Okay, I think we're live. We'll make a start. Hello and welcome. Thank you all for joining us online today. My name is Brad Halock. I'm Associate Dean of the Discipline of Communication Design at RMIT University. And it's my great pleasure to host and moderate this session today on behalf of RMIT Online.
Speaker 2
00:00:26
I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands upon which I'm sitting today, the people of the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung. language groups of the eastern Kulin nations. I acknowledge that these are unceded lands upon which we conduct the business of the university and I respectfully... acknowledge their ancestors and elders past, present and emerging, and indeed I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians and their ancestors of all of the lands and waters upon and across which we do the business of the University in Australia and beyond. We have just two panelists with us today. I'll ask them to introduce themselves in just one minute. We have Jason Grant and Henry Cook with us today. Sadly, Lily Walmering and Lauren Villatati from Dentsu and RMIT Online. Respect. Uh, respectively, have been unable to join us at the last minute, but uh, honored, um, and it's a pleasure to have uh Jason and Henry with this today.
Speaker 2
00:01:35
So I'll hand over to Jason first for a self-introduction. Thanks, Jason. Wonderful.
Speaker 1
00:01:42
Thanks, Brad. Yeah. Hello, everyone. So my name is My name's Jason Grant. I'm one of Adobe Solution Consultants. So I particularly focus around Creative Cloud and I get to work with a lot of our customers on how they implement it, how they utilize it, get the most out of that sort of process. So we have a background in studio management and was previously in publishing and before that in advertising. So hopefully I can bring some of that into today's conversation. But yeah, I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 1
00:02:18
Great to have you with us.
Speaker 2
00:02:19
Thanks, Jason and Henry.
Speaker 3
00:02:22
Hi everyone, my name's Henry. I'm Associate Creative Director at RGA Australia. I specialise in branding and have been fortunate enough to help design brands for the likes of Google and Nike, the Sydney Opera House and Telstra, the A-Leagues and Indigenous Social Enterprise. We are warriors. For those of you that don't know who IGA is, we are a creative innovation studio founded in New York by... guy called Bob Greenberg. And in 1977, Bob invented a new motion graphics technology to create original title sequences for the movie. movies, Superman and Alien. And, you know, he combined essentially design and technology back in 1977 to do that. And that's really still what sits at the heart of RGA today.
Speaker 3
00:03:16
Fantastic.
Speaker 2
00:03:17
Thanks, Henry. Henry and Jason, it's great to have you both with us today again.
Speaker 2
00:03:22
Really unfortunate that Lily and Lauren couldn't join us, but we're going to cover the same questions that we would have as a bigger group. So I'll just recap. topic of today's session. So with the rise of new and wildly popular image generators, such as Midjourney, Crayon, and Night Cafe, not to mention platforms like Getty Images and Adobe launching their own tools. Graphic designers are understandably feeling the pressure, yet Seek is forecasting a 21. 7% increase in employment opportunities for graphic designers in Australia, indicating a growing demand for these roles. So our question and questions that we're going to tackle today revolve around these things. AI and their impacts on graphic design. If any layperson can generate a custom image or design instantly with zero training, it raises a pressing question. What does the future hold for graphic designers and the industry as a whole? So we'll be diving into these questions today.
Speaker 2
00:04:21
So I'd like to pose the first question for Henry. Do you believe that emerging technologies, such as popular image generators like Adobe's Firefly, will democratize graphic design, making it more accessible to non-designers, or will they deepen the gap between professionals and amateurs? In other words, can everyone be a designer today? Over to you. Thanks, Henry.
Speaker 3
00:04:50
Thanks, Brad. Yeah, it's a really interesting question. And yeah, it's a pleasure to be here to discuss it. I don't think there's any doubt that these new tools are democratizing design. The barriers to entry are being reduced. I think that's really exciting because it means there's more diverse voices coming to the table and they have an opportunity. You know, it's easier than ever before, essentially, to create. At the same time, you know. Adobe Firefly or even going back to Instagram just because more people are taking photos and uploading photos doesn't mean suddenly everyone is now a professional photographer. Um, so I think generally we're all becoming a lot more visually attuned to nuance, to detail, to what makes a good image, to what feels fake. Um, but I do think the cream will always rise to the top and that those that can you know stand out using these technologies will be the ones that do create and still keep, I guess, a gap between professional and amateur.
