If you are a business owner, design agency leader, or member of a design team you have probably spent at least a few minutes, and probably much longer, curious about the capabilities of the latest AI-powered Graphic Design tools.
You are far from alone. The majority of Graphic Designers at all levels are concerned about what AI Graphic Design tools mean for the future of their profession.
Though few may readily admit it, a lot of designers are also more than a little bit curious about just what AI art tools can do, and if those tools could be used to improve their working environment and team creativity, without putting them out of work.
Now is the perfect time to indulge that curiosity. The initial buzz has eased, and realistic expectations have replaced futuristic sci-fi fantasy, making it the perfect time for human designers to learn new skills, and explore opportunities to improve their creativity and teamwork with the latest AI Graphic Design tools geared toward helping human design teams not replacing them.
What is AI Graphic Design?
Before we can explore the latest AI Graphic Design innovations we probably need to establish what exactly graphic design is and what it is not.
People are often confused about the differences between graphic design and other forms of visual art like illustrations, typography, and digital imagery, and to be fair, there is quite a bit of overlap between all of these elements.
Graphic Design is the whole of the artistic design once all of the individual elements are brought together.
Graphic Designers are concerned with curating the right artistic medium (digital photography, illustrations, design elements, or graphic shapes), color palette, and typography to communicate a desired message.
AI Graphic Design tools can be used to automate the heavy image preparation work that often precedes a Graphic Design project.
How To Give Your Team An Advantage With AI Graphic Design
The digital nature of the majority of graphic design projects presents plenty of opportunities for AI enhancement. Let’s explore some of the most promising opportunities where AI could offer the biggest impact.
Repetitive Work & Bulk Tasks
Graphic Design often deals with an array of different types of media, imagery, and design. Many of these elements require individual processing. The processing time for each design element can easily eat up multiple days of a human designer’s time and labor before they can even begin the actual design work they were hired to perform.
AI tools can perform repetitive work and manage bulk tasks like resizing photos, converting from one file type to another, applying filters, making color adjustments, removing backgrounds, and more.
These tasks require little advanced skill to perform but can be quite time-consuming and labor-intensive. An AI tool can knock out these tasks in a fraction of the time of a human designer, shortening the project timeline and cost.
Audience Tracking
AI tools are able to analyze large quantities of data and identify patterns quickly and accurately. This means that an AI data analysis tool could be fed shopping data, browsing metrics, or social media activity, and produce useful information about the preferences and habits of your brand’s target audience.
Brainstorming
Anyone who is tasked with making new designs, videos, music, or other creative projects day in and day out will tell you that there are plenty of times when the creativity well simply dries up. You are staring down a rapidly approaching deadline and your mind is completely blank. AI tools are awesome idea generators.
Ask your AI tool to generate a list of topics for your company blog, or suggest ideas for the upcoming product launch promotion. No matter what type of design project you are working on, AI can deliver a page full of new ideas in an instant. Many times, a list of fresh ideas is all it takes to get the creative juices flowing again.
Are There Any AI Graphic Design Pitfalls To Watch Out For?
Of course, incorporating AI Graphic Design into an often complex and multi-faceted creative process can present plenty of challenges. Here are a few of the most common issues that arise when trying to implement new AI design practices.
Decreased Design Quality & Productivity
If you are thinking, “Wait, wasn’t the whole purpose of AI Graphic Design to improve quality and increase productivity?”, you are absolutely right. However, unlike other creative fields, Graphic Design generally requires the coordinated efforts of multiple different teams.
If AI tools are not implemented uniformly, or adequate education and training are not accomplished at every level, incorporating AI tools into the process could create bottlenecks as inexperienced teams struggle to learn how to use the new tool.
Many are also concerned that the increased reliance on AI-powered tools could disincentivize Graphic Designers and lead to a loss of creativity as unscrupulous business owners or the creative team themselves decide to simply use the “good enough” designs produced by the AI rather than taking the time to perfect the results and add a bespoke human touch.
Integration With Existing Programs
Even traditional human-powered Graphic Design work relies on advanced technology at several stages of the design process. AI Graphic Design tools will need to integrate seamlessly with these complicated programs to be truly effective in the professional design industry.
