Compared a human artist and an AI for a logo design gig

I paid a local artist $300 for a logo last month and used an AI tool for the same brief to see the difference. The human made weird mistakes but got the feel right, the AI was clean but had zero personality. Has anyone else tested both side by side for a real project?

3 comments

3 Comments

nguyen.morgan4d ago

My buddy runs a small record shop and tried the same thing - the AI gave him this slick geometric record with perfect grooves, but the local artist drew a warped vinyl with a scratch that looks exactly like one on his actual turntable. He kept it even though the text was slightly off center, because every regular who walks in points at it and says "hey, that's the scratch from your copy of Rumours." The AI version sits in a folder on his desktop, the real logo is on his front window.

riverh494d ago

Oh man, this is such a good test! I actually did almost the same thing with my buddy's coffee shop logo. The AI gave us this perfectly symmetrical cup with steam lines that looked like a stock photo, super boring. The artist we paid drew a crooked mug with a little chip in it and a weird font that somehow just felt... right? Like the AI version was cleaner but the human version actually looked like it belonged to that specific shop. The artist also messed up the spelling twice and we had to go back and forth, but honestly that felt more real than the AI's perfect nothingness.

west.casey4d ago

Agree completely. The imperfect stuff sticks with you way longer than the polished garbage. I remember a logo for a local hardware store that had a crooked hammer with the handle slightly too long. Someone probably drew that in 15 minutes on a napkin. But every time I see it I think "yep, that's Bob's place." AI would give you a perfectly proportioned hammer with flawless lighting and it'd look like it belongs in a corporate brochure for a company that doesn't exist. That spelling mistake thing you mentioned hits the nail on the head too. Mistakes mean someone cared enough to fix them. AI never makes mistakes so it never shows effort. Perfect things feel empty because they don't show any struggle to exist.