Speaker 3
00:05:58
You know, we can all sort of nail something into the wall and hang a picture up, but can we all build a house? Uh, that's another question. So I think the gap will remain, but at the same time, These tools are really democratizing design in a way that it's reducing the barrier to entry, making it a much more dynamic and expressive and exciting space to play in. So I think the gap will remain, but more and more people are joining the conversation.
Speaker 2
00:06:26
Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. I love this metaphor of nailing a picture on the wall and building a house. When people ask me about AI and graphic design moving forward, I'm going to be citing you for sure.
Speaker 3
00:06:37
Hopefully, my picture behind me doesn't fall down while I'm on the call.
Speaker 2
00:06:43
So a question now for Jason.
Speaker 2
00:06:47
Jason, how do you see the balance between creativity and technology evolving in design? Is there a risk of losing the human touch in favor of algorithm-driven aesthetics?
Speaker 1
00:06:59
Yeah, it's not a good question, I should say. But I think technology has always evolved.
Speaker 1
00:07:07
I'm going to show my age a little bit, but. The guy who taught me, you know, he came from like letter set, you know, that sort of hot metal sort of days.
Speaker 1
00:07:16
We moved over to film. After that, we went into digital.
Speaker 1
00:07:21
In digital, your hardware, software, and you know—everything is always improving and it's always getting you know quicker and faster as well. The downside is that, you know, our brief process and our time ends and deadlines have actually gotten a bit shorter. So this is where I sort of see where tech sort of comes in.
Speaker 1
00:07:39
Some of the challenges we sort of see is that, you know, what is sort of required nowadays is that, you know, you have to create work for like so many more. Channels, markets, geos, then anything before, you know, you've got so many screens now, you know, you get into a lift, there's a screen, social platforms, outdoor. So there's so many different variants, sizes, locations that you have to, you know, accommodate. And, you know, designers aren't really... They're not trained to how do you resize something 100 times.
Speaker 1
00:08:10
So these other aspects, you know, personalization, how do you personalize that message, you know, to your brand audience? You know, that's what we have to sort of take into account. Account.
Speaker 1
00:08:21
Larger campaigns, of course, you know, what we are seeing is there's research that sort of says that in the next couple of years, you know, content needs can grow up to five times. So that's some part that, you know, this all takes time. Well, that's sort of, you know, how do you scale across sort of that thing? I think the AI-specific tech, you know, that's where. Even though it's still very much in its infancy, we're just seeing early days of this now, but it's really evolving quite quickly, right? We launched Firefly, I think March last year, you know, and it's just amazing how far it's sort of come in that sort of.
Speaker 1
00:09:00
In that space. I don't know if anyone's seen the video of Will Smith eating spaghetti, but, you know, that's another sort of example of how far it's sort of has come in so quick amount of time. It's really interesting to see where that's going. But I think, basically, AI sort of trains on recognizing the patterns in content, right? And the more data that we give to it, the better it gets over time. So it will constantly improve, but it's an average of the content at the moment. Yeah, sorry. You know, or saying that with the tech aspects, it doesn't mean anything unless there's a human touch to it, right? And that's what we can bring. And I think that's where we start to, you know, use this tech, you know. Understand what it can do and what it is. What it is capable of. Um, you know, like I think it gives you that ability to put ideas on a page really quickly. Um, you know, how do you how quickly you can flesh them out and put them on and like test it real before you actually go into that production aspect to it. So that's where I sort of see it going.
Speaker 1
00:10:02
You know, I think is always about communicating, getting your attention, you know, and it's always about that idea or experience that resonates and gives you that human touch, right? And that I don't see as changing, right? I think hopefully it will sort of improve in that process.
Speaker 1
00:10:18
But yeah.
Speaker 2
00:10:20
Thanks, Jason. All right. It's really interesting to think about technological changes. I'm not old enough to remember the introduction of the Apple Mac, but I did learn how to use bromides as a young graphic designer.
