filling the (quality) gaps

Throughout this year I’ve received numerous emails from various people, all as referrals from an overseas printer I worked with some years ago. In all cases there was a common thread: AI. The projects behind the emails had, in nearly all cases, been turned away at the print/production stage. Why? Well, there were some obvious gaps between someone coming up with an idea and then attempting to have it printed or produced. They were missing the critical parts that result in actual print-ready files – the part they were trying to bypass, the part that comes with understanding process. Whether it was possibly out of ignorance, or wanting to save money, or their newfound confidence from chatting with ChatGPT, they were stopped in their tracks. No, sorry, we can’t use that – it’s not suitable for production.

Some of the ideas and concepts I looked at varied from awesome to awful and everything in between. I answered every email with consideration and care, all the while quietly frustrated that they were communicating out of necessity rather than having sought out a professional designer in the first place. What I found was something I hadn’t expected: I found myself apologising for the situation they’d got themselves into. I’m sorry, I can’t do anything with what you’ve supplied. I’m sorry, that’s not actually going to physically work. I’m sorry, I’d have to start from scratch.

WTF, AI, you’re trying to do me out of a job and I’m apologising for it! OK, enough of that rant. I did genuinely feel for many people who had spent a lot of time on these projects, only to realise they were missing what it actually takes to get there. Some of the enquiries’ concept imagery was quite exceptional, and I guess it should be when you’ve trained AI on the best illustrators in the world. A note here for anyone actually reading this: it can be pretty soul-destroying to ask an illustrator to replicate a book or similar in another illustrator’s style.

I was able to work with a number of clients to help them achieve their goals – the ones who invested in allowing me my input and wanted a product they had a stake in making, an original product they could genuinely say they had a hand in creating. Authentic and unique.

Other email conversations simply stopped when the realisation hit that they were actually going to have to pay for something they’d anticipated bypassing, or perhaps they found themselves overwhelmed without guidance… but to those who ghosted me, I’m sharing concept images.

For reference, this entire project was not suitable for reproduction, this image along with all others supplied was the maximum quality/resolution available.

PS: Did you know that in many places you can’t copyright anything created purely by AI? That’s another journal entry for another day.