Design week nearly broke me
It was the Design Outlook conference (festival?!) this week in Melbourne, and we took full advantage with a packed diary of design discussions, workshops, presentations and meetings.
Here was my design-laden diary for the week;
Monday
We co-hosted our 9th Dazed & Diffused generative AI meetup, at Harlow in Richmond. In keeping with the design theme we had three rapid-fire demos of AI design tools, from SpatialGPT, LeonardoAI and one from Time Under Tension. Over 120 people came along to chat all things gen AI, a fantastic night. A highlight for me was getting an early peek at the new Leonardo foundation model Phoenix, which magically produces legible text in generated images.
Tuesday
We ran an AI Immersion Day for 30 people from the Asahi Lifestyle Beverages marketing team, which included some inspiration, hands-on training in gen AI tools like Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT and Gemini followed by a high-energy design workshop to unearth some wonderful use cases. Big thanks to Lution for co-hosting the workshop with us.
Wednesday
Meetings with two of Australia’s largest retailers, talking about the future of AI-first retailing, and how to optimise design production with gen AI tools. In both of these discussions the talk turned to whether retailers should be using gen AI to iterate on their current businesses, or seize the opportunity to innovate and disrupt. Read more about our thoughts on gen AI for retail here.
Thursday
The Design Outlook conference, where Steph Foxworthy and I took to the stage and spoke about “From Gen AI to Gen UI - How AI is disrupting design”. It was a packed crowd of about 500 people, and we received great feedback. For those that attended, you can download a copy of our presentation here. A highlight for me was Alison Page’s talk about how First Nations people shaped Australia’s land and culture, and are now inspiring a New Australian Design that integrates nature and human environments.
Friday
As part of the Design Outlook workshop series, myself, Steph and John Lazarra (Head of Digital Experience Design at Telstra) facilitated a workshop for 22 Australian Design Leaders, allowing them to compare notes on generative AI in their design practices today, the barriers they face (and how to overcome them), and their aspirations for the future. It was interesting to see the common themes across businesses in varied industries, including education, healthcare and retail.
A huge thanks to Grant Show and the Design Outlook team for putting on a great event, and inviting us to take part.
Work with Time Under Tension
We work with agencies, companies and brands to elevate your Customer & Employee experience with generative AI. Our advisory team help you to understand what is possible, and how it relates to your business. We provide training for you to get the most of generative AI apps such as ChatGPT and Midjourney. Our design & technology team build bespoke gen AI tools to meet your needs. You can reach us here: www.timeundertension.ai/contact
A handful of Gen AI news
Not to be outdone by Design Outlook, there was a small design / creativity event in France this week too. While we sipped extra-hot flat whites to fight off the Melbourne winter, ad agency folk from around the world drank rosé on yachts at the Cannes Lions Festival.
As such, this issue’s “A handful of Gen AI news” is dedicated to ad campaigns that utilise AI in interesting ways…
Mercado Libre’s “Handshake Hunt,” nabbed the Media Grand Prix, it used AI to scan media so that whenever a handshake—Mercado Libre’s logo—appeared on a viewer’s screen, a QR code would pop up linking to a Black Friday deal
Pedigree unveiled 'Adoptable', which used gen AI to transform basic shelter dog photos into high-quality studio images (we just did this for sofas, for an Australian furniture retailer!)
“Vanishing Emails” used AI to automate the deletion of expired promotional emails, significantly reducing email data and energy us
The ‘Impossibly Smart Billboard’ campaign used AI to generate copy for every neighbourhood in New York based on location, weather, traffic data and time
McDonalds’ "Sweet Connections" lets you record a message to your grandma and translate it into her native language with HeyGen's AI video translation tools.
We normally leave it at five, but this is too good not to watch. It’s not made with AI, but if you ❤️AI you will love this…
That’s a wrap for Issue #21. Drop us some feedback below, and please forward to a friend if you think they will enjoy more gen AI in their life.