Speaker 2
00:10:36
This became a redundant skill pretty much immediately as soon as I moved into industry, which is a way to lead into our next question and this one for both. Of you. But before I pose that question, I'll just say, for those of you who are joining us in the audience today, please post questions that you have, any questions that you have arising as the conversation unfolds, pop them in the chat and we'll have some time to come to those questions later in today's session. And we've got a couple of audience polls coming up as well to hear about what you think about these issues, the impacts of artificial intelligence technologies upon graphic design. But the question now for both Henry and Jason, and I might ask you to tackle them in that order. Henry, first, Henry, what, in your view, has changed from five years ago to today regarding design skills?
Speaker 3
00:11:32
I think Jason touched upon a couple in his last answer in that. You know today you have to be always learning. Maybe in the past it was a nice to you know keep learning new programs. Whereas today you simply have to be learning a new program. Learning you know the new tool. Um, because otherwise you will get get left behind. Um, so that is now a it's a mandatory you have to be upskilling and staying on top of of those of those tools. Because timelines are getting crunched and and you know you you essentially now Now, even if you're, say, a junior designer in my team at RGA, you're juggling multiple jobs at once and you need to use these tools to... to create efficiencies where possible, and to also open up the aperture as well. So really staying on top of them now, I'd say is a real must. I think on top of those, let's call them hard skills of program, you know, program skills, I think the soft skills, you know, are the core skills that design.
Speaker 3
00:12:37
Need to focus on because they're the ones that enable you to adapt to whatever is coming down the track. And I think, you know, one of the ones that we see as being so important is essentially being comfortable working in ambiguity and in chaos, being comfortable working with cross-disciplinary teams that bring a whole different skill set and not pretending like you need to have all the answers, but being willing to probe and question. Go deep and find your own unique and ownable solution in in the madness of of a project. And I think yeah, that, that, that skill set of essentially you know, embracing embracing the chaos of what what a what a you know real life project can can be and and you know learning from others and learning to collaborate, because if you can sort of master that, you can apply that really to any situation going forward.
Speaker 1
00:13:36
Thank you.
Speaker 2
00:13:37
Amazing. Thanks, Henry. And I want to apologize for leaning into the chaos if that calendar notification alert sound played through.
Speaker 2
00:13:49
Thanks, Henry. So, Jason, over to you. The question, what's changed in your view from five years ago to today regarding design skills in industry?
Speaker 1
00:13:59
Yeah, yeah, just I think what Henry touched on, you know, was 100% relevant. But, you know, if you look back.
Speaker 1
00:14:08
Good design is still good design. So, you know, I think that's important. And that sort of never changes, right? You know, that typography, coloring, all that aspect is really important. And that is always consistent. Yes, there's going to be, you know, hardware and software and all different aspects that come through. There'll be new channels that will come out over time. So that's something that. Yeah, keep across as much.
Speaker 1
00:14:31
I love that leaning into chaos. You just, you forget how much how hectic it can be in these environments at times. So, you know, don't be afraid of it. It's all part of it. And everyone, every, you know, good designer has a different way of coping with that. So I think that's really important.
Speaker 1
00:14:49
The ideas, I think, ideas, you put them out as much as possible, you know, don't get stuck on them. I think is one thing that I always find that.
Speaker 1
00:14:59
It's a challenge at times, of course, but, you know, it's also it's a good thing. So I think, you know, just get used to get in the habit of building out ideas, trying different things. I think that's something that will always hold you well moving forward.
Speaker 1
00:15:13
I don't know if I gave you what is, but I still think good design is always good design.
Speaker 1
00:15:18
There's things around that peripheral, but yeah, just keep across it as much as you can.
Speaker 3
00:15:23
Yeah, I think, I think, just to jump in, I think that's a really good point about the, you know, the core of, of what a good designer and graphic designer is. And, and sometimes I think, in, in conversations like we're having now, and you're stuck talking about the future, you can forget about, you know, the call and the.
Speaker 3
00:15:40
What we need to do is embrace those core skills to apply to the future. But if you don't have those core skills, then, you know, you're not going to have any luck with the new tools as well. So I think it's really important to come back to that and then learn how to apply that and never lose sight of that core.
Speaker 2
00:15:59
Fantastic. Makes me want to ask some questions about design education and lifelong learning with my design education hat on, but I'll hold those over and maybe we'll have time for them later. Right now, though, we'll... up to an audience poll so you'll soon see on screen the question: 'What, in your view, has changed from five years ago to today regarding design skills? Is it cross-disciplinarity? Is it the rise of AI? Is it interactive and immersive experiences? Is it about the diverse roles that designers are now expected to play? Is it all of the above or is it something else that we haven't thought of yet? So please respond to the poll or post your comments in the chat.