Many of the smaller, more cutting-edge AI tools are unlikely to have the foundational structure required to integrate seamlessly, safely, and quickly with advanced Graphic Design technology. Graphic Designers may have trouble integrating smaller, lesser-known tools.
How To Do AI Graphic Design The Right Way
A little planning goes a long way, and thoughtful integration can help reduce the likelihood that adverse outcomes will sideline your company’s AI Graphic Design plans.
Human-Led Design
No matter how awesome AI tools seem, and how powerful they may be, you mustn’t fall victim to the faulty idea that you could use AI Graphic Design tools to replace all or even some of your human team.
A machine will produce a clean and technically accurate design, however, that is not what humans connect with.
Graphic Design is most commonly used for commercial applications so connecting with viewers on a human level is important.
So far, human beings are still required to create human designs that communicate emotion to other humans.
Be Selective
Use your human team wisely. One of the most important tasks that your human teams will have is to develop the discernment to evaluate AI-generated designs and carefully select only the elements that truly add value to the design or the creative process.
In other words, take care not to fall into the trap of relying so heavily on AI Graphic Design that you stop striving for the perfect design arrangement.
Our Favorite AI Graphic Design Tools In 2023
Okay, with those warnings out of the way, let’s dive back into the fun stuff. AI is a hot trend and there is no shortage of innovation in the world of AI development.
That means that we are seeing a steady stream of new AI Graphic Design tools, apps, and programs, each one seemingly more game-changing than the last.
So, how do you know which AI Graphic Design tool will deliver the results you are looking for? That is the fun part! You will need to explore the options and try out several awesome tools to discover the one that fits your team’s needs.
We can give you a solid launching point with our top picks for 2023. These are the tools that we have used and achieved great results with.
These tools can handle the most common AI Graphic Design tasks well and make a great introduction to get your team up to speed with the transition.
Once everyone is feeling confident with the new process, you can start to explore some of the more bleeding-edge offerings to push the creative envelope even further.
Conceptboard
Conceptboard is an AI-powered collaboration tool that offers a real-time team design board with interactive elements where the team can work together to view AI suggestions, or mock-ups created by other team members, and communicate directly with one another to pick and choose the best elements for the final design.
Uizard
Uizard is an incredibly easy-to-use AI Graphic Design tool that helps speed up the workflow for UX/UI Designers. The tool is built on a Large-Language Processor (LLP) which means that users can generate graphic design from text.
This is particularly helpful in web or app design projects where graphic designers are often working hand in hand with web developers, copywriters, and other groups who may not have an innate artistic talent.
These team members can use the text prompt to describe the design imagery or elements they need for a particular space and Uizard will transform it into a visual reference that can then be recreated or refined by the design team.
Khroma
Khroma is the color palette creator that Graphic Designers have been dreaming of. There is technical artistic gatekeeping here. No need to know hex # or color codes. Khroma makes color selection simple and fun.
New users start by choosing fifty color swatches giving the tool a solid start at interpreting what the artist might be looking for in a color palette. The platform takes just a few seconds to generate a seemingly infinite assortment of color combinations based on these initial choices.
Khroma AI is programmed to learn and analyze a user’s color preferences so the suggestions it presents will become even more spot-on over time.
Adobe Firefly
We have to be honest, we had high expectations for Adobe Firefly before we ever had a chance to actually use it. Adobe has built a nearly unassailable reputation for developing top-of-the-line creative software, and Firefly definitely lives up to the Adobe name.
Adobe Firefly offers a smorgasbord of AI-powered design tools that range from fun photo filters to tools that allow Graphic Designers to create custom PhotoShop brushes or a 3D landscape from a text prompt. The platform even ventures into custom typography with a tool that helps users render letters in a variety of textures from frosted donuts to peacock feathers.
Adobe Firefly tools are available as free-standing tools on the official Adobe website, as well as powering some of your favorite third-party web apps.
These popular AI Graphic Design tools offer some of the best bang for the buck in 2023 but they are just a sliver of what is available.
Start exploring the latest AI Graphic Design to boost your own Graphic Design production or introduce your team to these easy-to-navigate apps that are bound to be a game changer.
