I agree with you, clients who can replace you with AI aren't your real clients. It's the same argument I make when graphic designers are concerned that people bidding on Fiverr and Upwork are undercutting them.
I love Fiverr - I regularly send enquiring clients there when they 'just want some business cards'. It clears my inbox, and they get what they want. I'm not competing because I offer something they don't.
I got here after reading this piece in Eye On Design and thank you! You've articulated what I've been kind-of thinking ever since the DALL-E images began appearing on my feed, but didn't really find the words for. I must admit, I missed much of the hand-wringing about it displacing illustrators, but it was the first thought I had myself when I saw the images. But my second thought was that if I wasn't worried that the better and cheaper-than-me artists would replace me, I really shouldn't worry about the AI either. Illustration is, as you pointed out, a deeply precarious business already, but the thing that makes us irreplaceable is our humanity.
I wonder though, how tools like DALL-E could be put to use by illustrators. Do you think it might find a place in your process? For me, I already use Google Image Search and Pinterest when groping for inspiration. I think DALL-E could help me set up digital models to sketch (if I give composition prompts) or show me ways of rendering my concepts in different styles before I pick one, maybe.
You're a wonderful writer and I'm so glad I've discovered your newsletter. I'm going to go read more of your work now. Thank you for doing what you do.
I don't know if I'll ever use DALL·E 2 in my own process, I think the linear trajectory from text to image doesn't really suit my creative process because I tend to go back and forth between language and visual, and try to play with the interaction between the two, or sometimes think in purely visual ways or purely linguistic ways, if that makes sense. But who knows !
I agree with you, clients who can replace you with AI aren't your real clients. It's the same argument I make when graphic designers are concerned that people bidding on Fiverr and Upwork are undercutting them.
I love Fiverr - I regularly send enquiring clients there when they 'just want some business cards'. It clears my inbox, and they get what they want. I'm not competing because I offer something they don't.
AI **cannot** offer what you can offer.
I got here after reading this piece in Eye On Design and thank you! You've articulated what I've been kind-of thinking ever since the DALL-E images began appearing on my feed, but didn't really find the words for. I must admit, I missed much of the hand-wringing about it displacing illustrators, but it was the first thought I had myself when I saw the images. But my second thought was that if I wasn't worried that the better and cheaper-than-me artists would replace me, I really shouldn't worry about the AI either. Illustration is, as you pointed out, a deeply precarious business already, but the thing that makes us irreplaceable is our humanity.
I wonder though, how tools like DALL-E could be put to use by illustrators. Do you think it might find a place in your process? For me, I already use Google Image Search and Pinterest when groping for inspiration. I think DALL-E could help me set up digital models to sketch (if I give composition prompts) or show me ways of rendering my concepts in different styles before I pick one, maybe.
You're a wonderful writer and I'm so glad I've discovered your newsletter. I'm going to go read more of your work now. Thank you for doing what you do.
Thank you so much Nithya !
I don't know if I'll ever use DALL·E 2 in my own process, I think the linear trajectory from text to image doesn't really suit my creative process because I tend to go back and forth between language and visual, and try to play with the interaction between the two, or sometimes think in purely visual ways or purely linguistic ways, if that makes sense. But who knows !