.com/) has generated 5.5 million custom AI-generated logos—and did it so successfully that it has now graduated to branding entire assets. Huge agencies have also long embraced AI in brand work and the HP Mosaic and HP Collage I share almost daily are a proof of that.

In 2017, Ogilvy Italia created Nutella Unica using HP Mosaic - “dozens of patterns, thousands of color combinations, and one special algorithm” to create seven million jars of Nutella with different versions of the brand’s graphic identity. Each jar, likened to “a piece of art,” was stamped with a unique code that can be authenticated by collectors. They sold out within a month. 

Involving a computer program and a set of constraints, the highlight of generative design is its iterative process that creates countless permutations to choose from of the end product and visually, the product will look like it’s in constant flux as if it keeps evolving. This graphic manipulation process can be divided into two types: Author-based input and Audience-based input.

Author-based input design relies heavily on the designer) from the algorithmic collaboration to the set of constraints which produces output that, when done, is fixed and unchangeable. An example of Author-based input design is the collaboration by E Roon Kang, Richard The and Studio TheGreenEyl for the MIT Media Lab Boston identity, which algorithmic design results in 45,000 permutations.

Visit https://www.rt80.net/medialab/

Pentagram partner Natasha Jen used a custom algorithm to control the most striking design element of the 2019 Senior Library of the School of Visual Arts book, a compendium of the work of the graduating classes from SVA’s BFA in design and advertising courses. Jen organized the 204 artworks along the color spectrum via an algorithm “that produced a summarized color breakdown” based on the hue, saturation, and color (HSL) of each work. These colors were then assigned a numerical code on the HSL scale, which were sequenced through a linear color spectrum to create the book. 

On the other hand, Audience-based input design involves the audience for completion by inserting their set of constraints, which adds more experiential value. An example of this is ‘Phase’, a generative type tool created by type designer Elias Hanzer, developed by Florian Zia that reacts to a manual slider that manipulates its form in real-time or sounds through voice input.

Visit: https://www.eliashanzer.com/phase/

The experimental nature that is in generative design, in general, allows us creators to go in deeper when it comes to experimenting when possibilities are now endless. It might be liberating to some, now that this generative tool, not only does it generate a boundless amount of iterations to our design, but it also buys us time. To some extent, it probably does sound intimidating now that this kind of technology available today can create more iterations than we ever could, realizing limitless potentials that we could ever imagine.

Outside of its commercial applications, AI has also been used by designers to tackle broader social and political issues. Puerto Rican design studio Muuaaa tapped into AI in its Soft Identity Makers project, which examined the idea of national identity in our current global socio-political landscape. Aiming to create a fluid, flexible system capable of representing the liquid state of nationalities today, the project generated almost half a million fictional national identities. “We understood that to create a ‘national’ identity that everyone can relate to, we had to develop a machine capable of processing the desires and associations of each user,” says Miguel Miranda-Montes, Muuaaa co-founder and chief design officer. Users could select five “identity markers” from a range of 45 images designed by the studio covering themes such as climates, flavors, attitudes, and styles. The algorithm would then process the selection to generate a unique national identity for each user. “We were creating between 300-500 identities daily at the London Design Biennale, something that would have been humanly impossible.” 

Will Designers dissappear?

At a time when everything that can be automated is automated, and logos, layouts, and websites can be created by neural networks gorging on data, what sense of control does the designer retain over the creative process? Although these intelligent tools can cope with tedious tasks and take charge of the form-giving process, the designer still needs to define and chisel the experiences and sensations the design is expected to deliver. “The designer will evolve to become the starter, editor, and controller of a project. As a starter they will be responsible for establishing the initial setup, while defining the design problem,” says Muuaaa. “As an editor, they will be compiling, splicing, mixing, sampling, and selecting the machine-made concepts; and finally as the controller, they will evaluate, catalogue, and create the criteria for the design output.” 

Great design is as much about properly framing a problem as it is about finding the solution—and as yet, machines are incapable of working in such humanistic ways. “The core responsibility of the designer still remains all that it is today,” says Adelia Lim. “It’s to exercise empathy, to be constantly aware of and consider those who will be affected by our work; to allow research—not just technology or data—to lead the decision-making process; and lastly, to recognize that as designers we are humans first, and have the ability to make sound decisions even without the help of a machine.”

It seems that the looming cloud of fear around AI is lifting. A 2018 Adobe study reported that most creatives aren’t worried about these technologies taking over their jobs because they believe creativity is profoundly human. “Today [designers] realize that AI is in much of the technology they’re already using, and it’s making things more intuitive than previously perceived,” says Chris Duffey, senior manager of AI strategic development at Adobe. Andreas Pfeiffer, the lead author of the report adds, “While machines and technologies like AI can enhance human creativity and manage tedious tasks, they cannot replace a human’s creative spark.”

But to excel in a world where designers are armed with algorithmic assistants, they need to evolve. “Everyone will need to become a pirate. We’ll require the capacity to not only break the rules, but to rewrite them,” says Muuaa. “The advice I would like to give to today’s professionals, young and old alike, is what I always tell myself: re-enter the industry over and over,” says Lorusso. “Try to find a balance between skepticism and enthusiasm. Don’t become a grumpy reactionary, but also don’t be paralyzed by techno-stupor. Try to be like an infant: in awe of new things and always ready to break them apart to understand how they work.”

We, at HP, are finding these trends intriguing and we follow up on them. It is important for us to be in the top level of creative solutions for print - but not just. We are entitled to help brands create beautiful visual and to help drive their stories, but we also look at the bigger picture of the campaign and how the design will accompany you in your day to day activities - like an ID card.

To loosely quote from a design talk I attended this year, “We upgrade our devices every day, so why not ourselves & our workflow?”