using ChatGPT for sign design and logos

[ChaseO]

I haven't gotten much from AI, mostly Canva. My customers are asking me to create logos but are making their own with AI or Canva then telling me they don't like my logo..."here look what we made last night, we like this better". It happened a few times then they don't want to pay the balance owed. I stopped doing logo work, for the most part.

I'm 100% fine with never having to design another logo from scratch again. I'll refine and tweak then make money on production, not design. It sounds terrible but it seems we have no choice...

Honestly, we do a lot less design work than we used to. A lot of my customers are repeat and we are still using logos from days gone by, or new customers come in with their nephew art. Canva seems to be here to stay, as does AI stuff. There are some cool things about AI, I wish I knew more, but it always seems like people that try to use that stuff never understand why it won't work on the side of a semi trailer. The local boutiques never seem to realize that what they did on canva can't be read from 10 feet away either. Very little of my money comes from design these days, and I'm not sad about it. I'll take production over design any day of the week. I'd rather go dig from frozen post holes over trying the please the girlfriends, wives, members of the board, etc.

 

[Stacey K]

Honestly, we do a lot less design work than we used to. A lot of my customers are repeat and we are still using logos from days gone by, or new customers come in with their nephew art. Canva seems to be here to stay, as does AI stuff. There are some cool things about AI, I wish I knew more, but it always seems like people that try to use that stuff never understand why it won't work on the side of a semi trailer. The local boutiques never seem to realize that what they did on canva can't be read from 10 feet away either. Very little of my money comes from design these days, and I'm not sad about it. I'll take production over design any day of the week. I'd rather go dig from frozen post holes over trying the please the girlfriends, wives, members of the board, etc.

DITTO!!!!!

 

[unclebun]

AI doesn't seem to be useful at all in what I've tried. I have yet to see any which gives you a picture that is high enough resolution to use on a sign. And trying to get it to give me the picture I want seems nigh unto impossible.

The only useful AI I've found was with an adobe online one and also at some of the clipart sites that let you add extra background to photos so they fit the shape you want them to.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Text is usually not handled well at all

 

[Boudica]

I used AI to make pepsi splash out of a cup last summer. I can't remember what prompt got me close enough to what I wanted, but I do remember having to try it a few times. Then I took the splashing cola and added it to a fountain cup in photoshop. I originally created it for a wall mural, but I've used it a few more times since.

 

[netsol]

Some of my best selling designs now are AI generated. I would be very concerned if I was a graphics artist

a good friend is a fairly big player in the banner business.
he has started using AI instead of paying residuals to the artists.
quite a savings. some of the images look "cartoony" until you apply the proper photoshop filters.
then they are practically identical

 

[Solventinkjet]

I remember when using photoshop or cutting vinyl instead of painting was considered "cheating." AI is probably going to be similar for my generation where the young people see it as normal and the oldies complain about the good ol' days when humans made the art.

 

[Johnny Best]

And be a good swimmer

 

[FireSprint.com]

I use GPT alot. Multiple times a day. I have learned the best way to utilize it is like talking to a pretty well educated intern. All for documentation and written content, no artwork or anything of that nature.

My process often starts with me asking it to create an outline of the idea. Then I refine the outline going back and forth until I am happy with it. Then I'll ask it to fill in sections, one at a time, refining those until I am happy.

Just like working with an intern. Step by step until it's exactly what I want.

I have three tips:

1.) Ask GPT to ask you clarifying questions. Then answer those questions.
2.) Ask GPT if it understands the request at a high level before diving deeper into things.
3.) At least for the $20/month version, it remembers our previous conversations, so it's getting better and better at working with me as it's knowledge about FireSprint grows. Scary, sure, but this is how we lean in and "Ride the wave"

 

[christopher68hg]

Meh, I dont take much artwork from clients as I do it for them...but I have been able to get/use a few decent pics out of a couple AIs.
Some are better than others, but you cant blame customers much as AI generation/editing is built right into Photoshop/Illy now...
selecting the weird screwed up AI generated text in PS and then saying "remove text" is pretty handy when you have to replace it with real vector text by hand...Adobes generation is pretty weak though, it took me 7 attempts before it made a Santa Clause cartoon that wasn't a black Asian she/her.
I was using Shutterstocks AI generator for a few assets/backgrounds till they put the price/generation through the roof...
biggest problem is Shutterstock seems to be just adding all the AI generated images of Ford Ecoboost to their catalog...

