Raul Gonzalez, Director of Design and Digital Production at Kiterocket: “AI has changed design forever and there is no looking back”

Technology has changed almost everyone’s jobs, and arguably none more so than the graphic designer. It’s a theme that runs through our fascinating interview with Raul Gonzalez, Director of Design and Digital Production at Kiterocket.

“The introduction of the iPhone changed the entire design industry overnight,” he said. “The inability to run Flash on mobile devices created an instant switch. This shift made us designers at the time have to adapt, leave behind our ActionScript days and learn what was possible with early HTML5 technologies/languages.”

And this pattern keeps on happening. As Raul describes, Kiterocket now embraces modern tools such as Frame.io and Figma to speed up and enhance the creative process, and people who stick to old-fashioned ways will inevitably be left behind.

Which brings us to today’s game-shifting technology, AI. But think again if you reckon AI can replace designers. “AI [such as Midjourney] is generating amazing photo results, but to truly get something that a client is looking for that matches their brand… it will take excellent prompt generating, a good idea and lots of refining technologies/languages.”

Our thanks to Raul for generously sharing his thoughts and time. To help jump to the section you’re most interested in, we’ve split this interview into three parts:

• Creative process vs technology
• Generative AI for designers
• Changing face of graphic design

Related reading: Steven Ligatsa, Co-Founder & CDO at Plux Agency: “These AI generative tools don’t have taste. Or at least, not yet”

Creative process vs technology

When thinking of your creative process, at what point does technology come in? What role does it play in different stages, from concept to final design?

It is hard to imagine the creative process without technology intertwined at every step in today’s day and age. My creative process incorporates technology from the start. There is the research stage, which, without technology, would be hard to accomplish. Whether using tools such as Google Analytics or other tracking software to identify users, audiences or customers, or using them to research current trends on social media, I use technology at this initial stage.

At the ideation stage, technology helps track ideas and allows brainstorming with the team and/or client. Tools like Figma enable our team to focus on ideas while simultaneously collaborating on the same document. The greatness of technology at this stage is that all the sketches and dribbles do not go to waste. They can be refined and worked into final designs instead of thinking of it as a separate step that used only to be capable using paper and pencil. Then, start from scratch on digital software when you are ready to produce the work.

When moving into the production stage, technology is everywhere. From physical technology such as tablets, consoles, mixers, and monitors to software (Figma, Adobe, etc). Technology becomes an extension of the designer, a tool used to produce, refine and execute the ideas that came from the previous step. Collaboration is seamless with tools like Figma, allowing not only multiple designers to work together but also copywriters and subject-matter experts to work concurrently. It really expedites the process while reducing the number of revisions to reach the coveted FINAL version of a design.

How has technology changed the way you collaborate at work? And in your view, has it improved or worsened navigating creative differences with clients or team members?

The constant changes in technology are continuously changing the way our team collaborates. Figma has brought an extremely positive change in our workflow and collaboration not only with other designers but with the entire agency. We have created a workflow that brings together content writers, subject matter experts, and designers as we work together on the same file simultaneously. This allows the entire team to focus on specific sections to produce creative design. 

Another example of positive change technology has brought is video reviews. At Kiterocket, we have added Frame.io into our workflow for pre-production, time-stamping existing footage, as well as for internal and client reviews. Using Frame.io, clients or colleagues can directly comment on the specific frame in which they see an issue or have a change they would like to make. These comments appear directly in Adobe’s Premiere, allowing video editors to see precisely where the change is needed. The client’s ease of commenting combined with the precise location of feedback speeds up rounds of review with fewer explanations needed from the client.

Related reading: Doug Main, Creative Director at The Bigger Boat: “I’m still a big advocate of pen and paper”

Generative AI for designers

Generative AI Art has taken the graphic design space by storm – what are your views on the use of tools such as Stable Diffusion, Leonardo and Midjourney?