Speaker 2
00:16:43
We'll move on for the moment. We'll come back to the results of that poll. I'd like to put the question now to Henry. So we've been speaking about the five years past, now switching to five years future view. Where do you see the role of a graphic designer in the next five years, Henry?
Speaker 3
00:17:04
Yeah, it's certainly a big question. And I think there are so many different roles that a graphic designer can take. And, you know, that's what makes the industry so fascinating right now. You can work in-house, you can work in an agency, you can freelance for yourself, you can create your own brand. So there are so many avenues that you can go down. I can't predict or you know cover them all, but I what I can say is I think you know, as a designer, as a graphic designer, you need to have a purpose-driven mindset and you need to be comfortable questioning what you're making and why. What's the point? What are you trying to achieve? Because I think if you're critical and open to critique, you will master the process of conceptualizing, collaborating, and making no matter what tools you're using. And I think, you know, that process will. Still remain the same for five years and beyond. But at the same time, those who cling to traditional roles.
Speaker 3
00:18:07
And executional roles, I think, will struggle because the future isn't going to be about mastering Photoshop or perfecting layouts.
Speaker 3
00:18:17
Even now, that's your core that we just talked about. The future is about becoming strategic thinkers who leverage design as a structure. Not as a surface and I that I I stole that from from someone else um from uh dixon baxi studio for those who aren't familiar with them look them up they're amazing And yeah, they talked about this, you know, this idea that design is the structure. It's just not the surface content. And if you think about design as that structure, we can step out of the production line and into the boardroom and use that unique skill set to influence brand strategy, business strategy, brand evolution, and the customer experience. So move beyond just the surface and integrate it into the entire business. And that, you know, I really think will give businesses a competitive edge. And while AI and automation will swallow technical and repetitive tasks, I think it will also free us up to work more at the intersection of creativity, data, and technology.
Speaker 3
00:19:25
Technology and will free us up to use design as the glue that holds a lot of businesses together, a lot of those core business pillars. Together. So I guess I think the most successful designers will, you know, they'll be design entrepreneurs carving out new niches or creating their own intellectual property and even building their own brands. But it's not just about the beautiful work. It's it's about innovating to solve, I guess, real, real business problems and and owning the outcomes of your designs, essentially, so you're all ways iterating and evolving and shifting, I think, you know, at its core from execution to from really executing to being a creative strategist. And I think that's where the true longevity of a graphic designer's career will lie.
Speaker 2
00:20:21
Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. Lots of food for thought in there. And I've taken some notes for myself again and some points we might come back to later. But now moving back to a question for Jason, and this is a big one for some audience members, some of us in the room, I'm sure. Jason, how do designers get buy-in from the C-suite team to support things like emerging tech?
Speaker 1
00:20:50
Thank you. Yeah, good question again. But pretty much, I suppose you think C-suite has a different set of priorities around. What they're trying to achieve. So really, you're going to have to start to try to understand what's the business case that you're trying to make, you know, and really what's the benefits. So you really have to ask yourself a couple of questions, you know, what's... What are the critical problems you're trying to solve here? And, you know, how does that tech sort of. achieve that um also you know What's the customer experience, right? Where does it come back to the customer? How's that going to enhance that? You know, what insights can you get from that? So if you sort of answer there, and I'm sure that there'll be... A lot more questions you might need to do around that business case. That's what you sort of need to bring back to a C-suite to, you know, if it's valid and how they can incorporate it too. Because, you know, there's change management aspects to it. There's a whole range of different aspects that affect the organisation.
Speaker 1
00:21:51
And that all has to be brought on— brought on inside that business case.
Speaker 2
00:21:58
Fantastic. I'm taking notes for myself about how to sell upward as well.
Speaker 2
00:22:04
And another question for you, if you would, Jason, what are you currently doing to confront the possibility of emerging tech like AI impacting your role and team?
