QUESTION: Can I create my business’ branding using AI?

ANSWER: You can, but “can” and “should” are totally different. There are many, many reasons that AI isn’t in a place (yet) where it can create effective branding for businesses on its own.

In business, your branding is EVERYTHING

Since I’m a branding strategist, and you’re here reading this, you may or may not have just rolled your eyes at that subtitle. I mean, obviously I’ll tell you “branding is everything” because it’s what I do, and that benefits me, right? But that’s not actually what I mean. What I mean here, is that when it comes to business growth, your branding includes waaay more than just your logo. It’s literally… well, everything. Everything your business puts out that in some way communicates with your audience, or your internal staff – it’s ALL branding.

Your brand isn’t just visual, it’s conceptual, and values-based. And if it’s not, that might be why yours isn’t working – but that’s a topic for a different day.

What we’re talking about today, is the most tempting apple in the brand-design garden of Eden – using AI to generate the materials for your branding.

Using AI for Branding Design is Tempting

I want to start off by saying, yes, I totally understand the temptation. There’s a shiny, shiny tool, that you can give sentences, and it’ll go compile themes and elements and assets from all over the internet, and output a franken-design that lines up with the prompt you handed it. If you’re not a designer, and/or you don’t have the budget to pay a brand strategist or designer, then with that tool at your disposal?

Up front, it might seem like using it just makes SENSE. But remember how I said “branding is everything”? When you hand that process to an algorithm (at least right now at the time of writing – who knows where AI is going from here), you’re giving up control over a lot more than just the fonts your logo uses, and from where I’m sitting? There’s no amount of saved time or money that’s worth compromising the communication of your brand values. Or, in an even worse scenario, actively pushing users away from your brand entirely, because you’ve telegraphed values you weren’t intending.

Not to mention, depending what you use to make it happen… AI generated branding might be free. And “free” vs spending thousands with a branding strategist? It might feel like a no-brainer.

But if Your Budget Doesn’t Stretch… Why Not Use AI?

So today we’re going to talk about some of the million reasons that it’s NOT a no-brainer to use AI to generate your business’ branding. It might not seem like it on the surface, but the iceberg that is your branding? It’s got a lot going on underneath the water – and that’s where a lot of the pitfalls of AI generated branding land.

1 – Generative AI Can Only Iterate

What is AI Actually Doing?

To understand why AI isn’t the way forward for your business’ branding, we have to start with an understanding of what the “magic” algorithms are actually doing, in case you’ve been under a bit of a rock and you’ve missed these conversations online, or you’ve just not thought into it (which is totally fine, you’re thinking about it now, and that’s what matters!).

“Generative AI” makes it sound like something that creates things from nothing. It’s been branded in and of itself, because let’s face it, there’s a TONNE of investment behind these systems, and we’re in a position as a society where if it doesn’t work… things are going to go sideways fast. But it’s intentional that it sounds like Generative AI creates something from nothing – or rather, something from the prompt that you give it. You ask an algorithm to design “A logo for a personal coaching brand, that’s bold, feminine, and uses blue and green” and it’s going to do it.

How AI “Creates” Materials

But it DOESN’T create that from nothing, it creates it from the materials it’s been trained on. We’re not going to get bogged down in the fact that all of the materials the algorithms were originally trained on were stolen from human creatives – despite it being true. The point though, putting theft aside, is that it’s not starting with nothing. It’s starting with things humans made. Now, it’s true that all art is in some sense iterative. Oil painters study the work of the great masters for a reason – there’s a lot to learn. And it would be easy to lean into that concept, and think to oneself, “well, if human artists iterate on other creatives’ work, then there’s nothing wrong with AI doing the same thing.” But as much as it’s an appealing concept, that idea isn’t REAL.

AI Is Information-Based

“Why not?” I hear you asking – the answer is deceptively simple from 40,000 feet, and increasingly complex as you spiral into the more specific details. But the umbrella version of the answer, from the top down? Artificial Intelligence is rooted in what it says it is. “Intelligence”. Data. Information. And it’s true that there’s a lot of information, and data behind your brand creation, and behind creative acts in general. But it’s not JUST data and information – creative acts require intuition, and innovation – not just mashing together existing concepts, whether it’s in a “new” way, or not.

In this sense, AI can only work backwards. It can only pull from what it’s trained on, only see what’s behind us, and only recognize patterns that already exist. It can’t project, intuitively, what’s coming next.

Your Business is in the FUTURE

And that’s, at the core, why it’s just not in a place right now where it can, on its own, effectively create brand materials for your business. Your business is in the FUTURE. Your growth is in the FUTURE. The buyers you’re targeting with a rebrand aren’t buying today – they’re buying tomorrow. So pure iteration? It just doesn’t cut it.

2 – You’re Not Selling to AIs, You’re Selling to Humans

Customer decisions aren’t wholly data-driven

You know how I said that Artificial Intelligence is data-based? Well, unfortunately, customer decisions aren’t. Obviously some pieces of data are used in customer purchasing decisions – price, whether the thing you’re offering has been proven to solve their problem – but ultimately? Buying is emotional. And because of this, so is branding. A branding suite that doesn’t tap into emotion isn’t going to work for long, if it works at the beginning at all. You’re not a purely logical being, and the people you’re selling to aren’t either.

