AI-generated posters don’t should be horrible | ‘ERE I AM

The drawback

A now famous Facebook post exhibits us the
scourge of identikit posters generated by AI.

Here’s an article on the subject from the Independent.

Here’s one other I discovered within the wild. With apologies for choosing on the
Leamington Beer Festival – they’re on no account distinctive

The drawback with these just isn’t a lot that they’re dangerous. They’re OK,
I don’t love them. The drawback is that when you’ve seen that model 20 occasions
it begins to annoy simply from the sheer repetition.

I knew that even ChatGPT was able to a broader number of types than this,
so I got down to show it.

I gave ChatGPT some invented occasion particulars and requested it to provide a poster.
Rather than go along with the default look it could select for a spring fayre,
I made a degree of specifying what I believed was a unique model:

Me:

Produce a poster for a spring fayre.
21 April – 11am to 3pm
Mill Beach Park, Honeyford
Free entry
Tombola
Cakes and drinks
Performance by a samba band and a dhol band.
Craft stalls
Circus Skills workshop

Go for a clear, unfussy, shiny format with a daring putting spring-themed
graphic. Avoid pastel/airbrush/oil model artwork or photos of individuals.

This is what got here again.

Not as profitable as I hoped. To me it nonetheless seems like what I’m attempting to
keep away from.

I requested for one thing intentionally completely different.

Me:

Make one other one utilizing a very completely different design aesthetic of your selection.
Treat the present one as a “what to not do” – not that there’s something
flawed with it, however we wish ours to face out from different posters that look
comparable.

I believe that is already significantly better. It stands out simply be being completely different. I puzzled what I’d name this model if I wished to ask for it once more?

Me: What is that this design model you’ve used referred to as?

ChatGPT: This one is leaning right into a modernist / Bauhaus-influenced graphic model, with a bit of up to date “flat illustration” layered on prime.

More particularly, you may describe it as:

Bauhaus / Modernist Poster Design

• Rooted within the Bauhaus custom (Nineteen Twenties–30s)
• Strong emphasis on operate over ornament
• Asymmetrical format with clear hierarchy
• Bold, easy sans-serif typography
• Limited, high-contrast color palette

Geometric Minimalism

• Built from primary shapes (circles, semicircles, rectangles)
• The flower is abstracted into nearly symbolic kinds
• Very little texture or shading — largely flat color

Swiss Style (International Typographic Style) affect

• Clean grid-based alignment (even when loosely utilized)
• Information-first format
• Clear, legible construction

If you wished a shorthand label for a designer or printer, you may name it:

“Bauhaus-inspired geometric minimalist poster”

If you’re attempting to face out, this course works nicely as a result of most native occasion posters default to:

• bunting
• hand-drawn florals
• pastel palettes
• “craft honest” aesthetics

Whereas this feels extra like:

• a gallery poster
• a design museum flyer
• or one thing you’d see in a well-curated café

If you need, I can push it additional into a very distinctive area of interest (e.g. brutalist, risograph, 90s rave flyer, Japanese minimal, and so forth.).

Well, thanks GPT. I knew there was an infinite array of design types that it might produce. Instead of attempting to dredge some names from my reminiscence, I requested for ideas.

It replied with an inventory of types, a few of which I’d by no means heard of, some
I recognised however couldn’t image, some which have been names I didn’t know for
types I did.

Me: Give me an inventory of types to select from

ChatGPT: Here’s a intentionally diverse menu—some safe-but-distinct, some fairly left-field. I’ve saved each concrete so you’ll be able to think about how your fayre poster would really look.

🎨 Clean however Characterful

1. Bauhaus / Modernist
(What you simply noticed)
Geometric shapes, main colors, sturdy kind
Feels cultural / design-led moderately than “craft honest”

2. Swiss Style
strict grid, a number of whitespace
Black/white + one accent color
Very “info design”, nearly institutional

3. Contemporary Editorial (Magazine-style)
Big headline, elegant serif + sans combine
Think weekend complement or gallery leaflet
Could really feel surprisingly premium for a fayre

🌿 Graphic & Illustrative (however not twee)

4. Risograph Print Style
Limited ink colors, barely misregistered layers
Grainy textures, daring shapes
Feels handmade however designed, not artful