Speaker 1
00:22:17
Yes, I suppose I would firstly sort of say maybe how I approach this one is slightly different to maybe how Henry would approach it. But I think it's important to sort of look at, like, AI has been around for some time, right? You know, we've had machine learning inside of Photoshop, shopping, you know, content-aware feel for like since 2010. So it's nothing new, but now we're sort of into that new phase of that, right? Our expectations around AI is quite high now. I think a lot of people have looked at this as a magic bullet. You know it's gonna solve all your problems and do that, but you know, really, it's it's it's very early days in this process, right? And you know, progress will be made. You know, there'll be some successful aspects to it. The computation power and scale of it is only getting better.
Speaker 1
00:23:13
Like I said previously, the data, the algorithms, AI techniques are getting improved all the time.
Speaker 1
00:23:21
AI itself, that, you know, there are four main parts. I think I sort of see in here, right? We got the text generation, image generation, you know, sound and then video generation, right? And each one will affect your role differently, I suppose.
Speaker 1
00:23:38
You know, and I do feel like, you know, you do need to lean into it, find out what it can do and see where it works. Like it doesn't work for every sort of process. Definitely not.
Speaker 1
00:23:52
Experiment as much as you can try to find out what you can do through here. Um, at the end of the day, we're the ones who sort of control the quality of our designs and our outputs. So as long as that adds to that, then that's where we want to go.
Speaker 1
00:24:07
I find I'm going to sort of put two aspects to it, right. Like, I really see the main impact is, you know, how to assist in the scaling of design right ideas quickly, because back to, you know, the more channels and so forth, you know, try to leverage it for that. You know, there's simple aspects to it. It doesn't have to generate an image every time, right? So it's not always that— because again, you need to QA and quality check it.
Speaker 1
00:24:34
The last thing I do want to highlight too, though. Um, we. We need to also look at where this content comes from. I did see some of the questions sort of come through, you know, who owns the content, where does the content come through, right? It is an important question to ask, right? So there are aspects that we are bringing into this, right? So from our point of view, we've sort of started what we call the content authenticity initiative. That was back in... 2019 and that's a joint coalition of and it's open open coalition of people where they can come in and it tries to surface credentials around content ownership, what edits were done in that process as well. So all of that has to be sort of assigned and we have to be aware of this, right? Do creators have the ability to allow content to be trained on or not? That's a really important thing. And there's a lot of players that have started this. I've already scraped, right? You know, so if you can type in, you know, a celebrity doing X, Y, Z, you know, that will surface that, but that doesn't have copyright or IP associated to it.
Speaker 1
00:25:44
So we've had a different approach and it sort of slows down our tech that's come in. But what we've tried to do, we've trained it on royalty-free content through, you know, stock and there's open license content and so forth. So trained it on that content. So that way, then, it can be used in a commercial setting and so forth. So slightly different, but I couldn't put in a celebrity doing XYZ because it wouldn't have any reference of that. So it's very important that we sort of get used to that, okay, where the content comes from and make sure it's properly accredited to the right people. And they have that option to either log into it or refuse to allow that content to be trained on. So I think nowadays that... I think that's where we're coming to. We're sort of going through that educational pace. We're now sort of into how do we use it? How do we use it in our production workflows and so forth? So I think that that's also really important to highlight.
Speaker 2
00:26:47
Fantastic. I think there's some really important questions here and some big picture issues that I'm sure affect many of our... members today. So I'm sure there'll be questions arising on some of these points. Jason, you kind of opened up in the beginning of your answer an opportunity to throw this one to Henry as well. Henry, if you want to pick it up later, that's fine, and we can move to an audience poll. But just to give you the opportunity, if you are interested in picking up this question as well, Henry, what are you currently doing to confront the possibility of emerging tech like AI impacting your role or your team's work?
Speaker 3
00:27:26
I think, I think, educating ourselves and and having internal initiatives to make sure we are we are staying educated on what you know the ramifications and the opportunities are so we can have those those open conversations— be it with a client or internally— about what we're doing.
Speaker 3
00:27:48
I think the, you know, the... Everything that Jason has said about being yeah very aware of of the data sets, essentially that you're using and and understanding where they're coming from and understanding, you know, are people getting credited for where this was trained or is this, you know, an open source data set where you're not sure. Where the output is coming from. So I think that piece around education and taking responsibility to educate yourself or pressing your organisation to provide the training to educate the team is critical in the process.
