“It’ll do.”
AI isn’t good
2026.05.12 Creating a magazine cover with Artificial Intelligence was not something I saw myself doing. I am not a fan of AI for many reasons and most of my clients have policies against its use anyways. However, when one of my magazine clients needed cover art to illustrate a feature article about AI it only made sense to try it out. So after I spent some time learning how to craft a prompt on Midjounrey by making some goofy junk (this can be fun, not gonna lie) I typed a few words into the machine and it made my cover in less than a minute.
The end product was good. It looks striking and it works as a cover. It didn’t really take less than a minute though. It still took hours of planning, ideating, a few dozen attempts with different prompts, and extensive photo editing. It also took layout work and a skilled editorial team to tell the story that the image was made to represent. Plus, this image only really made sense because the story was specifically about AI. So, it doesn’t really prove the value of AI as much as it simply begs the question of its own existence.
Despite my own dislike of AI I understand that everyone (including me) feels a huge amount of pressure to cut costs, work faster, and to not get left behind. However, I’ve had a few more experiences with the technology in the graphic design process since that first cover and I can only describe it as annoying and disappointing.
The experience of using generative AI is nothing like the experience of effortfully engaging with an idea and slowly bringing a story to life with sketches, or writing, or photographs. Instead, it’s far closer to the experience of the bored scroll through a social media feed. It allows you to create things that look more superficially impressive than a quick pencil sketch or rough photo mock up, but it is simply a different way of using your mind. It’s motionless rather than active. It’s like hoping that answers will appear, but not actually searching for them. It’s like jamming an endless supply of random objects into a lock hoping it will open instead of looking for your keys. Chapstick? No. USB dongle? No. Multivitamins? No. Piano? No. Hammer?Maybe?
As a designer a big part of my job is guiding a client through a creative process. I’m trying to make their ideas come to life, and that requires their active participation. When I’ve had clients bring AI into the mix it short circuits that process. Fast, cheap, and easy puts the process on a path to a dead end. Endless iterations create the illusion that something great is around the next corner. But it’s not, because there’s just nothing there.
I will continue to not use AI, and to discourage clients from using it. It adds nothing meaningful and if it’s claw are too deeply embedded in the design process the end product will simply make you shrug and say “it’ll do.”
Lake Burntshore
Book launch for Aaron Kreuter’s latest novel
2025.04.18Last night I got to attend the launch party for Aaron Kreuter’s Lake Burntshore. It’s an excellent novel about the Jewish summer camp experience, and the conflicts between zionism and anti-zionism within Jewish communities. It’s also, about smoking weed and arguing over bagels. It was really an honour to design this cover and after a long cold isolating winter it was a joy to be in a room full of folks who care about books and care about other people.
You can get your own copy of Lake Burntshore here
Or get it at your local library. Canadian authors are financially supported when their books are in circulation at the library so that’s a good thing to do.
National Geographic Birds of Florida
Antique store art find
2025.03.26Get a load of the amazing art and typography on this National Geographic map of Florida, Puetro Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Found this weekend at Ethel’s, an amazing vintage store in the East end of Toronto. The map is dated 1973 and the art is signed Arthur Singer. I wasn’t familiar with him, but according to his Wikipedia he was friends with Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway, so a pretty cool guy.
THOG’s Hamlet
A forgotten masterpiece of Toronto theatre
2024.11.13Over 50 years ago a young group of actors and musicians put on an avant-garde production of Hamlet for almost no money in the basement of Bathurst St, United Church. The play would be filmed by legendary Cinematographer Richard Leiterman, but become mostly forgotten, until a small group of the original cast members decided to bring it back. Since I’m lucky enough to be friends with the Director/Polonius, Steven Bush, I was also luck enough to make a couple of new posters to help in the promotion of what is truly a forgotten masterpiece, and I am begging you to do yourself a favour and watch it while you can on www.stratfordfestival.ca
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Broken Pencil Magazine
The 2024 Summer issue
2024.08.26I am so pleased with the Summer 2024 issue of Broken Pencil. The editorial team of Zack Kotzer, Olea Kim, Jason Smith, and Maria Cichosz are making it as exactly as weird and interesting as this magazine should be.
Broken Pencil is probably the most fun project I get to work on. Because it’s a low-budget indie arts publication it’s far more important for the pages to be exciting rather than perfect, so I get to be messier and more creative.
You can check on the magazine online or subscribe to the print issue at brokenpencil.com