How to Help Clients who Send AI Designs

AI designs in every creative field, including outdoor advertising, are becoming exponentially more common, and it’s not for the best. Artificially generated artwork is never as good as what an artist can design. In the best of circumstances, AI artwork can look okay, but it will never look great.

Additionally, AI designs are very easy to spot, and they convey a lot of negative things before a driver has even read the message. AI artwork is free to generate, which can imply that the advertiser is cheap. These designs take no skill at all to create, showing that the advertiser lacks an understanding of, or care for, design. These problems will be especially apparent to younger people who are better able to spot AI. Using the easy way out to get a design can alienate whole generations like Gen Zers who are well known for disliking inauthenticity.

The final and often biggest problem is that AI generated designs are often not in a usable aspect ratio or file resolution. Additionally, AI imagery isn't editable, so there is no changing what the AI has made.

So, what can we in the outdoor advertising industry do when we are sent an AI design by the client? For all the reasons above, we should not try to print that exact design; however, it could be used as inspiration. Consider the AI image a rough draft or a sketch of what the client wants. While we cannot edit the image, we can replace and recreate much of it, while filtering out the worst graphic design elements.

One success story we’ve had recently was with Larissa Mayfield, a real estate broker in Eugene, OR, with The Operative Group. She sent us an AI generated image with the general vibe and elements that she wanted on her billboard. We used her photo, the same tagline, logos, and a background of a similar color palette, and it worked great! We made the artwork the correct size and gave her the cowboy hat extension she wanted, all while improving the design's readability and effectiveness. To see more about this case study check out the post on our LinkedIn or Instagram pages.

This will be a common occurrence in the future of outdoor advertising graphic design. AI concepts from clients are going to keep coming, but it is possible to work with them rather than against them.

If you are interested in advertising on one of our billboards call us at 800-221-4114 or email us at meadow@meadowoutdoor.com!