Using AI in Interpretive Design Work

I've been an art director and graphic designer for over 40 years now, and have been fascinated in the last couple of years with the amazing Artificial Intelligence Image Generators that continue to evolve rapidly. I have used it in a few projects. But one must be very careful how they are using it. I do a lot of work with historical interpretive panels and am often trying to depict something from history as accurately as possible. Historic photos are great for that purpose. But they're not always available. Another option is illustration. I can do that or hire someone to do it, and have hired many an illustrator in my day.

AI is an option depicting something. It can really do some stunning work. But has problems. It has a mind of its own. Getting it to give you what you want can be like trying to teach a puppy a new trick. The puppy will want to do anything but what you want it to do. So it takes a lot of patience and trial-and-error. And I would only use it for certain things. For instance, if I wanted to render a specific bird species, I will use one one of the wildlife illustrators I know. They will get the specific markings and other details where AI would just improvise.

But I'm attaching an example where I have used AI. In this case, I wanted to show the Sacramento River before and after levees and dredging were done. The wild river and the tamed river. But the "before" image needed to show about 1850, and there are no photos of the river taken from what was then more like a swamp. Because nobody was wading out there with a big camera in 1850 to take a picture of a swamp. So I used AI. And I did it by making the modern image first, from an actual photo. Then generated images in which I asked for the river to be changed to a swamp, and created the "before" picture second.

The Sacramento River, Before Reclamation, 1850.

The Sacramento River, After Reclamation, 1900

So here was a case where I had no photo to work with, could have hired an illustrator, but I ended up with something probably better looking, for less money, by using AI. And this was a case where I was showing the transformation, not a specific spot on the river's course, and these two AI illustrations served the purpose.