Artificial Intelligence in Graphic Design
A Critical Synthesis of Tools, Methods, and Creative Implications
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24086/cuesj.v9n2y2025.pp129-139Keywords:
Artificial intelligence, graphic design, human–computer interaction, creative process, hybrid intelligenceAbstract
The main issue discussed in this review is the following: Although the number of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven design systems is growing exponentially, there is no single conceptual framework that could explain how these systems correspond and/or do not correspond to the principles of creative, communicative, and contextual nature that mark the practice of a professional graphic designer. To fill this void, the article conducts a systematic review of AI use in three areas, including automation in professional design software, non-expert template systems, and experimental AI systems created by science. The review is conducted with the help of a systematic approach that includes database searches (2019–2024), specific search inclusion and exclusion factors, and thematic synthesis of the studies devoted to layout generation, visual analysis, sentiment model, and generative image systems. The results demonstrate that AI can achieve success in automated processes, e.g., segmentation, layout refinement, typographic correction, and quick generation of stylistic variations, but technical systems often turn design into an operational process, and template-driven tools may tend to standardize the visual result and de-professionalize authorship. A synthesis of these three fields of knowledge makes the paper add a single conceptual framework, which explains in what circumstances AI can aid the hybrid intelligence of humans and AI and in what circumstances the existing models do not address the creative nature of the graphic design. This model offers a backbone to the future study of co-creative systems which maintain agency by designers and increase the computational opportunities of visual communication.
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