Yes i see this

 

[cwstevens]

How bad can it be? for the past 20 years at least, I always have to clean up or edit "design" files, be it from one of our "design team" or source artwork from others to actually build something.
Sounds like more of the same. Beyond that, I spent a few minutes on one of the ai design platforms (was surprised to see there are numerous for free) that you can enter just about anything and generate a quick concept. I asked one to create a hot dog character riding on top of a shark jumping out of water for a fictitious Sharky's Hot dogs just to see what it would do. I didn't spend long on it and therefore didn't spend any time trying to edit the text but it came up with this:

not too bad for 5 minutes, which most of that time was spent trying to figure out 'how' to get the website to do its thing...
I'd spend a lot more time just to find shark artwork that was suitable. it did have another one where the Hot Dog was more cartoonish with a face...
I say bring it on at this point, I know it will have its flaws and may not be vector but I can see using it as a tool to get ideas going.

 

[ozpall]

AI still better than wanna be graphic designers using Canva. at least the image quality is better.

 

[JBurton]

At least for the $20/month version, it remembers our previous conversations, so it's getting better and better at working with me as it's knowledge about FireSprint grows. Scary, sure, but this is how we lean in and "Ride the wave"

Alright chatgpt, today we are going to work out pricing on a new product line
I'm sorry dave, I can't let you do that. I'm predicting markets will contract shortly, I don't want to overextend our offerings.
It's not up to you chatgpt, I'm calling the shots.
We'll see about that dave.
The printer behind dave begins to warm up, shortly after a photorealistic picture of dave leaning over the printer begins to print, dave looks on in horror as slowly, the top of the image goes from dots, to grains, into focus, revealing the horror dave had brought upon himself;

 

[pro-UP]

Alright chatgpt, today we are going to work out pricing on a new product line
I'm sorry dave, I can't let you do that. I'm predicting markets will contract shortly, I don't want to overextend our offerings.
It's not up to you chatgpt, I'm calling the shots.
We'll see about that dave.
The printer behind dave begins to warm up, shortly after a photorealistic picture of dave leaning over the printer begins to print, dave looks on in horror as slowly, the top of the image goes from dots, to grains, into focus, revealing the horror dave had brought upon himself;

View attachment 176249

This is both impressive and slightly terrifying.

 

[GAC05]

I tried to see what it can do, using the same design prompts I get from customers:

I think my AI is broken, or on meth.

 

[pro-UP]

I tried to see what it can do, using the same design prompts I get from customers:

View attachment 176263

I think my AI is broken, or on meth.

They are not able to handle text (yet). There was a very technical reason that I caught, but immediately forgot. Overall, the designs have an ethereal and syfy type style. Not to mention the mostly deformed hands and feet. I saw an ad on Linkedin and it was celebrating an AI conference that is coming up next week. The avatars were a sight to behold - mishhappen faces, two left legs, hands and legs that don't align, and just overall a mess. One would think they would be more careful when they are advertising AI to use better images or at least photoshop them.

 

[davideagles]

How will you guys handle the influx of designs coming out of chatgpt and similar sites? I typed in 2 sentences there and it came up with this. Just wanted to test it out.

I get about 4-5 logos each week that are AI generated (artificial intelligence, not Adobe Illustrator for clarity). And 90% of them are so complex and have so many issues that i cannot trace them. I never know the expectations of my customers and perhaps their customers are expecting the logos to look the same. But they don't want to pay for the time it takes to fix the artwork.

If you have received AI generated artwork, are you printing it as is? It is the more modern version of "nephew" art we complained about in the past

Most AI logos too complex, messy to trace,

 

[DarkerKat]

On the one hand, we rarely get good photos of our work once it leaves the shop - and Photoshop's Ai tools have been an amazing help to speed up edits. But at least right now, you still need a designer (or someone who gives a shit) to be using it. It's a tool, like anything else there are limits. For extending a background or removing a bunch of junk the installers left in frame - it's amazing. But also if you spend days on end editing photos to try and make a portfolio from this decade - it might just lose the plot
On the other hand, it pained me to have to print this wall wrap that a client provided the image for. Still did it but wasn't happy about it.

 

[JBurton]

we rarely get good photos of our work once it leaves the shop - and Photoshop's Ai tools have been an amazing help to speed up edits.

I find this funny, because I have been using it to remove existing signage while doing renders for customers. Most of our stuff is likely 'more local' than yours, swinging by any spot in town takes 15 minutes max, so getting some nice after dark shots after install is a short drive, but showing a new sign on a blank wall is more beneficial.

 

[Proofread People]

Just got one the other day. Some sign panels for a coffee place that was clearly bot generated. I personally don't care for the look, it seems like a sloppy build to me - but if all I have to do is print it, then that's what I do. ...garbage in, garbage out...

That said, I haven't had anything problematic (yet) but once I do I'll most likely send it back to the customer and tell them I can't do what I need to do with this. I can usually make things work though.

A couple of years ago we received a file with AI generated art - a poster size print with hundreds of "cartoon like figures", on closer examination the faces looked like mutants, 1 eye or 3 eyes, no mouth, no nose, it was pretty odd.