AI Flyers are ugly because people are skipping steps.
Every time I scroll my timeline across social platforms, I am bombarded with poorly designed AI generated flyers. And I ‘m sick of it! And because this is an opinion piece I am gonna just say the quiet part out loud: the vast majority of them are downright ugly, confusing and lack cohesion. I can't help but wonder if we are living in the future times that many trained artists and designers feared; where machine-led design with minimal human touch would dominate the visual landscape of design.
The problem with AI design is not that AI is being used. It is that it is becoming recognizable when AI is being used, because many of these flyers follow what seems to be an unoriginal template that includes an overstimulating amount of text, outer space looking humans and maximalist design that those of us with a trained eye know is not original, and surely not created fully by a human.
As a millennial artist, formally trained in the early 2000s, I am not attempting to say that computers do not have a place when it comes to designing a flyer, and I am not even here to highlight that many graphic designers may lose their jobs as AI flyers become more accessible.
I actually want to shed light on the fact that we are losing the recipes as it pertains to who can and cannot design, and who can or cannot spot good quality design work. In years past, the line between who was a fine artist, a commercial artist, and who was a consumer was much more clear, distinct, and defined.
In some ways, I think we need to bring design gatekeeping back as a way to have some type of quality control. I am gonna age myself here but back in my day, if you were someone looking for a flyer design, you would hire a design expert such as a trusted graphic designer, to help you develop it.
These days it appears that most folks with no design background are prompting ChatGPT and Claude with event info and a vibe, and are accepting what it pops out with minimal reworking. This is because I know that most artists are artists because they respect teh process of artmaking which typically takes more than a prompt, pressing submit and downloading
This current AI flyer epidemic to me points to the skipping of many steps that mae quality design work successful and I also want to mention that i my years fo working in arts education I have come to know that design is supposed to silve problems. A flyer is supposed ot be more than a way to find out info for the next event it is supposed to use design theory and expertise to solve a problem. For instance, I went through a fast tracked advertising program that taught me how to become an art director, and what that showed me is that the foundation of any visual is set way before it becomes something visual. There is concepting, brand alignment, mood boards, art direction, research, and leaning on expertise and experience to set the tone for what something like a flyer can be. In many cases, we are skipping the development, the artistic and reactive development, of visual storytelling, in exchange for a quick turnaround and for the fact that AI is free or way cheaper than the cost of hiring someone.
I fear that we are quickly accepting AI as a standard for flyers, and I believe that artists and creatives have to stand up and let these machines know that we are true to this and not new to this, and that skipping steps leads to flyers with people who have six fingers on one hand.. I do believe that AI is a tool that is making a wave, but I want us to think more critically about visual communication and the fact that graphic design is an art form that should be respected. And the gag is that customers, businesses, and individuals will start to lose trust, because as Kendrick said, the audience is not dumb.
