The World Still Wants Print

I've decided to join the local library, partly in an act of defiance. They even provide their own music streaming app. I recall the days when vinyl could be borrowed from a library. People would then tape the records, later transfer to CD. My Dad had an extensive personal library of pirated films and music. Internet theft of copyright works wasn't new, just easier.

But I'm not quite ready for AI, is anyone?

I embraced digital forms of media simply to save space, I'm not a hoarder. Perhaps this convenience might now be going too far, to the extent of destroying human creativity entirely, at least the right to earn a living from artistic professions.

Agentic seems like the most problematic (and potentially dangerous) strain of AI, while chatbots are static, like an elaborate search tool. Though traditional search engines could still lead you into unreliable sources. So outlaw the agent version of AI, but in practical terms this can only be done at country level. It’s up to individual governments to ban forms of AI. Clearly there’s a serious problem, like nothing we’ve seen before. Funny, I asked a chatbot what my career choices were now, as a designer. Top of the list was Agentic AI, which says it all.

I was never a programmer, I started out as a graphic artist. I learned to code websites because it got me a better paid job, then I progressed to interactive media. I certainly don’t think like a developer at all. But I look around me today, in the physical world, and print is still everywhere – books, packaging, signage, even magazines.

I never lost those visual design skills, I simply adapted to a digital workflow. My brain still needing to do all the heavy lifting. AI can’t really do print artwork as such. It can provide material for mock-ups (like stock images) and obviously assist with writing the copy. It can’t give me the high resolution files needed to send to a printer.

Given the enormous energy consumption required just to produce text and screen resolution images, I can’t even fathom the energy required for hires print artwork. God knows what Adobe’s carbon footprint must be, given they now integrate AI tools into their creative apps. I switched to Affinity a few years ago, though they were bought out by Canva, but I still have the original offline desktop apps on my Mac – which is now around 10 years old.

The fact that my computer is now obsolete in the eyes of the hyped-up AI frenzy, seems like an advantage. I enjoy using my own brain, I want less interference when I’m working. I want apps to do as I say, when I ask it to, no bots let loose on my machine.

I now rack my brains wondering where I can still provide value as a designer. Returning to print seems like an obvious choice. I'm losing heart in web design as chatbots can easily knockout cheap templates, at least in the small business sector. Though I've always worked with large organisations with a budget doing custom projects or tech support.

A saving grace might be, given software is what’s most under threat from AI, is that I never started as a coder, the world of software engineering is alien. I’m only interested in what apps (or print) look like. Websites are really just software, with a narrow set of standardised rules across the board. But typography and layout still matter, just. There will likely be a post-internet age, where screens and websites matter less. The web will become largely automated by bots and ruled by apps – as we already are. Chatbots are replacing search engines, given many of clickbait blogs in search results are now written by chatbots anyway.

Print is still there if I want it. That all started by being good at drawing in school. Art was always my passion, alongside music. Then I earned good money in commercial design, I went with the digital flow. Now, I find myself looking back to the analogue skills I still have, that need revitalising, skills a bot doesn't have, at least not in my lifetime.

The future might be more analogue, at least on the surface. Tech melts into the background, invisible, doing all the menial boring stuff. The only problem is we live in a market economy. Present debates over the AI apocalypse masks real issues of further climate breakdown and fewer decently paid jobs. The clickbait noise is all about the wrong problems.

But that's what human beings do, skirt around reality.

I'm Paul, a designer and musician. Info on my career can be found on LinkedIn and there's more about my music at the GUITAR PK website.