I’m Not Coming to Your Event If the Flyer Was Made With AI

How a Meme Gets It Right and Wrong

I’m sure many of you have seen the latest meme going around. It shows an image with the statement, “I’m not going to your event if the flyer is made by AI.” Ironically, many of the meme graphics are made by AI, but that’s a sidequest we can accept later.

Why this meme is generating attention, though, is at the heart of a design crossroads. Or maybe it’s a roundabout?

AI is a tool. As a designer, I have accepted AI into my life, but I try not to use it unless I need to. I use it for inspiration when I’m stuck. I used it to generate extensions on images that aren’t quite the right size. I have used it to generate versioning from existing apparel photo shoots. I use AI to help proofread things like this blog!

But I don’t rely on it to do the design or thinking for me as a whole, and that’s the point of the meme.

We’re seeing a shift – expected shift – in design. It is so accessible now and functionally capable that creativity is being outsourced to non-humans for the ease and speed. For the layperson, it is no longer a tool but the designer as a whole.

I understand to some degree. Should grandma or your uncle hire a graphic designer to create a flyer for their garage sale, birthday party or neighborhood BBQ? Maybe not. And if AI and Canva will do it for them, and it is better than Word, why not?

But if you’re a business and your brand or event depends on proper representation that aligns with your brand and voice, hire a designer.