Speaker 2
00:28:28
Thank you. Thank you. Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. So we'll move now to another audience poll, which you'll see come on screen shortly. So for those of you who are listening today, what are you... you all currently doing to confront the possibility of emerging tech like AI impacting your role or your team's work? Are you focusing on upskilling? complementary areas? Are you perhaps personally shifting toward a design leadership role? Is it about staying agile and informed on trends? Is it again, all of the above? or something else that we haven't thought of yet that you want to tell us about in the chat. So please respond to the poll, jump into the chat. We've got a couple of more questions that we will... We'll tackle with Henry and Jason that we've thought about in advance, and then we will move over to tackle some of the questions that have come up. The chat today. So this next one for Henry, and this I think relates to the points that came up from Jason.
Speaker 2
00:29:29
And your own answers to the previous question. What ethical considerations arise from the use of AI in design, particularly in terms of originality, intellectual property, and authorship?
Speaker 3
00:29:42
Yeah, I think, you know, to reiterate that last point, you know, making sure you're across where. Where the model has been trained and understanding if someone is being compensated for that is the first and foremost consideration.
Speaker 3
00:29:56
But, you know, additionally, you need to let the audience know. If what they're seeing is AI generated from the outset, even if that's in a concept phase, you know, to a client, letting them know this was generated. Via AI. And these are the pros and cons of that. And this is what we would need to do to actually make it if we were to progress with this idea. So being up— very upfront about when you are using it and letting, you know, be that internally or externally, letting everyone know that is the case. One area I've... Feel strongly about is not using AI-generated imagery to replicate or replace humans. I think there's a huge risk to... to setting unrealistic expectations of of people that you know that could have really big consequences. So you know there are— and you know that's just one example— but I think there are There are a few of those where we do need to have a perspective and put a stake in the ground and say, 'Hang on, I'm not sure it's right.'
Speaker 3
00:30:58
We use the technology to do exactly that. But yeah, overarchingly, I think.
Speaker 3
00:31:05
If you educate yourself, then you can take the handbrake off and you can go out there and experiment full ball because these tools are so powerful and exciting. So, if you educate yourself, you can, you know. Then really go and have some fun with them, um, and and you know make sure you're you're really considering the pros and cons, um. So yeah, it shouldn't it shouldn't be um. We shouldn't be scared. It's just about that lifelong learning, actually, as you mentioned, Brad, and about upskilling, but making sure that you are doing it in the right way and you understand, you know, the consequences, pros and cons of what the tools you are using are.
Speaker 2
00:31:48
Thank you. Thank you. Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. So we were going to tackle a question on AR and VR, but I think we might move past that and talk about sector growth. And then we'll move to some questions from the audience because there's some fantastic questions coming through the chat. So a question for both of you and maybe... Jason, you want to tackle this first and then Henry. According to SEEK, there's a projected 21. 7% increase in employment opportunities in graphic design in Australia. 2021 through 2026, 13,900 jobs is the estimate. And so with the number of graphic designers likely to reach over... 78,000 by the end of 2026, according to this projection. For those looking to get their foot in the door, what advice do you have?
Speaker 1
00:32:41
Yeah, it's um, so Another good question. I keep saying that. But really, I sort of say, and I'm not sort of saying this because it's lunchtime, but I think you need that hunger. Right, you know that. That really that passion to show that. Okay, you you really want a role because I mean, like, you can see great designs, but designers who work hard, yeah, I think is it. It's hugely important and I mean, it's not just around you know, work itself, but you know, the skills that you need, you know, the soft skills that I think Henry touched on before, the hard skills as well. All that is hugely important, right? So it's not just, okay, boom, I'm here, I've got the job, and off you go. So explore. You know, try to you know experiment as much as you can. One of the really good things too is we've designed you know so many different avenues you can take. Right, so that's what where that exploration in the early days you want to really try to try as much as you can. Put your hand up all the time— just any job you can get, you know, try to just try, experiment, you know, because you might have a passion, might be in film, it might be motion design, it could be, you know, branding as well.
Speaker 1
00:33:51
There's so many different avenues you can take. You know, you can tackle and play with.
Speaker 1
00:33:57
That's, I think, one of the things I always loved about design is that variety, you know, to come in every day and maybe do something different and create content and things like that is really good. Just put your hand up. You know, I'm not saying be greedy, but, you know, try to get involved, redesign content, you know, just do things as much as possible. So I think that's.