5. Cut Paper / Collage (Matisse-inspired)
Inspired by Henri Matisse cut-outs
Organic shapes, daring color blocks
Very putting from a distance

6. Botanical Scientific Illustration (Modernised)
Clean line drawings of vegetation, labelled or diagram-like
Monochrome + one spotlight color
Quietly distinctive, barely tutorial

⚡ Bold / Unusual Directions

7. Brutalist Graphic Design
Raw, high-contrast, nearly “ugly on goal”
Heavy black blocks, stark kind
Feels rebellious—very completely different from typical village posters

8. 90s Rave Flyer / Acid Graphics
Neon colors, warped kind, energetic format
Could echo the samba/dhol power
Surprisingly efficient if finished with restraint

9. Memphis Design (80s Postmodern)
Playful shapes, squiggles, clashing colors
Inspired by Memphis Group
Fun however nonetheless graphic and daring

🧭 Quietly Distinct / Understated

10. Japanese Minimal Poster
Very restrained format, a number of empty house
One sturdy graphic factor
Elegant, calm, and weird on this context

11. Monochrome + Single Accent (Ultra-minimal)
Black, white, and e.g. shiny inexperienced or orange
Typography-led, nearly no illustration
Relies on composition moderately than ornament

12. Wayfinding / Signage Style
Looks like a park map or transport signage
Icons, arrows, structured format
Functional however visually fascinating

🎪 Slightly Playful however Still Clean

13. Modern Icon System
Everything represented as easy icons
Consistent stroke weight, grid-based
Feels like an app UI or transport system

14. Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)
Bold inked shapes, slight imperfections
Limited palette, sturdy distinction
Suggests “occasion” with out being twee

15. Festival Poster (Contemporary Indie)
Big central graphic + stacked lineup textual content
Borrow cues from music festivals
Works properly given the bands

If you need a steer

Given your transient (“clear, unfussy, daring, no twee imagery”), the strongest stand-out choices are:

• Risograph
• Cut paper / Matisse
• Brutalist (toned down barely)
• Japanese minimal
• Wayfinding / signage

If one in every of these clicks, I can generate a poster in that precise model—and push it correctly, not simply superficially.

Asking for particular aesthetics produced quite a lot of posters.

Now, I’m not claiming these don’t have a whiff of AI about them. I don’t assume that’s actually my purpose – we could be trustworthy that we’re utilizing AI, we simply don’t need it to have that look that everybody’s sick of.

Me: Please give me Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)

Me: and now please Japanese Minimal Poster

Me: Now do Memphis Design please

(I didn’t know what Memphis Group design was, however I recognised if once I noticed it.

Then I obtained a bit foolish. Designers Republic is a design company well-known for
file covers from the late 80s onwards.

Me: And now within the model of Designers Republic

One word right here is that alongside the best way, the poster has acquired further textual content
(“A day of music making and household enjoyable”) – it’s determined that Designers
Republic would have thrown in some textual content of that sort, so it’s come up
with some phrases. Those phrases at the moment are within the chat context, so they seem
in subsequent posters.

If you have been working from scratch, you’d simply ask for the model you need
within the first place, and keep away from selecting up trappings as you go.

Me: Now as if knowledgeable graphic designer has added typography to a poster paint drawing by his younger baby.

Me: Now with the aesthetic of a photocopied 1980 punk fanzine. But with some color snuck in.

Me: Now please make one within the model of a 90s drum n bass gig flyer, with early 3D/fractal laptop imagery

Back to smart concepts, naming an artwork model however asking for a poster
that motion may need used, looks as if a powerful tactic.

Me: Now within the model of a recent 40s poster for a cubist exhibition.

So there we’re. The sharp-eyed are nonetheless going to recognise these as
AI-generated, however they’re distinctive, and I believe they’re not ugly.

So that’s the ethical – you don’t should make posters that appear to be everybody
else’s.

There’s an extra step – you don’t should ask AI for posters as photos
that may’t be edited. Claude and Gemini can generate HTML, PNG, PDF,
the place the textual content is actual textual content, layers are actual layers, you’ll be able to change fonts,
transfer issues round, edit the textual content – however that’s greater than I need to speak about immediately.

Inspired by this weblog put up, I went on to make a catalogue of one hundred poster styles,
with ready-to-paste prompts and instance photos for each.