Mackenzie Kerr Consulting

The sad truth is that you are in the minority if you are not using AI to create content right now. Yes, we can tell you used ChatGPT and no it’s not because you forgot to take out the em dashes.

I’m not going to claim I don’t use Chat GPT, I do! I plug in a first draft when I’m in a rush and say “make it sound more professional and fun” and boom. All of a sudden my jumble collection of thoughts is turned into something I deem better*.

The brands that are building genuine communities on social media are publishing their raw first drafts. They aren’t asking Chat GPT to “make it funnier but not too corny”. They are using their messy, beautiful brain and you can too!

If you follow my personal account you may have seen my recent stories about a new found love for substack and this is where this post is stemming from! (Hence the long caption typed on my computer). If you aren’t familiar with substack it’s a popular online platform for writers. Some of the local writers and artists I follow include .rigo (North of Somewhere- making Prince George better with urban planning), (incredible local artist) and Andrew Kurjata (local PG news written in easy to understand ways). I can scroll through their newsletters with no ads and no music popping out of nowhere.

I don’t even wanna touch on the negative environmental and ethical impacts of AI because I’m not writing this to make you feel like you’re a bad person for using it. I use it too. It’s now embedded in every digital space from summarizing emails and google searches for us, even when we don’t want it to. I’ll gently remind you that if you are using it for graphic design, it is stealing from artists and two big thumbs down for that. 👎🏻👎🏻 I’m running out of room (maybe I should start a Substack).

I just want to encourage you to use your creative, capable brains and post your first draft! I am going to take my own advice and decrease my use of the thing making our brains into mush, so you aren’t alone!

No AI was used in this caption ;) I pain stakingly revised it to be shorter one word at a time.

The people have spoken in my stories and you want to see more graphic designs!

This was one of my favourite designs I created this year. It didn’t come without challenges as I restarted many times but ultimately I found a love for Impressionism through this project.

Impressionism was a 19th century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes that captured the essence of the subject instead of the details. Impressionists were seen as radicals in their time with the most famous and well known impressionist being Claude Monet. You have probably seen his Water Lily painting.

I chose paintings from Cassat, Monet and Morisot for their feminine subjects. I used a watercolour filter after carefully editing them out of the original paintings and overlaying them on flower patterns I created in photoshop. Using real seed packs from the garden store as inspiration for the back of the pack and additional design elements, these are print ready designs in my portfolio.

From the logo creation, choosing flowers that complimented the paintings and coming up with unique names for each pack that taught people about the artists names, this project tested me in all the best ways.

Scroll through the slides to see my design process and some merch for my seed brand Lasting Impression Seed Co.

If a fun design project is on your mind, shoot me a message! Christmas is coming up and a custom t-shirt or sticker is the perfect personal gift this season!

Good designs take time so reach out now for a quote!