Speaker 1
00:34:22
Hopefully that helps. But yeah, yeah, I find that something always, you know, stands out for myself.
Speaker 1
00:34:31
Fantastic.
Speaker 2
00:34:32
Thanks, Jason. Same question for you, Henry. For those looking to get their foot in the door, what advice do you have?
Speaker 3
00:34:38
Yeah, I really love Jason's answer about being hungry. I think, you know, we're all kidding ourselves if those 78,000 jobs are all good jobs. They're not all going to be great jobs. And so to stand out and make a career out of it, you do have to be passionate and you have to show that you're passionate. Um, and you have to, you have to work hard. Um, Because those that are willing to constantly learn, constantly strive to do better, will be the ones that stand out. I think... In addition to that, and in addition to that core of really mastering, let's call them the basics, the basics that are always changing, be it Photoshop or Midjourney. You do need to not just focus on aesthetics and start to become a problem solver with a business mindset. The future of design isn't just about making things look good; it's about connecting creativity to to real business outcomes and and you know immersing yourself in the strategy, the consumer behavior, and the data analytics, because the automation revolution will take over repetitive design tasks. And the most valuable designers will be those who can use design to solve complex business challenges and drive growth.
Speaker 3
00:36:02
I think. And, you know, thinking about your skillset, again, as that structure that underpins so many elements of it. Of a business and thinking about how you can improve that creatively, rather than just as that surface layer—um, at on the that the outside world sees and and I think, additionally, you know. Focus on the things that AI can't do as well: the deep emotional storytelling, the cultural nuance, the strategic thinking, because that's where, you know, you will really stand out. And I think you know, don't be. I think you know, obviously, with this dramatic increase in in the amount of jobs and the tools all coming to life like it's such an exciting space to be in, and and I'm sure everyone on this call is is in a better position than most to really tackle that you know head on and and and get ahead of the curve. You already have you're already learning these skills that that are so necessary. So I think, you know, sometimes even in conversations like this, it can feel like, well, this is, there's a lot to take in. It's such a big topic, you know, it's scary, but really. We're all in a really fortunate position to be able to adopt these and learn to use them to make the world a better place, really.
Speaker 3
00:37:18
Exciting space to be. So, you know, and the job will change, but I think, you know, we're all here, we'll be better equipped than a lot of the world to really take advantage of the opportunities out there.
Speaker 2
00:37:32
Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. So there's a wealth of big questions and detailed questions that this discussion poses. I think we could discuss these matters and the questions arising in the chat for another three hours. Sadly, we only have another seven minutes. So I'm going to move now to some of... those questions that have come through from the audience. So we've got a curated list here, but I want to acknowledge the fantastic questions that have come through from everyone on the call today. And if we don't have a chance to get to your question, I'm sorry, but thank you so much for posing them. And we'll move now into some of these questions. I'll um, I'll do a little bit of an edited list and so uh, the first one for you, I think Jason. So from Serena, Serena says hi from Darwin and thanks for the webinar opportunity today. And Serena asks, how can a graphic designer protect their own designs when what AI does is pretty much stealing existing ideas or can be seen to be doing this?
Speaker 1
00:38:36
Yeah, I think sort of like similar to the question or answer previously, and it is very important. I think everyone should own their work as well. So content credentials is that aspects of that content authenticity initiative. So you can. assign your credentials to that, right? That's important. That's information. I would say it's like a layer of metadata, but it's uneditable sort of data that sort of gets associated to it. Can have your details and so forth on top of that. Right options to you know opt in or out. Opt out of any of these processes. You know, you be aware of what is possible. Because yeah, it's it. It is, you know, copyright infringement. Um, if someone is stealing or utilizing your sort of content. So it is an important one. Educate yourself as much as possible. There are avenues out there that that you should explore. And you know, just incorporate it.
Speaker 1
00:39:37
You know, there are ways you can turn it on inside the tools as well. So that that information can be recorded.
Speaker 2
00:39:43
Yep. Fantastic. Thanks, Jason. A question now, Henry, that I think is in your ballpark, and this question from Marie. What would you say a brand designer should have in their toolkit with regards to software, specifically anything other than the usual Adobe software?
