How I Explain My Work to My Clients

AI has entered the chat, how do we work with it and around it as a creative

It’s been a minute and AI is now the latest fad that needs to be addressed. Canva was the buzzword then, and to be honest it has been a good addition for small businesses. I had to maintain my stance when dealing with my designer bros who mocked me for it. Never mind that ethics comes and goes when it suits their purpose.

Canva for small businesses to take forward my designs created specific for their needs, has been a game changer. If it is used in the right context by the small businesses.

Now, with AI, that is the same stance that I am coming to understand. AI is great, used in the right context, but by no means is it business or brand strategy. Here are a few contexts I have explained my design services as opposed to AI.

I don’t need a designer, I can get AI to do it?

I explain that while AI can make the content sooner and quicker even, it does not mean it is a good decision. AI generated logos do not translate well across print well. Never mind that they tend to not be original and they do not follow the process designers use to create a good logo.

It’s not just logo, design in general can be done in AI for a quick brochure or post, but the design style and elements are very generic, it is recognisable from a mile away. I have stopped reading ads or posts that have AI generic elements in them. It’s difficult to like something that is so regular and general.

So yes, AI can certainly do that for cheaper or free, but as a designer, I have my tried and true process that helps guide the small business or brand in the direction they need to attract more clients.

I can get the AI to do the thinking for me?

Some clients know they need a designer and a vague idea of what they want. So instead of trying to convey that through a phone call or an onboarding call, the client runs their idea through AI and generates content to share and design around.

Again, I explain this works against the small brand and business because you are particular in your needs and AI is generic. You need to create a brochure that promotes your latest product? Sure AI generates the content in 10 seconds flat and a mockup of the design. You need the designer to create it as is, but it contains no connectivity between your brand and your brand values.

Your brand story goes missing when you have AI give you the content you need. It builds a story that is not what you would have created with a paper and pen. As a designer, I can ask the right questions and put my client on the right path to how they want their print or web material done and the story they are selling.

AI says to change this part of the design?

Through my 20+ years of design I found that a design and one point of contact tends to suddenly sprout extra consults towards the final stage. That uncle who has an opinion or the child who believes the colours are not right. There are many changes that suddenly are needed, that work against the brief given.

With AI in the mix, things have gotten a lot more trickier. AI now has become the silent partner to the small business or brand that they have become a critique guide.

As a designer I explain that AI has the wrong context to critique a design. Ask AI to do something and it will, with so much confidence that you miss the fine print of how AI can make mistakes. A story that is woven into the design that follows a brief cannot be thrown off track for a critique that seems straightforward. Eight out of ten times, the AI has the wrong context to the critique. Professional conversations and design needs to stay that, not have AI added into the mix.

Designers are also using AI?

This seems to be where a lot of clients are absolutely convinced that a designer can use AI and do use it. Sure they do, in certain contexts. To give you a list of work pending. To help speed up repetitive admin tasks.To create designs, nope. To get the small business and brand concepts together, nope. That is all the designer brain. AI can do things faster, but professional services are professional services for a reason. The years of learning, expertise in the field and creating designs for clients with outputs that earned them more clients, that is something AI is not responsbile for.

With all these conversations, I am absolutely sure that there will be more topics that will come up in the course of my role as the branding designer and illustrator. Technology will keep changing, and improving or shifting to suit the needs of the world. Learning how to adapt to the changing needs, but not accepting it as fait accompli is always a good rule of thumb to have.