"The design community has turned a corner”: Monotype on the rise of AI in the creative industries

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Type and technology company Monotype recently released an eye-opening study, revealing that 75% of creatives feel either optimistic or neutral about the impact of AI on their roles. While the topic of artificial intelligence is still highly divisive in the creative industries, it seems that attitudes are slowly beginning to shift towards a more positive outlook.

With AI productivity tools and editing software becoming increasingly integrated into professional-level creative software like Adobe and Figma, it seems AI is on track to become a natural evolution. To better understand the current climate around AI in the creative industries, I caught up with senior director of partner experience & inventory lifecycle at Monotype, Mary Catherine Pflug, to see how the type foundry is adapting with the times.

Why do you think there’s still scepticism around AI in the creative community?

All change is scary, and new technology in the creative community is no exception. We’ve been riding the AI wave quite intensely for the past two years– as with any emerging technology there’s been optimism, skepticism and intrigue. With a host of enabled tools now on the market and integrated into people’s workflow I think the design community has turned a corner over the past six months and we’re now at a point where designers and creatives can see its benefit and impact in terms of efficiency.

What do you think has led creatives to feel more optimistic about AI?

There are still many manual parts of the design process, and there is a very real potential that AI can reduce a lot of this manual burden, making the design process faster and more enjoyable. At Monotype, we are leveraging AI to give creatives and designers great new user experiences and remove some of the more laborious, repetitive tasks so they can focus on accomplishing their goals.

How do you see AI transforming creativity for the better?

Tools are essential to the design process, and I see AI as a new tool that creatives can add to their toolkit to be more efficient and speed up workflows. With better tools, designers can spend less time on the mundane and routine parts of their work, and more time being creative. AI isn’t just for efficiency; it can be a lot of fun and provide new ways to be creative. Take our Font Pairing tool as an example, which helps designers find complementary typefaces for their work suggesting harmonious (and sometimes surprising) font combinations.

How can AI improve typography?

AI can be helpful in visualising fonts in use and finding the right font for your project. We’re also working on enhancing our search and discovery with AI, in terms of identifying fonts along with pairing. We are also working on exciting new AI-driven tools to help designers visualise a typeface in a particular setting to see how that font could work for a project. This makes browsing fonts even more fun, faster, and can increase the designer’s confidence that they've chosen the right one.

Is there a risk that human creativity could become derivative/lazy if we rely on AI tools?

Personally, I don’t think so. Humans are infinitely creative, and people who are drawn to design are often some of the most creative. Designers will take these tools and build exciting things we can’t yet imagine. Technology advancements are not new, and AI is the latest in a long series of new tools that humans have created, and it certainly won’t be the last. We’ll continue to grow and create, as I believe we’re innately driven to be creative.

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