AI in Graphic Design Process - Briefing

Briefing stage

First, a simulated scenario was created by employing CharacterAI (Character AI, 2022), a neural language model chatbot service, to create a virtual client. This AI persona, designed to simulate a UK-based business owner, facilitated an emulated client-designer interaction, with the AI client seeking graphic design services for a hypothetical company with the prompt:
 

'Imagine you are a UK-based business owner in need of graphic design services. Your mission is to fill my questionnare, and create a unique and innovative graphic design brief for a fictional company you will invent. The objective is to guide me, the designer, in bringing your vision to life. The brief should be as specific and detailed as possible, following the questionnare / guidelines listed below, but also leave room for designer to apply their creative expertise – balance is key. Please try to be really creative and original as possible within the framework of the guidelines'

The briefing stage is pivotal in ensuring a clear understanding of client needs, expectations, and vision. To this end, I sought to leverage ChatGPT4's capabilities in generating an initial questionnaire. However, on comparison this with my standard first-contact tool, a comprehensive questionnaire honed over several years, I observed the AI's version to be somewhat superficial. While further refinements could potentially enhance the AI questionnaire, I resolved to employ my standard tool, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the client's vision.

After reviewing the initial responses from the client, we engaged in a detailed discussion to clarify any ambiguities and deepen my understanding of the client's vision for his company, CosmoBites. We explored aspects such as specific design preferences and brand voice considerations. An interesting observation was the level of precision and decisiveness in the AI client's responses, a stark contrast to the typically more fluid and exploratory nature of human clients.

To ensure a holistic understanding, I employed ChatGPT, feeding it my discussion notes to pinpoint any overlooked elements. The AI's prowess yielded a plethora of follow-up queries. While some were already on my radar and others felt extraneous, there were a handful that provided fresh insights, enabling a deeper exploration of the client's vision.

 

ChatGPT's capabilities were further harnessed in shaping the briefing document. The AI tool adeptly distilled salient points from my notes, presenting them with clarity. However, due to my notes' innate disorder, a few elements eluded the AI, warranting my manual intervention. 

Full brief organized by AI:

1. Company Background: The company is called "CosmoBites", a UK-based business that specializes in making unique, high-quality, and delicious astronaut food that can be consumed here on Earth. Currently, CosmoBites has a solid presence in the UK market and is looking to expand globally.

2. Project Overview and Objectives: The aim of this project is to design a comprehensive visual identity for CosmoBites. This includes packaging, brand guidelines, environmental design, print design, editorial design, digital design such as social media posts, advertisements, short motion graphics, and 3D designs. The primary objectives are to create a brand identity that reflects the uniqueness, quality, and space theme of our products, to design product packaging that is both functional and visually appealing, to develop compelling digital designs for our social media platforms, advertisements, and short motion graphics, and to create an environmental design for our physical locations that immerses customers in a space-like environment.

3. Target Audience: Our target audience is broad, catering to anyone with a curiosity about space and a taste for good food. This primarily includes millennials and Gen Z, aged between 18 and 35, of all genders. They are adventurous, open-minded, enjoy trying new experiences, and are health-conscious. Our target audience is global, given our ambitions to expand internationally.

4. Design Preferences and Specifications: The design should capture the essence of space – think stars, galaxies, astronauts, rockets, etc. The color scheme should lean towards dark blues, purples, and blacks, with contrasting bright colors like neon green, bright yellow, and white. The style should be modern and futuristic, with clean lines and bold graphics. We would love to see elements that evoke the feel of space. Stars, galaxies, astronauts, and planets should feature prominently. The font should be sleek, modern, and easily legible. For the packaging, an interactive or multi-dimensional design would be intriguing. The designs should be high-resolution and suitable for both print and digital formats. Packaging designs should be suitable for standard food packaging sizes and compliant with food safety regulations.

5. Design Constraints: Avoid overly complicated or cluttered designs. The design should not be too childlike or cartoonish, as it may not appeal to our primary target audience. Also, no cliché or overused space-related imagery.

6. Brand Voice and Imagery: The brand voice should reflect our adventurous and exciting tone. The text should be concise, imaginative, and engaging, possibly using space-related puns and metaphors to communicate the fun and excitement of space exploration. While we want to incorporate space elements, we would like them to be interpreted in a unique and fresh way, avoiding clichés like the "smiling moon" or "alien in a flying saucer." We draw inspiration from iconic space missions like Apollo 11 and spacecraft like the Hubble Space Telescope.

