AI and Design became the first subject within the Future by Lund Student Network
Future by Lund's Lars Mattiasson organized the workshop “From prompt to prototype” together with Silva Munoz, iGEM Team leader as well as Frideborg Hjorth and Clara Marins, both master's students in economics. Nearly twenty students participated in this first event within Future by Lund's network for students. The uses of AI are basically unlimited and the participants indicated that they use AI to create texts, transcribe, code, understand things, brainstorm ideas, hone what they have written, structure, translate, adapt messages for sales and to create software. One of the participants has started a fashion company and used AI for much of the business.
We all know that AI can bring tremendous benefits to streamline and improve in various fields. But AI can also bring about changes that are not positive. One example is the change in the fashion industry.
- Within our networks, we notice that the big brands are making redundancies in their design departments because AI can help design clothes and accessories, says Lars Mattiasson, who is responsible for the Textile & Fashion Transformation portfolio at Future by Lund. This can pose a danger that basically the same design is repeated over and over again. It may also mean that we are moving towards a less inclusive market with an increasing number of AI-produced photo models with similar looks. It is important that we learn how to use technology in both a human and creative way.
Sylvia Munoz, led the workshop which was about exploring how our creativity can interact with AI.
- Today we are going to explore AI combined with design and craftsmanship, she says. How can we use design? Is AI better than humans when it comes to creativity? Can we get any results with AI? And how can we implement it? If an AI can create things in seconds, while it takes yourself days, then what will your value be?
Lars Mattiasson believes that AI is part of the entire value chain in the textile industry, from fibre to circular models and recycling
- AI is complex, and we need to learn to use technology in a smart way. AI can be used from a first idea to creating entire collections. The results can be used in virtual tests, in modeling and creating videos, sets and even digital fashion shows, which will radically change the fashion industry.
During the workshop, all participants had to create a prompt to accomplish a simple design of a pattern to a classic bead plate. Everyone had the opportunity to correct the AI pattern until they were satisfied.
- The more specific you are in the prompt, the better the AI will produce, continues Silvia. You cannot say that the AI does not know what it is doing, but rather it is the case that the human does not know how to write the correct prompt. In the process, we will probably change something in the prompt, and in this way we control the product.
“We humans cannot allow the creative process to be just AI”
During the workshop, it was revealed that the students used AI in different ways in their process. Some followed their pattern altogether, others switched to colors other than the suggested ones and the vast majority used their pattern only as a starting point which they improved while working. Drawing up a pattern took about ten minutes, but making the pattern itself with beads and heating it into an object took about an hour.
- When you design something, it's about an intention and a process, says Silvia Munoz. It can take a long time and is not just about quickly prompting and generating something, but that's mainly how many people use it. We have to think that every design should speak to a real person, because in the end it is the people who will use the design.
One of the students pointed out that AI is a good start to a process because it both saves time and effort but also lowers the threshold for getting started. Others opined that it is an easy way to test many ideas and to have something to ball the ideas with.
- I see it as the AI can help with shortcuts in some parts, but other parts of the process necessarily take time. We humans cannot allow the creative process to be just AI. I believe that human creativity will continue to be important, and it will perhaps even play an even greater role in the coming years,” says Sylvia Munoz.
Clara Marins was one of theinitiators of the student network and workshop.
- The workshop was a great way to see how people can combine AI and human creation. Although the starting image was done by AI it was taken by most participants as a suggestion. They played around with colors and formats twisting the initial image until it became theirs. Humans always find spaces for self-expression and many times that is by remixing what already exists. I believe that one way AI will integrate into the creative processmay be similar to what happened here, as a tool that could produce an initial sketch, a font of inspiration.
This was the first event where Future by Lund examines innovation-related areas with the help of students. The work will lead to us creating an FBL Student Network.
Learn more about AI and Design
At Lund University, Campus Helsingborg, there is, among other things, a project within cultural science and industrial design, which deals with how AI will affect the industry and everyone who works in the field of design. It's not just about the design, but also cultural norms and what looks and body shapes AI will favor.
How does AI affect the fashion industry?