When I start a brand design, I start that with the emotions you want your customers or potential customers to FEEL when they encounter your branding online or in the real world. How to prompt those feelings in people is, in some senses, data-based – we’ve got all kinds of research on how colour, for example, impacts feelings. That’s the whole basis of colour psychology. And we also have a tonne of data about the way things like letter forms in typography make people feel, too. The implications of serifs vs sans-serifs, and the tones created by different script fonts. And those pieces of data are important, and totally play a role in brand design. A HUGE role.

Your ideal customers aren’t cookie cutter

But that’s not where it stops, because every audience will respond to these items in slightly different ways, and no rule is perfect. A great example is over all, light coloured sales pages and websites convert more highly than dark ones. But that might not be the case for your audience, or your niche. It might make more sense to use a dark background, and “break” that rule based on your customer activity and profile.

This rule breaking? It’s not always fully data-driven, or based in strict information you’ve acquired as a business owner. Sometimes – arguably a LOT of the time – it’s intuitive. It’s about what makes SENSE, not what exists in an established pattern. And like we talked about, AI doesn’t HAVE intuition, it only has data-analysis.

You’re selling to humans – not to AIs. Which means your branding requires a human approach, that merges intuition AND existing data patterns. Over-reliance on one side vs the other, just doesn’t cut it.

3 – AI Generated Logo Materials Can’t Be Copyrighted

Legal protections matter

We’ve talked about the reason AI can’t create truly original, functional brand content, and why it doesn’t work for tapping into the emotional side of your unique customer profile. But that’s not where the reasons that AI isn’t fit for purpose here stop, because the branding you use for your business should be able to go with you, wherever your business grows to. That’s it’s job. Remaining recognizable, and effective through seasons of growth.

At a certain point, you’re going to want to trademark your logo, and that’s when things get wonky if you’ve used AI to generate your branding materials. While you can trademark an AI generated logo to prevent its use by others in marketplaces, you can’t own the copyright to it. The difference is nuanced, but incredibly important. Once you get to that stage, you’ll want the copyright (or the ability to purchase that copyright), AND a trademark on your logo materials, because then you’re protected fully.

Copyrights vs Trademark Protections

Why do both trademark and copyright matter? That comes down to the legal definitions of each one. Copyrights protect intellectual property – ANY intellectual property. In some jurisdictions, like the UK, in order to take action based on a copyrighted piece of material, you’ll have had to apply for those rights – but in other jurisdictions, copyrights are automatic. When you make that thing… you own the rights to it, and you can take action against people who copy your work.

Trademarks are different – they’re more specific, to business activity. It’s not just protecting something you’ve created and/or purchased the rights to, it’s about protecting your position in the marketplace. When you trademark a logo, that means within the marketplace/jurisdiction it’s protected in, no one can use it for business or promotional purposes – meaning there’s no opportunity for materials that are visually too close to yours creating confusion for potential customers.

Copyrights apply to materials, usually, for the holder’s entire life, then an added 70 years after that. But Trademarks are different – Trademarks are dependent on using them in the marketplace, meaning you can lose a Trademark if you’re not actively using it.

For future-proofing, you want BOTH

And that, right there, is why you want the ability to have both. While it’s true that most designers, under traditional packages, retain the copyright to your logo materials, nearly all of us allow the opportunity to purchase the copyrights to the designs for an added fee. But when your materials have been designed with AI, you don’t have that opportunity. You don’t own it when you generate it, and you can’t own it later, either. Anything used to promote your business that you don’t have the opportunity to own (whether that’s brand materials, or because of overreliance on social media platforms to communicate with your audience vs an email list) is a risk. Sometimes, that risk is worth taking, like growing social platforms. Other times, like using AI to create your brand materials, it’s just… not.

Professional Branding Design May Not be Out of Reach

So if you’ve read all this, and you’re like, “Oh god, okay, so that’s me out of options then” – don’t freak out yet. Professional brand design might not be out of reach – because there are all kinds of ways to work with designers that don’t involve full 1:1 design services. Some designers, like me, offer semi-bespoke services, where I’ve created a branding suite and you purchase it outright, with adjustments made for your business. Some, have materials available for purchase on marketplaces like Etsy, or Creative Market!

Or, it might be a matter of having a consulting call with a designer, to talk through modifications you can make to a design that STARTED with an AI generative output, so that you can meet the process halfway, so to speak. But the options aren’t closed to you just because you don’t have the budget for a $2,250+ brand suite.

Looking for DIY Design Support?

There are options in the “happy medium” place!

And if your solution to this problem is DIY? I’ve got a tonne of tools that you can bring into your process, from my ideal client avatar outline, to my DIY design practices workbook – all of which are available to you completely free! These tools help you leverage the things in your brain that AI can never effectively access or use, along with information about your audience, and much, much more.

Of course, if you’re looking for a more personal approach, reach out. I’d love to have a conversation about how I can best help you, whether my pre-set packages fit your budget, or not!