Speaker 3
00:40:04
The, um, yeah, the, the, the Adobe software still does form a, you know, a really large and important part of the suite. Um, but there are other tools, um, that we use in particular at IGA, we use Figma, which allows cross-collaboration across the world, to be honest. single projects, so we'll have a collaborative workspace where anyone you know can can can work on a project. Meaning we can pull in experts from our entire global network um to to contribute in a really seamless way. Um, so, figma—I would say— is it would be one to to really, if you're not familiar with, to to explore and get familiar with. I think you know the there's a raft of of AI tools that in in our processes really help with conceptualizing, perhaps more so than the finished product. Um, things like Mid-Journey in particular, Firefly, um, especially that rather than maybe being like, 'Hey, here's the finished product,'
Speaker 3
00:41:10
it's actually about.
Speaker 3
00:41:12
Opening up the realms of possibility to what we could create and coming up with an idea that we can then sell into the c-suite, but the making of it isn't going to necessarily involve AI. It's just a conceptual idea that we've been able to visualize because of these tools we now have. But if we want to put it in the real world, we're going to need a whole lot more collaborators to actually bring it to life. So I think using those AI tools— as a method of experimentation and conceptualization— is really something to get familiar with too.
Speaker 2
00:41:49
Fantastic. Thanks, Henry. And another question, and this one from Nina, and perhaps there's a question that both of you might like to pick up from your respective standpoints. AI streamlining a lot of creative output. Do you think that traditional graphic design will become more of a bespoke service for particular clients, with a price tag tailored to projects? That can afford to include conceptual thinking by a trained professional rather than an AI tool? In other words, will we see graphic design becoming more of a luxury?
Speaker 3
00:42:23
So it's a good question. I think the, there's like graphic design now that we've mentioned, there's so many different roles you can take. As a graphic designer, and you know, there are some that are more methodical and more iterative, and there are some that are perhaps are more dramatic and experimental. I don't think both of those roles are going to disappear, if that makes sense. I think they'll both be there. The ones that are more automated will maybe require less people, but the process of creating it, I think, still will require people on the ground.
Speaker 3
00:43:06
So yeah, I think though, with more and more content— storming our screens— it will be harder to stand out. And the more people use AI-generated imagery as an example, the more clutter there is. So if you just, if a brand. Doing the same thing, they're not going to stand out. So while it will be easier for a small business to use Canva to create a logo, that is more of a necessity than an advantage. If that makes sense. And I think that using design and graphic design as an advantage will become more and more important because of the amount of clutter essentially that is crowding our screens.
Speaker 3
00:43:52
I don't know if that answered everything for Nina, but hopefully it gave a bit of a steer.
Speaker 1
00:43:57
Hands up for me.
Speaker 2
00:43:58
Thank you. There's no time, but is graphic design going to become a luxury product?
Speaker 1
00:44:05
I mean, just on top of Henry as well, I think, like, there's a lot of manual aspects to design at the moment, right? So hopefully, you know, that, you know. Using automation in that to remove that is a great thing. But that allows you to, you know, get more time back into other aspects, right? You know, back onto that concept. aspect, the strategy aspect to it, you know, all of that should give you more time for, you know, the deeper sort of problems that you're trying to solve with any. any communication. So that's where I sort of say it— hopefully gives you back more time for, you know, that the idea that, you know, that you're really trying to push forward.
Speaker 1
00:44:48
Fantastic.
Speaker 2
00:44:49
Thanks, Jason. Look, that brings us to time. I want to really acknowledge the fantastic, generous, and rigorous responses that Jason and Henry, you've both brought to today's conversation, tackling the question: 'Is everyone a designer today?' I acknowledge all of the audience members for your fantastic participation and all of the great questions that came through. I'm sorry we couldn't get to more of them today, but please do stay engaged. Keep an eye out for more on the couch sessions run by Adobe, sorry, by RMIT online.
Speaker 2
00:45:28
And thanks again to Jason from Adobe, to Henry from RGA. And again, we missed. The input of Lily Walmering and Lauren Villatardi today, but I hope that they can join us for an upcoming session. I also want to acknowledge the work done by my colleague from RMIT Online, Sunita, for helping in the background, making today's session such a success and to all of the other RMIT Online colleagues who have worked to make this opportunity possible for us to have this great conversation about the impact of AI on graphic design. Jason and Henry, thanks once again.
Speaker 1
00:46:11
All right. Thank you. Thanks everyone.
