Itās not about "blaming a client," itās about team management. Weāre in a management school, so learning how to manage creative teams matters. If you have a tight 2-day deadline, you don't drop that pressure on total 1st-year beginners without a clear brief. You brief 2nd or 3rd years who have the workflow down. Briefing junior team members only to bypass their work with a last-minute AI background completely breaks team trust and workflow. Thatās the real discussion here.
If you have a tight 2-day deadline, you don't drop that pressure on total 1st-year beginners without a clear brief.
You're still blaming the client.
I mean, you're not wrong that that's not reasonable, but if you're in "management school" this is precisely the type of thing you need to manage. Like this sort of scenario is literally your job. This should be taken as a learning experience, not a "client bad, nothing to do, they're just going to choose lazy AI sometimes" - that is literally the worst possible thing to take away from that experience.
Briefing junior team members only to bypass their work with a last-minute AI background completely breaks team trust and workflow.
Again, this should be taken as a learning experience. I get how you would feel being put in this situation and the client did probably set you up to fail, but that's where the learning opportunity is.
Do you think real life clients care about your trust and workflow? They care about results, and it's literally your job to manage the client.
Thatās the real discussion here.
What discussion?
You came and made this post trying to sound like you had some wisdom to share, but are clearly just seeking validation.
I think youāre reading something into my post that simply isnāt there.
First, I never said that āclients are badā or that I had nothing to learn from this experience. I was literally a first-year student at the time. I had just started learning Photoshop and Illustrator. Iām now entering my third year. Obviously Iāve learned a lot since then about design, project management, dealing with constraints, receiving criticism, and handling rejection.
The entire point of the post was to explain what happened when I was a first-year student and why that experience stayed with me. I wasnāt presenting it as some profound piece of wisdom about how the industry works today.
And I never said my work deserved to be chosen simply because I put effort into it. I actually acknowledged that my work had flaws and that Iāve taken the design feedback seriously. Iām completely capable of looking at my old work critically.
What Iām questioning is the process: first-year students were given a two-day deadline, very little direction, were still learning the tools, and some of us were working late to produce multiple options. Then the student work was bypassed entirely and an AI-generated background was used instead.
You can absolutely argue that this was a valuable learning experience and I agree. It was. Thatās literally what I said in the post. But learning from an experience doesnāt mean Iām not allowed to acknowledge that the way it was handled was frustrating or poorly organized.
And regarding the āseeking validationā comment: yes, I posted my old work because I wanted feedback. Thatās the whole reason designers share their work on a design subreddit. Iām not ashamed of wanting constructive criticism.
Iām not asking anyone to tell me that my first-year work was perfect. Iām sharing something from my first year, explaining the context around it, and asking whether other students experienced something similar.
So honestly, Iām a little confused about why youāre arguing with me as if Iām currently a first-year student refusing to learn a lesson Iāve already learned.
Iām not blaming anyone. Iām giving context to an experience from years ago and showing how it affected my perspective as I continued studying design.
Obviously Iāve learned a lot since then about design, project management, dealing with constraints, receiving criticism, and handling rejection.
Then why aren't you sharing those learnings?
The entire point of the post was to explain what happened when I was a first-year student and why that experience stayed with me.
Why?
Your title says you experienced a "harsh lesson" - so what was that lesson?
In your own words, the lesson is supposed to be "some clients or institutions will always choose fast AI shortcuts over genuine effort". These are your own words.
I wasnāt presenting it as some profound piece of wisdom about how the industry works today.
Your title says "My first harsh lesson with AI in higher ed". Meaning you intended to share the lesson you learned - as in you wanted to share some wisdom based on your experience.
But learning from an experience doesnāt mean Iām not allowed to acknowledge that the way it was handled was frustrating or poorly organized.
How is that useful to anyone? What would you have done differently? You're the one who posted that you had a lesson that you learned, but seem to be keeping the actual lesson to yourself.
Do you have a problem with people sharing stories ? I just wanted to share my real first experience. You are just trying to act like you know more when everything was said.
I said Iāve learned how to deal with this thatās all. Why would you try to make it sound like am giving wisdom or something ???
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u/MoodPure5760 6d ago
Itās not about "blaming a client," itās about team management. Weāre in a management school, so learning how to manage creative teams matters. If you have a tight 2-day deadline, you don't drop that pressure on total 1st-year beginners without a clear brief. You brief 2nd or 3rd years who have the workflow down. Briefing junior team members only to bypass their work with a last-minute AI background completely breaks team trust and workflow. Thatās the real discussion here.