Elissa Chudzicki, senior graphic designer in the Office of Public Affairs and Communications, details her approach to using AI to assist in the design of our cover. Chudzicki used ChatGPT and explored Google Gemini and Adobe Firefly in the creation of this project. Chudzicki has been a professional designer for 20 years and is the past president of the University & College Designers Association, a nonprofit professional association for designers and educators in higher education.
I’ve been involved with NDWorks Quarterly as the primary designer for seven years. With AI at ND as the theme of this issue, it felt appropriate to direct AI to generate the art. As a designer, AI has limited use in my work. I don’t ever want AI to do what I can do.
That being said, it’s part of my job to understand the latest tools and trends. AI is fun to work with, partly because it’s so new in the design scene. In the few instances I’ve used it to craft an idea (this is only the third project in which I’ve used AI), it has generated some sharp designs. In some cases, I strictly use AI to expedite a design process, so I can maximize work time in other areas—but more often with this tool, it takes a lot of time to get the results I envision. I’ve found success lies in mastering the prompts. I feel like there is an art in that itself.
Just like other uses for artificial intelligence, AI is an algorithm that sews multiple images together based on what it has already been exposed to. It estimates, which can create errors. In the case of the cover art, the prompt I started with was, “Interweave a circuitry pattern with an illustration of the campus of Notre Dame.” It grasped the theme, but lacked accuracy. As the process progressed, I felt the best results came from combining one of the previously generated covers and a photo of the Main Building in my prompt: “Using the referenced image, create the Main Building at the University of Notre Dame.” It took several steps to achieve the final art, and one that I was happy with.
I spent extensive time retouching the image AI gave me. AI can be funny—in one example with this cover, I got an image with two domes or completely different domes, not to mention other imperfections. I then spent time manually retouching and got much better results. In the case of this cover, I took a photo of Mary and manipulated it to look close to the final art. I also edited parts of the building to be more in line with details of the Main Building, but even then you can still see architectural errors.
Although AI is intuitive, it lacks the emotion, intentionality, and thoughtfulness that I put into my work. As a designer for Notre Dame, it is important to keep ethics in mind and I know that is equally important to Notre Dame. It’s crucial that we are transparent about the use of AI in our work and share our intentions in using it. In the rare cases I use AI, I would consider myself the art director, not the designer. I would never claim the work to be mine and want people to know the rationale behind using it. In either case, it’s up to me to ensure the outcome is a piece that is thought-provoking and unique, and accurately reflects the Notre Dame brand.
Download the cover art here.