AI has arrived and it is here to stay. It has changed design forever and there is no looking back. I enjoy incorporating tools like Stable Diffusion, Leonardo, Midjourney, and Newcomer. They can help achieve amazing results, but they should be treated as tools to help designers and not as tools that replace them. Designers are more than just production workers; they are visionaries who ideate and take concepts from start to finish design. They understand colour, fonts, rules of 3rds, etc – all these concepts which, together, create works of art.

At the current state, AI is generating amazing photo results, but to truly get something that a client is looking for that matches their brand… it will take excellent prompt generating, a good idea and lots of refining. Similar to how the introduction of Photoshop created a “that’s Photoshopped” stigma, people will have a “is that AI” stigma for the next few years or longer.

As long as you keep copywriting infringement out of your work, I see AI as a great tool to generate ideas, create a starting point, and ultimately refine, refine and refine till you create your own art/designs. 

With the rise of AI and automation in design, how do you see the role of a graphic designer evolving in the next few years?

The rise of AI has come fast and furious. It is evolving every day. The role of a graphic designer will have an interesting morph in the coming years. I see the role moving towards a more heavy pre-production and post-production role. AI can’t create without a prompt. That prompt needs to make sense and be clear, and, most importantly, it needs to be iterated many times to get any result that can be worked with. One significant change is that the graphic designer will need to focus on the idea and the concept of what they are creating and define that not just through mood boards but words. The ability to not only clearly communicate but also do so creatively and in a manner that can create effective prompts that AI can use will become paramount. 

Then, in the post-production part, the designer will need to adapt to the generated art and edit and refine the results, whether refining using Photoshop to edit sections or iterating on the prompts until you get a closer result to what is desired.

The designer’s role will be that of an idea maker who can express that in words that will allow AI to generate something that can be refined into a finished design.

Related reading: Could you shoot a movie in Midjourney?

Changing face of graphic design

Over the course of your career, what is one technological shift you’ve witnessed in graphic design that really stuck with you? 

One huge technological shift early in my career was switching away from Flash to HTML5. The introduction of the iPhone changed the entire design industry overnight. The inability to run Flash on mobile devices created an instant switch. This shift made us designers at the time have to adapt, leave behind our ActionScript days and learn what was possible with early HTML5 technologies/languages. 

The iPhone also brought about an exponential increase in the number of websites being viewed through a mobile device. These small viewports created both design and programming challenges in the early days. This slowly brought forward the mobile-first philosophy that has led to current responsive designs.

WordPress is another technological shift that has really stuck with me throughout my career. Starting as a blog platform for personal blogs, it has now converted into a full-fledged CMS that runs about 42% of all websites. The open-source platform has grown into a hugely popular and very customizable CMS. At Kiterocket, we specialise in building on WordPress because of its ability to be shaped and morphed into any design that our clients need.

In what ways has the accessibility of design software democratized the field of graphic design, and what challenges or opportunities has this created?

New design software or platforms have enabled many designers and non-designers with the ability to create graphic design.

Take Squarespace. This has created many opportunities but, at the same time, presented limitations for designers. Squarespace provides a platform that allows designers to design websites and build them without knowing how to program. The limitation is that you are subject to the Squarespace platform and what it will enable you to build.

The challenges can then come when a client requests a change or wants to add some functionality that is not a component of Squarespace and would need a programmer who understands Squarespace to be able to implement it. Explaining this to a client may be challenging, or the client may need help understanding why it’s not easy to add. 

On the other hand, Canva has increased in popularity with the non-designer community. It has enabled people to create good-looking designs using Canva’s templates. Canva provides opportunities for people who typically aren’t designers to become creators and bring their visions to life.

The challenges that I have seen this creates is that the limitations of the templates and the limits of the web platform itself create difficulties when trying to make something more complex. Passing a Canva design to a designer does not make it easier to make updates as the limitations or the platform may not make it possible and would then need to be re-created in another design software.