AI-generated artwork is landing in our inbox more and more. Here's our honest guide to the pros, the cons, and what we need from you to turn it into print-ready branded merchandise.
Over the past year or so we've seen a real shift in the artwork landing in our inbox - more and more customers are sending us logos, mascots and design concepts generated using AI tools such as Midjourney, DALL-E and ChatGPT's image tools. It's an exciting development, but it also raises a few questions that are worth answering honestly, both for our own team and for you as our customer.
THE PROS OF AI ARTWORK
Used well, AI can be a genuinely useful starting point:
- Speed - a rough concept that might once have taken days of back-and-forth can now be visualised in minutes, which is great for early-stage brainstorming.
- Exploration - it's a low-cost way to explore different styles, colours and directions before committing to a final design.
- Accessibility - businesses without an in-house designer can put a visual idea on the table quickly, giving our design team something concrete to work from.
THE CONS (AND WHY THEY MATTER FOR PRINT)
This is where things get more complicated for branded merchandise specifically:
- Not print-ready - AI image generators output raster files (JPEG/PNG), not vector artwork. As we cover in our guide to Raster vs Vector Artwork, most of our print methods - screen printing, pad printing, embroidery, engraving - need vector files to reproduce cleanly at any size.
- Inconsistent detail - AI artwork can contain uneven line weights, warped text or small hallucinated details that look fine on screen but fall apart when recreated as a clean, printable design.
- Colour accuracy - AI tools work in RGB and can't give you an exact Pantone reference, which we always need to match your brand colours precisely.
- Ownership and originality - who owns an AI-generated image, and whether it's safe to use commercially, is still a genuinely unsettled area and can vary depending on the tool. There's also a real risk of AI output landing too close to an existing trademarked logo or another artist's work without you realising it.
- Brand consistency - AI-generated concepts can drift from your existing brand guidelines if they aren't carefully directed and checked.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR ORDER
If you send us AI-generated artwork, we won't turn it away - but we will be upfront with you about what needs to happen next. In most cases our design team will need to recreate it as clean vector artwork which, like any raster-to-vector conversion, may be a chargeable service depending on complexity. We'll also ask you to confirm you have the rights to use the image commercially before we put it into production.
MOJO TIPS
- Treat AI as a mood board, not a final file. Use it to communicate a look and feel, then let our designers turn it into something print-ready.
- Send us everything. The AI image, your original prompt and a written brief all help our team understand exactly what you're after.
- Keep it simple. The more intricate the AI output, the harder (and costlier) it is to recreate cleanly for print.
- Check before you commit. If in doubt about usage rights, it's worth checking the terms of the AI tool you used, or speaking to us before we go into production.
IT'S NOT JUST ARTWORK
We are even receiving visuals of items with client artwork on, which often aren't possible to produce. Take the nifty dinosaur toy as an example with our logo on. Pantone matched to our picked and printed with our logo in white, it looks good and feels even better for our brand but it's something we more than likely wouldn't be able to produce - saying that, though, don't feel put off by submitting your AI inspiration. We can 100% source something close to your project and can with larger bulk orders usually produce whatever your heart desires! Just send it on and our dedicated Studio team can advise from there!
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AI is changing thew way a lot of our customers approach design, and we're genuinely excited about where it can take creative ideas. Our job is simply to make sure whatever inspires you ends up as a great-looking, well-made product in your hands. If you've got AI artwork you'd like to turn into branded merchandise, get in touch and we'll talk it through with you.
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Ready to bring your AI idea to life?
Get in touch with team today to make it a reality!