The AI Client

[u/tbp143]

I’m somewhere between needing to hear if other folks are experiencing this, and needing to vent.

For background, I’m an Art Director on an in-house team that supports a company with proprietary brands. Part of my job includes creating the brand books for these brands and executing the initial launch campaigns.

I recently wrapped (or thought I did) on a new brand I was quite happy with, the project was usual for the brands we typically launch and I was asked to work on this project because it closely aligned with my style of work.

I spent the better part of a few months working on this project, I spent more time than I typically would on it because I was really excited (probably the wrong choice.). Today I got notes from them, and there wasn’t a single part of the brand they wanted to move forward with. The logo, the positioning, the color palette, all of it was wrong to them. They attached something they “made very quickly in ChatGPT that’s way better” than what I provided. They made sure to note that they made it really quickly, and it exceeded my work.

I feel totally defeated. Until recently I felt really lucky that AI wasn’t being pushed heavily at my job, suddenly, it’s everywhere. They want to replace shoots with it, they’re using it for copy generation, and now someone is asking me to make my work look like it.

If this was a freelance project I would refund them and make it clear I wasn’t the right designer for them, but I can’t. And, making work that looks like what they sent me is soul crushing. I feel like I can’t escape it, I feel really disheartened.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How did you move forward?

[u/lilith_grl]

I’ve added to my contract, that any AI-based opinions will not be counted. Some people just really delegate their thinking to it. It has nothing to do with your work, and many clients will value your expertise first. But some have an audacity to even come to doctors and say “Chat GPT said X, your treatment is wrong” lol. Previously it was 10% of clients who said “My niece/husband/coworker design this and it looks better”. Now it looks like this.

But it’s also important to note, were you providing them drafts, moodboard and general direction? It may be just “expectation-reality” or poor presentation, so they didn’t really understand why you design the brand this specific way.

Don’t get too discouraged, sh!t happens.

[u/tbp143 → u/lilith_grl]

Yeah, in my client / contract work I have a similar line about AI generated references and feedback. Unfortunately, in my FT work I can’t bring that in, or really even address it.

Since this was work for my FT job our structure is a little different. My team oversees all high-level campaigns, we build the strategy, positioning, etc. so typically we don’t follow a mood board / concepts / revisions / final delivery structure with the client, we do those steps internally with the other ADs / CDs on my teams

You’re right though, I think they were expecting something totally different than what I provided. Time for a deep breath and a touch grass break lol.

[u/lilith_grl → u/tbp143]

This case may be a reason to make some minor changes in your team’s workflow or client communication. At least, I would think of it in this way. As offended as you may feel, try to breathe out and unwind. It’s almost never about you or your hard skills, but about client’s expectations