7. Product Line: Our product range includes dehydrated meals, snack bars, and drinks, each with several variants like different flavors or ingredients. The packaging sizes would range from individual single-serve packs to multi-serve packs. Our product list includes:

• CosmoMeal: Dehydrated meals in pouches. These come in five variants –Lentils, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetable Curry, Grains, and Spaghetti.
• NebulaBars: Healthy snack bars. These come in three flavors – Starwberry, Banana and Apple
• Space Sips: Healthy drinks in bottles. These come in two varieties – BlackBerry Juice and Milky Way Milkshake.

8. Environment Design: Our products will be sold in dedicated CosmoBites stores and pop-up locations. We'd like to create a space-like atmosphere – think of dark walls with stars, perhaps a large screen showing a live stream of space, and futuristic furniture. For the environmental design, we are mainly looking for branding elements that could adorn the walls, ceilings, and floors of our stores or pop-up stalls. This could include decals, posters, or even a mural that reflects our space theme.

9. Motion Graphics, 3D Designs, and Interactive Design: For motion graphics, we envision something that tells the story of a journey from Earth to space, possibly showing the transformation of our ingredients into the final product. For 3D designs, we are open to your creative interpretation. For the packaging, we're thinking of something like a QR code that links to an AR experience, where customers can "see" the product floating in space on their smartphone.

10. Editorial Design: We will be launching a quarterly magazine named "CosmoChronicles", focusing on space exploration, astronaut experiences, and our products. The magazine design should reflect our brand and product theme. The magazine, CosmoChronicles, will be around 40 pages long. It will contain articles about space exploration, interviews with astronauts, information about our products, and fun space-related trivia. We don't have any specific layout requirements, but it should be clean, easy to read, and contain plenty of visuals. The design should also allow for the different sections to be easily distinguishable.

11. Competitor Information: Our main competitors are traditional snack food companies. Their designs tend to be conventional and lack the adventurous and innovative spirit we aim to capture. Their weakness lies in their lack of novelty and excitement.

12. Deliverables, Budget, and Deadline: Deliverables include a final brand guidelines document, print-ready product packaging designs, digital files for social media posts and advertisements, motion graphics files, 3D designs, and environmental design blueprint. Our budget for this project is £25,000. The final deadline is set for the 1st of August. Initial drafts should be ready by the 15th of July, feedback will be given by the 20th of July, and final revisions should be completed by the 28th of July.

13. Contact Information: The main point of contact will be our CEO, Ms. Jane Doe, who can be reached at jane.doe@cosmobites.co.uk.

14. Success Metrics: The success of the design will be measured by increased brand recognition, sales, and social media engagement.

15. Examples/References: We love the sleek and modern design of Apple products, the adventurous spirit of National Geographic magazines, and the fun yet mature design of Oreo's special edition packaging. While our industry doesn't have many examples to draw from, we admire the creativity and uniqueness of designs like Jones Soda and Red Bull, which stand out in their respective sectors.

16. Revision Process: We can accommodate up to three rounds of revisions. Feedback will be given in written format via email. The expected turnaround time for revisions is 48 hours.

17. Summary or Conclusion: We're looking for a unique, modern, and exciting design that captures the spirit of space travel and appeals to our adventurous target audience. This design should be integrated across all aspects of our visual identity, from product packaging to social media posts. We look forward to seeing your creative interpretation of our vision.

18. Customer Experience: We aim to create an experience that is fun, educational, and engaging. The design should contribute to this by being visually appealing, thought-provoking, and interactive. It should stimulate curiosity and give customers a feeling of being part of the larger universe.

A synthesized brief was subsequently presented to the client for validation, ensuring that the encapsulated vision aligned perfectly with the client's aspirations. This validation is paramount as it underpins all ensuing design endeavours. Yet, in this simulated scenario, the utility of this step dwindled, given the inherent limitations of the 'chatting' services. Specifically, ChatGPT's propensity to 'forget' previous conversations after a certain word threshold necessitated frequent reminders or reiterations. Despite this, its capacity to grasp context, when adequately cued, remains commendable.