Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed a growing backlash against AI generated content, particularly its use in graphic design, artwork and advertising. This rapidly advancing technology has quickly become a tool that - in theory - enables absolutely anyone to create absolutely anything in just a few seconds, for free and with no prior experience. 

Understandably, this has caused frustration in the creative industries, with the quality of AI generated designs coming under fire and people questioning why businesses are turning to this rather than hiring a designer. These concerns are valid - many experienced freelance designers spend years honing their craft and there is evidence of generative AI models harvesting copyrighted artworks without permission. 

But before we start bashing business owners and promoters for using AI to create their marketing materials, it’s worth considering why so many are turning to this in the first place. Running a small business is expensive, extremely hard work and - more often than not - a constant balancing act between what you need to do and what you can actually afford to do. 

Let’s be real. After a long week of paying wages, suppliers and an endless list of expenses, investing in a designer might not feel like a particularly sensible use of your budget, especially when there’s a free tool that can do the work for you. AI offers a quick and accessible way to create something that looks like marketing, and whilst the end product may not be the most original, is it a fair trade off?

Talk Club and Little Green Rooms both have distinctive branding that has been designed to represent their individual ethos’ and missions.

Your branding tells people more than you might think

A coffee morning at the local church, a laminated sign in a library or community centre, a birthday card for a colleague - there are many instances where hiring a designer was never going to be on the cards, but AI has enabled us to create something much better than we would have had capacity or budget to do ourselves. But in competitive commercial spaces, brand identity can become much more important. 

You might not be particularly bothered about your branding, or you might feel that as long as your marketing material contains the right information, it’s done its job. But how you present that information can have a bigger impact than you might think. Ultimately, your branding tells customers who you are, what you do and what they can expect from you. It can communicate professionalism, personality and quality before they've even picked up the phone. If you're a tradesperson, your customers should be more interested in the quality of your work than your colour palette, but not cutting corners with your branding sends a message that you won’t cut corners with them, either. 

No one wants to see the same advert a hundred times

We work in an industry where design is everywhere, from the posters and billboards people see when they're walking down the street to the print businesses use to promote themselves. One of the things that makes good design effective is its ability to stand out from competitors, communicate a message clearly and make a lasting impression.

When everyone starts using the same artificial intelligence models to create their marketing, certain visual styles become repetitive. Designs that are technically different but look almost identical start to blend into one another, and when everything looks the same, people eventually stop noticing it. In more extreme circumstances, some communities are becoming more vocal about seeing AI generated adverts in their neighbourhoods and extending this frustration to the businesses using it. Passersby don’t choose what they see on their morning commute, so being barraged by numerous out of home campaigns that look like they’ve been created by something they distrust could dissuade them from engaging with a business before they’ve even considered what it’s offering. In Bristol, for example, a growing number of music venues are banning promoters from using AI to design posters.

What are you actually paying for when you hire a designer?

We have an in-house team of dedicated designers and reprographic experts with years of experience under their belts. Having your poster designed by our team does cost a little more than generating something yourself using a free AI tool, but there is a reason for that.

You're not just paying someone to add some text to a page or choose a jazzy font. You're paying for their experience, their understanding of design principles and their ability to interpret what you want to achieve, even if you aren't entirely sure how to explain it yourself. 

It might seem easier to type a few instructions into a chatbot and ask it to create a poster, but will the result actually look the way you imagined? Will it communicate the right message, suit your brand and work for the audience you're trying to reach? And what happens when you look at the finished design and realise that something isn't quite right?

Working with a real designer means you can have a nuanced conversation with a real human about your ideas and what you're trying to achieve. Our team can ask questions, take detailed notes, make suggestions and send you revisions so that the finished artwork reflects what you actually wanted, rather than what an AI tool has interpreted from a prompt.

That human element makes a difference, particularly when you have a specific vision in mind or need your marketing materials to work alongside an established brand identity. It also means you're working with someone who understands how the design will ultimately be used to generate more business, rather than just how it looks on a screen. 

What happens when you send us AI-generated artwork

We receive a lot of AI artwork. Whilst this can be a really good way to help us understand what a client wants, artwork that looks good on a phone or computer screen might not look the same on paper. For example, most AI designs lack some important information our printers need to see where your artwork ends on the page (‘bleed marks’), where to cut it (‘crop marks’) and how to get the colours right (‘CYMK’ versus ‘RGB’). Standard AI models are also unable to create anything in larger formats, so if you send us an AI design for anything bigger than A4, as soon as we blow it up it will become blurry or pixelated and there’s no easy way for us to resolve this. 

Of course, we will always do our best to fix these problems, but it takes considerable time, knowledge and experience. Until now, our designers have carried out much of this additional preparation for free, but as AI-generated artwork becomes more common, we need to consider whether this is sustainable. We're not suggesting everyone needs an expensive design service or that using AI is wrong. Far from it. In fact, our design team wants you to know that using AI to create a visual brief for them to work from can actually be really useful. It can provide a starting point, from which you can say, ‘I want these colours, but I’d like the text to be bigger, and that’s the sort of image I want but can you make it more realistic?’. 

So, before turning to AI for your next poster, consider the value of professional expertise and the time, effort and technical work it can save.

Why professional design is worth the investment

Professional design may also be more affordable than you think. A well-designed, print-ready poster doesn't have to cost hundreds of pounds, and getting a quote could reveal that the price difference between DIY and professional design is smaller than expected.

Ultimately, good design is an investment in your business. It helps build trust, communicate your brand and make you stand out. It also supports the skilled designers who bring creative ideas to life. So, before turning to AI for your next poster, consider the value of professional expertise and the time, effort and technical work it can save.