Publishers reveal fears and benefits of artificial intelligence on creative sector
It was a rare sight to see all Britain’s national newspapers as well as many regional ones dedicate their front pages to the #MakeItFair campaign to support creative industries recently.
This solidarity was a reaction to UK government-mooted plans to change the law to favour big tech platforms so they can use Brits’ creative content to power their AI models without permission or payment.
Understanding AI and how its wonders of AI can be a useful tool for greeting card publishers, PG cuts into this hot potato, asking several leading creatives to delve into the threats and advantages it offers to the industry.
Jennie Rutter
Creative director of Emotional Rescue
AI’s impact on our sector: “I do think AI is a threat to artists’ livelihoods and credibility in our industry, but probably not as much today as it will be tomorrow. It has the potential to be a big threat to both writers and artists in time. I think today, the capability is still limited compared to the real thing and, while it can help with some of the smaller stuff, using it on a large scale or for final artwork or imagery still looks ‘obviously AI’ and, in some cases, a little clumsy.”
The upsides of AI: “To save time. To push the boundaries. To inspire or aid in creativity. We at Emotional Rescue use AI to alter our existing images, adding in elements, etc. Plus, I know some of our writers use AI to help illustrate the jokes they send to us – it’s very helpful for those that can’t draw! We have never briefed our writers or artists for anything that requires the use of AI, but it doesn’t mean they don’t use it of courses
“As an example of how we use AI, we needed to create a larger, but slimmer, version of a card but the image finished at the seated man’s elbow. So, we used AI generative expand to create the rest of the man to fill the size of the card. This is where we see the greatest value in AI in our business today, massive time saving!”
Safeguarding measures: “As an industry, we can all do better. AI pulls on seemingly limitless images, photographs, text, poems, etc online to create its output. So, if by using AI, your image or range clearly imitates other publishers’ material, just don’t do it!”
Jamie Mitchell
Co-owner and creative director of Ohh Deer
AI’s impact on our sector: “It’s a big worry for the industry and individual artists. It’s not something any of us really expected. The threat of AI was always about processing power and cognition, whether it would become sentient and take over the world. I don’t think I ever considered that it would be able to be visually creative.
“It threatens artists’ livelihoods massively, not only because it uses them as reference points to create very quick imitations of their work but, from a financial perspective, the implications are huge. Big corporations who just need to fire out visuals and don’t really want to pay for them will opt for whatever is quickest and cheapest.”
The upsides of AI: “There are lots of time savers within creative programmes like Adobe, expanding backgrounds or retouching work has become a lot easier, generative recolour in Illustrator means you can have lots of colour options generated very quickly too.
“We use AI within the Adobe suite, to process data, elements of web design and, thank God, Google now has Gemini! It means Edd can send coherent emails!
“We haven’t issued any strict guidelines about AI, but we’d much rather work with a craftsperson to make something beautiful than the alternative.”
Safeguarding measures: “Individual artists should not be used as a reference. The idea that you can type in a command: ‘create a piece in the style of x’ is awful. There should be restrictions to stop this from happening immediately.”
Martin Powderly
Creative director of Pigment
AI’s impact on our sector: “Embracing AI innovation and supporting human artists need not be mutually exclusive. The future of greeting card design communities will lie in finding this balance between technological advancement and our creative traditions.
“AI should be recognised as an additional tool. It has many upsides for the creative process, but it could also have some painful downsides. We’ll all be using AI to some degree soon because the Mac and Adobe systems we all use are fast incorporating it.
“At Pigment we’re going out of our way to ensure this does not adversely impact our freelance community of writers, designers and illustrators. Our artists and writers are a vital part of an ecosystem that has delivered for us for decades and we will be safeguarding them.
“Yes, Gen AI can bring new worlds alive and it can remix the past, but aspects of it lack emotional depth and nuance, and those elements are crucial in greeting cards.”
The upsides of AI: “It will make designing more accessible. In the same way smartphones made us all photographers, AI can make us all designers. It will be as revolutionary, for better and for worse, but ignoring it will not make it go away.
“We have been early adopters of Adobe’s AI features. Having tested the Beta versions for well over a year, we’re learning to use AI to cut repetitive tasks. We’ve used AI for hybrid image generation alongside Photoshop on our collections such as Arklife. In instances like this it opens up image-making possibilities, but it will never replace the commissioning of real artists and writers.
“When many of us started out in the 80s we didn’t even have computers or the internet. We used Letraset and fax machines. Wave after wave of tech tools have transformed our design processes and the creative community has evolved alongside. This is just the next phase of technological support – though, maybe, the scariest one.”
Safeguarding measures: “Publishers need to keep commissioning freelance artists, writers and licensors. I don’t believe we can protect the past, but we can ensure our freelance community prospers into the future by continuing to support them while we all find our feet in the new world.”
These views also appeared in the March edition of Progressive Greetings magazine which can be read online here, or you can subscribe here to receive the magazine by post each month.
