This topic is almost completely unrelated to what this website is all about, but it’s a fun story. Most people don’t think too much about logos they see on products or websites. Sure, we’re aware of the logos or images associated with high-profile products like Nike, Coca-Cola, Google, Starbucks, et al. However, we seldom notice logos for lesser-known products and services. In my case, I do notice logo design because one of the many different roles I have held in my professional career is VP of Marketing for a few startup companies. A rite of passage in these early-stage companies is designing a logo. In the grand scheme of things, it’s a low-priority issue. Building the core product or services is far more important, but we go through the ritual anyway. And it can be fun finding a logo that the team can rally around.
As I was developing the And When I’m Gone website, I decided we needed a logo splashed up in the top left corner of each page. Part of the ritual of a new venture is ensuring that the logo has some meaning relevant to its service. However, since And When I’m Gone is a zero-budget project, I didn’t want to pop for a few hundred bucks for a good graphics designer to handle the project. That said, I have limited skills in the graphics arts. It was a conundrum until I realized DALL-E, a text-to-image model, was included in my subscription to ChatGPT. I could have AI create a logo for me!
I quickly signed in to my account and asked ChatGPT to design a logo representing the cycle of life and death which is quite relevant to this project. The first offering by ChatGPT was interesting albeit far too busy. As ChatGPT and I “discussed” what it offered on each iteration, I was able to refine subsequent designs by adding attributes like “simpler” or “monochrome”. After almost 40 attempts, I realized the perfect logo could take dozens, even hundreds, of iterations. I simply lacked the patience for spending several more hours with a clever, but dumb robot. So, I picked one design that seemed reasonable. ChatGPT’s rationale for this design seemed on target:
“Here’s an ultra-minimalist logo for the cycle of life, focusing on stark simplicity. It features a perfect circle with a singular line inside that curves gently, forming a loop to symbolize the seamless transition of life’s phases. The design is rendered in a monochrome color scheme to emphasize its universal message.”
As I pondered my selection, I had an epiphany, something AI models can never have, because an epiphany represents an intuitive, almost emotional response. Anyway, I added a simple dot in the center of the circle to represent the beginning and end of life. Voila! It worked. Not great, but acceptable. And the price was covered in my $20 monthly ChatGPT charge.
It was quick, inexpensive, and relatively easy. Would I have had a better logo designed by a human? Absolutely, and the dialogue would have been far more interesting and enjoyable. ChatGPT and other forms of AI are soulless and can never understand the emotional context that comes from the realization of a good design and interacting with another human. The positive response we can have working on a team with a shared goal is not something that AI can deliver today, nor do I believe it is possible even with future advances in these AI models.
Smart graphics designers will use AI tools to iterate faster during the preliminary design efforts but, in the end, these tools can’t be relied on to have those breakthrough moments that create great designs. Humans (still) rule!
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