Astro Hacker News - The A.I.-Design Aesthetic That's Taking over the Internet

jabroni_salad |next [-]

A lot of design is kind of rote and boilerplate and has been for ages.

The original cliparts were paper books. Designers would clip out the pictures they want, glue them to their master document, and then run it through a photocopier. Then later we had the big hero web templates and stock images. Even though every person involved has an excellent camera in their pocket, the thought of using it was unbearable compared to just downloading a stock image. Then we got canva which was basically the perfection of cliparts and stock images.

Now we have AI web design. It's just the newest step of the least exciting 'something needs to exist but its form is mostly without value' category of "content", which is itself a category so devoid of meaning that nobody doing it even bothers to give themselves the title of 'designer' or 'writer' or 'illustrator', instead self labeling as 'content creator'.

For what it's worth though, I find AI designs to be mostly okay? They aren't exciting but at least the ultra low contrast design era is finally over and I can finally have usable scrollbars and easily find the login button on most websites now.

bensyverson |root |parent [-]

Exactly… people were complaining about every startup website using the same basic format and shadcn for years before AI-assisted design ever became so prevalent.

tayo42 |next |previous [-]

Wish there was some pictures. I've been noticing there's been higher quality but simmilar looking things like ads or promotions material.

Im curious what the Ai look exactly is

elzbardico |next |previous [-]

Sometimes I wonder if LLMs have been invented like decades ago and have been used since then as a secret tool to generate marketing copy, PR statements, Digital Transformation Slide Decks and Corporate Desing Illustrations.

It is far more logical to believe that, than to believe that Memphis Corporate was a thing driven by humans.

marsmaps |previous [-]

"Notably, none of the designers I spoke to are against A.I. altogether. All of them said that the technology is unavoidable..."

these people are not very bright

mycall |root |parent |next [-]

Can you make your terse point more clear? It isn't obvious.

elzbardico |root |parent |previous [-]

People understand that they can't, in isolation, fight againts hundreds of billions of capital.

It is better to profess allegiance to their new replacements and eek out a little more time of employment, than to be branded by the powers that be as a contrarian, a luddite, an enemy of progress and get the boot now, not tomorrow.

throw310822 |root |parent [-]

This idea that it's about the big bad capital is... also not very bright. Who would want to do a job not because it's necessary or useful but just to produce an empty effort that justifies a salary? I can't see any joy or meaning in labouring every day to produce less and worse products than what could have been made without me. If the point of the charade is to justify my salary, then just give me a basic income and I'll spend my day at the beach instead, or doing something that is just a pleasure hobby.

ElevenLathe |root |parent [-]

Artists and craftspeople have a problem: How to do my art/craft while still having a comfortable home, food, healthcare, transportation, etc.? Historically one way was to produce commercial art.

Let's say you're a trumpet player. Really, you want to play baroque chamber music--which you do on weekends with your mad young crew of underground baroque chamber music hotheads--but to make rent you'll have to take a job as a studio musician recording commercial jingles and backing tracks for pop acts. It's not baroque chamber music, but you can get paid while you hone your chops (literally, or at least more literally than is usually meant). Life is good.

One day, all the studios decide they don't need a trumpet player because they bought a synthesizer and they can just have a pianist (whom they already employ anyway) do the trumpet tracks, so you're laid off. You even get a new job making more money writing trumpet tracks to be recorded on the synth (with trumpet tracks being so much cheaper now, producers are using them much more).

Is this a happy ending? No. At best, it's bittersweet. Something real has been lost that can't be made whole with money.