Lecture
Last week you made three directions. This week you pick one and turn it into a system: logo, color, type, pattern, photography and the rules that hold them together. We start with typography, which AI has historically handled worst. You’ll see how to explore lettering with AI and then license a real font for the final. Next is consistency: how a style reference, a saved prompt and your swatches make nine images look like one brand. In the second half we look at AI slop and the hand-made backlash against it, including the AI companies working hardest not to look AI-made. We end on disclosure and ownership: what you tell a client, and why work made only by AI can’t be copyrighted.
In Class Assignment
Build a brand system from the Week 4 direction you would show a client. Pick a headline and body typeface, make a pattern from your logo in Illustrator, and generate four images in one style. Put it all on one guideline Firefly Board, then show the system on three real mockups.
Use the Week 5 In-Class template to hand it in.
Homework: Slop in the Wild
Due at the start of Week 6 (Monday, October 19).
- Find an AI-generated poster or flyer out in the world. Photograph or screenshot it.
- Critique it. What works? What is wrong with the type and hierarchy? What information is missing?
- Would the people who saw it want to know it was made with AI?
- Redesign it, either with better prompts or by hand. Your choice.
- Post the original and your redesign side by side. If you used AI, include your prompts and the model.
Use the Week 5 Homework template. The full brief is on the Week 5 assignment page.
Your 500-word ethics position paper is also due at the start of Week 6. Use the Ethics Position Paper template.
Midterm: AI-Directed Design
This week the midterm is assigned. You’ll workshop it in Week 6 (October 19) and present it in Week 7 (October 26). Pick one of the twelve lanes or propose your own, and bring a real problem to Week 6. You’ll write your three-sentence brief at the start of the workshop. The full brief is in the Class Journal.