Graphic design and artificial intelligence: Interdisciplinary challenges for designers in the search for research collaboration

The introduction of electronic publishing, multimedia, the web and social media have influenced and presented challenges for graphic design. Now the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) features within graphic design software enables practitioners to automate many design processes. However, this threatens to deskill the profession and create a second tier of 'non-professional' designers, particularly within less creative work that emphasises fast turnover and functional artefact production. Research at the intersection of AI and graphic design has been led by computer scientists. This paper argues, from a designer's perspective, that a paucity of scholarly engagement by graphic designers with their own practice and of AI research has resulted in computer scientists defaulting to functional approaches to design. Acknowledging that discursive and methodological differences between computer science and graphic design renders interdisciplinary collaboration problematic, this paper places the onus on design practitioners and researchers to engage with research into AI-supported graphic design.