Here is a dark reality whether you like it or not: AI is here and it is going to take over the world. There will be some die-hard creatives, especially those in the graphic design world that will consider this statement hyperbole. It’s not. You don’t need to have a vast understanding of each and every tool in Adobe anymore. Adobe’s new AI vector generator – Text to Vector Graphic; Photoshop’s Generative Fill; and Adobe Firefly – a challenger to Midjourney’s AI program – has changed the game forever, both good and bad.
Firstly, I will give a bit of background information on myself. About two years, I started to learn Adobe Creative Suite, namely: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere Pro. I fell in love with designing content and trying to master all the tools that go with them.
But learning all these applications, especially Illustrator, was a challenge. But overtime, I felt a sense of accomplishment the more I learnt. Soon I was able to draw some pretty decent vector images, even if it was both tedious and time-consuming. But that’s why the design process is so important, it takes time to master. This is similar to an athlete that pushes their body to the limits and competes in grueling events. At the time it’s painful, but you look back with a sense of pride that you finished it.
But the invention of Text to Graphic has changed that. You feel like you are cheating every time you use it. Don’t get me wrong, the AI is mind-blowingly good. But if you were to convert this into a sporting sense, it would be akin to allowing motorized bikes into the Tour de France. Now, with Text to Graphic anyone can be a great illustrator without doing the tedious work that goes with it. This advancement has created a ‘no pain, but with all the gain’ type feeling. You feel like an artist, when you are really not.
So, what is it? Text to Graphic is simply writing a text prompt into Illustrator, and then AI producing a detailed vector image of that prompt. What would normally take hours, can now produce high quality art in seconds. There are some control limitations with AI but overall it has changed how you create. Below, I have included some examples of the power of AI from Adobe Illustrator and Firefly. I must admit that the technology for Firefly is a fantastic advancement, but I do feel I’m cheating the system when I use Illustrator’s Text to Graphic.
First, here are few graphics that I created in Illustrator. For an amateur, they are not too shabby, but both the Billie Eilish, St. Vincent, and Russian movie poster took well over an hour, whilst the blue Hawaii drawing was completed in about 25 minutes. The process was quite tedious due to the amount of layers applied and the back-and-forth of using different tools.
Now, compare this to Illustrator’s Text to Graphic, which took all of 30 seconds to produce. No tools, no layers, no shading, with the only requirement being a simple prompt such as ‘woman singing into a microphone’ or ‘French person wearing a beret’ or ‘lagoon in a tropical paradise with distant mountains’. Here are the results:
The other powerhouse for Adobe IA is Firefly, which is a fast, intuitive way to create AI-generated art in a variety of styles. I have to admit that some of the results generated are mind-blowing.
In the first example, I just wanted to create a basic movie poster based on a Queen. I typed the prompt – ‘portrait of glamorous and beautiful medieval period queen sitting on her throne’. The text I added in Photoshop but here is the result:
The next group of images that I created through Adobe Firefly were based on a mock magazine cover – Architectural Digest – a mock advertisement for a travel company – Royal Caribbean Group; a mock banner for National Geographic; plus, other mockups for MTV and Tahiti. Like above, I added some text in Photoshop but in the space of just over a minute, Firefly produced more impressive results:
The last set of images created through Firefly were based on fashion magazines/photoshoots. It would be impossible for someone like myself to create this type detail if it was not for AI. Trying to draw these images would have been impossible for anyone other than a professional, seasoned artist, which would take many hours to achieve. Here, below is a collage of some of the results:
The harsh reality is that AI is changing the dynamic of many industries. In a time poor world, AI will fasten up the design process, and the AI technology is ever evolving and growing better minute-by-minute. Experienced graphic designers, artists, and photographers will now be challenged by amateurs who can produced incredible imagery from just a single sentence and quicker than of a long, deep breath.
