003: Generative AI, Illustration and Design with Mick Champayne

In today’s pod we talk to Mick Champayne, a senior visual designer at Google by day who moonlights as an illustrator. She loves navel-gazing about the future, especially how designers can support people’s values and intentions. With AI coming at us at warp speed, the implications for both design and illustration are far-reaching, but she's actively working on shifting her mindset from, in her own words, “it’s all over” to “hey, things could be pretty cool."

Our discussion covers Mick’s views on generative AI, content creation and whether or not it will make the illustration industry obsolete. We cover what happened when Casey feed Mick’s illustration style into an AI model. Mick proposes how a positive optimization mindset has huge ramifications. We discuss the homogenous sci-fi plasticity of existing text to image creations. We get into the critical discussion of ethics, IP and critical copyright legal issues. And discuss the end of the “move fast and break things” era. Finally we discuss how Mick embraced her own unique pov to unlock more opportunity.

We end the discussion with how AI is bringing forward a critical discussion around humanity and necessary changes in our society. And the critical responsibility designers have to spearhead and embrace that change. Mick discusses her design practice at Google, getting better at prompting, and the power of collective ideation empowered by AI.