AI-generated posters are everywhere, and graphic designers are fed up.
As people use artificial intelligence software like ChatGPT to create fresh headshots for LinkedIn or playful caricatures to share on Facebook, small businesses are turning to the technology to churn out social media posts, event flyers and sandwich-board signage. But graphic designers who make a living off this work say AI-generated visuals taking over social media and shop windows are slop.
“I think we’re neglecting the fact that human care is something you can see and people value,” Jesse Tyler, partner at branding studio All True, told USA TODAY. “If you want to promote your event or do something in Sharpie on white printer paper, to me, that’s better than letting a computer generate something generic that you put no thought into.”
For many, AI-generated posters are easy to identify because they feature the same design elements. They are often overcrowded with text and icons, making it difficult to distinguish the most important information, Nick McGraw, owner of marketing agency McGrawesome Design, told USA TODAY. AI-generated posters also tend to lack hierarchy, he said — the arrangement of elements that guides viewers from most to least important information.
McGraw offered the original 1977 “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” movie poster as a good example of design hierarchy.
“Darth Vader and the Death Star are the biggest, most looming elements of that poster. So you’re seeing that and you’re going, ‘Okay, he’s going to be a main character,’” McGraw said. “Then you see Luke in the foreground and there’s contrast around the lightsaber and you’re like, ‘Okay, he’s going to be meaningful too.’ And then there’s secondary characters around them. That’s called hierarchy.”
Fonts are also a “glaring” giveaway of an AI-generated poster, Mika Reyes, founder of social media API Adeli, told USA TODAY. She said many of these posters use the same font families, sizes and weights, and some feature three to five different fonts.
As more AI-generated posters pop up in communities, graphic designers are taking a stand on why small businesses should think twice before using the technology.
Why Are Small Businesses Turning to AI-Generated Posters?
USA TODAY reached out to several small businesses, including restaurants, car washes and cosmetologists, that shared AI-generated posters on social media. Though none responded, graphic designers offered a short answer for why business owners may turn to AI: time and money.
Working with a marketing agency or independent graphic designer can be costly. All True in Springfield, Missouri, offers services ranging from name and logo creation to website design and brand strategy. Most clients spend between $10,000 and $15,000 on a branding project with the studio, Tyler said. Smaller projects can start in the low thousands, while larger ones can cost more than six figures.
McGraw told USA TODAY that his Ontario-based agency’s clients spend an average of 6,000 to 10,000 Canadian dollars (about $4,200 to $7,000 in U.S. dollars) for a custom-built website. His lowest web design package — an AI-generated website he creates with prompts and can deliver in 48 hours — starts at 1,000 Canadian dollars (about $700), he said.
Joe Perpetua, owner of Connecticut-based marketing agency Hyperview Creative, offers social media management, website design, email marketing, branding, content creation and search engine optimization. A one-off design project, such as a logo, flyer or menu, may cost a client $100 to $200, he told USA TODAY.
Tyler, McGraw and Perpetua all said they sometimes see an AI-generated poster as a sign that a business is lazy or misleading.
“When I see a poster for a restaurant that has a picture of food that’s AI generated, I don’t want to eat at that restaurant because I know I’m not going to get what’s on that picture because a computer just came up with it,” Tyler said. “It tells me that the owner may not have attention to detail or may not care that much. It looks like carelessness to me to use AI for a lot of these things.”
But McGraw said he also has sympathy for business owners turning to AI.
“When I see it at first I go, ‘Ugh, another one’ … but I give them a break because I’m like, ‘You know how hard it is to run a business? Do you know how many things you can hemorrhage money on?’” McGraw said. “It’s hard to be a business owner these days. If they use AI to be sort of a rescue operation for them, they see it as a breath of fresh air. They’re looking at it and going, ‘Wow, this saves me money, this saves me time.’”
USA TODAY reached out to OpenAI for comment about the rise of AI-generated posters.
What Makes an AI Poster Different From an Ad?
AI-generated restaurant posters may display AI-generated food, which can be misleading. But food advertising has long been labeled deceptive. Images of a McDonald’s Big Mac, showing a juicy beef patty on a plush sesame-seed bun, rarely resemble what customers receive in their paper bags. A notorious commercial photography trick for replicating syrup in advertisements is using motor oil.
The difference between AI-generated food imagery and marketing tactics used by corporations like McDonald’s is the human touch, Tyler said.
“When McDonald’s does a photoshoot to promote a new product, there is a shocking, and maybe even grotesque, amount of man hours required to achieve that,” he said. “It is a room full of people who are experts and are paid well, meticulously manicuring a hamburger bun to look perfect and then they go to an edit bay and spend hours and hours working through every sesame seed on a bun. It’s dishonest in ways, but it is human craft and care.”
Ultimately, Tyler said, small businesses shouldn’t try to mimic the marketing materials of corporations.
“The level of polish these big companies do, they look like that because they can afford it, because they invest in it in a different way. If you’re a small business, you can be honest about your limitations and do things in a simpler way that works for you. That’s a business I want to support,” Tyler added.
What Can Business Owners Do Instead?
Tyler said he is more charmed by a small business that takes a do-it-yourself approach to marketing, even if it uses a rough-around-the-edges, hand-drawn poster, because it shows human care.
If available, McGraw recommends that business owners turn to a local print shop. Often, he said, a print shop has an in-house graphic designer who can create unique visuals at a lower price and with a quicker turnaround.
For business owners who stick with AI and have experience with the technology, Reyes recommends writing stronger prompts to get more refined results. The reason so many AI-generated posters look alike, she said in a recent TikTok video, is that users’ prompts are too vague.
In a blog post on her website, Reyes provides examples of prompts for creating marketing materials, including one for a mid-century-style event poster. The prompt asks users to specify the event and colors, and calls for a single focal image, clear visual hierarchy and space for a headline.
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