How To Learn AI for Graphic Design

From personalizing your social media feed to delivering movie suggestions to your streaming platform to monitoring your business banking account, AI has become a part of everyday life, at home and at work. According to a report from McKinsey & Company, AI technology will eventually become "embedded in all functions" as companies and their workers become more familiar with it [1]. The design business is no exception, and learning AI for graphic design can help enhance your creativity. 

Discover different AI tools you can incorporate into your graphic design work. Get to know their various features and find out how you can learn AI for graphic design through different educational methods.

What is AI for graphic design?

As a graphic designer, you can use two types of AI-powered tools to enhance your design process and reduce some of the work you do by hand. With these tools, you can create designs in minutes that once took hours, days, or longer. 

• Traditional AI tools: Traditional AI design tools rely on algorithms that help save time and effort by predicting what designs you might prefer and automating design tasks like creating repeated patterns, resizing images, changing colors, and more. 

• Generative AI tools: Using machine learning, generative design tools create instant graphic images or scenes based on spoken or written prompts.

What can you do with AI design tools?

Much like other industries, using AI as a tool in design can help you brainstorm new ideas, enhance productivity, and amplify your own creativity. As a graphic designer, you can use AI tools to accomplish various functions, including the following:

• Generate unique images from written or spoken prompts

• Predict a color palette and artistic style for your project

• Finish the digital sketch you started drawing

• Create a prototype from a simple drawing

• Make automatic adjustments for design elements like layout and typography

AI tools for graphic design

It helps to know more about specific products to better understand what you can do with AI design tools. Explore different AI tools and some of their special features to begin envisioning how you might implement them in your work.

Adobe Firefly: This popular design tool offers image generation, moodboard creation, and the ability to make video clips from text or images. You can also use it to remove and replace objects, enhance lighting, change themes and colors, and incorporate visually interesting text effects.

 Autodraw: This free AI tool allows you to create designs quickly using machine learning and preset drawings. You can draw freehand, activate autodraw (which guesses what you're drawing with a selection of images), add different shapes and text, and fill in various colors.

Magic Studio on Canva: With a collection of AI tools in Magic Studio, you can generate unique images, choose from a variety of design templates, access free graphics, images, and sound effects, store your brand design elements, edit photos, and create captivating text.

Designs.ai: This AI-powered design platform allows you to create original designs from a prompt, image, or template; experiment with different art styles like steampunk, 3D, or anime; create logos; resize your designs; explore a spectrum of colors and variations; and try out different fonts.

Khroma: This color-concentrated AI tool uses algorithms to learn the colors you prefer. It offers a wide spectrum of color combinations and all of the data associated with them, such as color names, hex codes, RGB values, and more. 

Will AI replace graphic designers?

While AI can generate beautiful designs, this technology still relies on human skills and talent. By saving you time and acting as a helpful partner, AI design tools can enhance your creativity, which might improve the quality of your work. 

How to learn AI for graphic design

Learning more about AI can help you integrate it into your graphic design work. Methods for learning about AI include books, online courses, videos, podcasts, and practice with AI design tools. Find out more about these methods to determine which ones are right for you.

Read about AI and how to integrate it into your work.

Learning AI for graphic design starts with understanding the basics of AI technology. Essential concepts to become familiar with include:

• Deep learning

• Large language models

• Machine learning

• Natural language processing

• Neural networks

• Reinforcement learning

• Supervised and unsupervised learning

Thousands of books on the market can help you understand basic AI concepts, and once you've learned them, you might consider moving on to books about how to integrate AI into your creative process. 

Some examples of books you might choose include:

• Artificial Intelligence for Dummies, by John Paul Mueller, Luca Massaron, and Stephanie Diamond

• Artificial Intelligence Basics: A Non-Technical Introduction, by Tom Taulli

• AI Made Simple: A Beginner's Guide to Generative Intelligence, by Rajeev Kapur

Take an online course or a series of courses.

From coast to coast in the US, a variety of colleges and universities offer online AI courses for people in creative professions. Or, you can take a course or a series of courses on one of the many online learning platforms available. Online platforms encourage accessibility by allowing you to take courses from faraway colleges and universities—several different ones if you want—and complete courses on your own schedule. 

Watch videos and listen to podcasts.

If you learn best through audio or visual teaching methods, a variety of videos and podcasts can help you understand how to integrate AI into graphic design. Some examples of podcasts that might interest you include:

• AI for Creatives, with Nova Lorraine and Kamilah Sanders

• The Deeply Graphic Designcast, with Nick Longo and Mikelle Morrison

• The Artificial Intelligence Show, with Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput

Practice using AI design tools.

As with any other skill, it helps to practice when learning to use AI design tools. Generate images, fine-tune them, explore various editing features, and experiment with prompts. Remember that you can do a lot with your prompt, from resizing and changing colors to making your image more exact with a more detailed description. 

How to address ethical concerns with AI and graphic design

Carefully vet the design tools you use to avoid ethical concerns like bias, discrimination, plagiarism, or copyright infringement when using AI-powered tools. For example, choosing AI models trained on properly licensed images helps prevent legal ramifications. Look for companies that pay creators for the use of their training content and those that don't claim ownership of content created on their platforms.

Learn more about AI for graphic design on Coursera

Incorporating AI into your graphic design process can help spark your imagination and enhance your creativity. 

Discover how to use AI design technology successfully with online programs like Generative AI for Everyone, a beginner-friendly, three-module course that can help you gain a solid understanding of the technology, its use cases, and the opportunities it presents. For a deeper look at graphic design, consider the Adobe Graphic Designer Professional Certificate on Coursera, where you’ll explore timesaving tips and AI-powered tools to enhance your graphic design workflow.