Illustrating Pentagram's AI (Mid)Journey
Pentagram, the world's largest independent design agency, recently showcased its work in creating performance.gov on behalf of the U.S. Federal Government. The work was led by design icon Paula Scher. More noteworthy than Scher's involvement was her team's use of an AI tool, Midjourney, to create illustrations for the project.
You can check out the project promo on Instagram here. I think the process it describes is intriguing and the catalog of visuals and design is sharp and artistic.
It does, however, "prompt" some questions.
Are Scher and her design team at Pentagram now basically talented design prompt engineers?
Hiring Pentagram doesn't come cheap — How much did Pentagram save in project costs and/or was any of this passed along to the client?
You also wonder if the design firm let the client know in the proposal stage — I assume there was a proposal — that it would be using Midjourney?
What is — or what will be — the government's stance on replacing humans with AI?
How many illustrators were shunted to the sidelines by Midjourney on this project?
And a little bit curious: How do illustrators and designers feel about this substitution?
Well, to answer that last question, here's a cheat code: Check out the comments on Pentagram's Instagram post about the project – there's a lot of juicy action there.
And how about you, dear reader – how do you feel about this?
Godspeed, friends.
Russ
💬 Quote of the Week
“To succeed in this new world, we need to be more creative, more curious, and embrace lifelong learning – because machines can’t replicate that (yet).” Arianna Huffington
💥 Quick Hits
• Calling all type geeks – When is an F not an F and an I not an I? It's when kerning runs amuck and the letters collab to form a different form in this hilarious example from a tweet by the Philadelphia 76ers.
• It takes a village – And Amy Lynn Taylor just joined ours by becoming a paid supporter of Godspeed. Amy is director of account services at Sukle, a marketing and brand strategy firm in Denver, CO. Thanks, Amy!
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