AI can make the graphic. But does it still feel like your business?
Updated: Sep 7
By Sheree Sherlock
Designer and founder of Applebee.
Lately, I’ve noticed a particular kind of social media post appearing more and more often.
It’s polished. Colourful. Full of headlines, photographs, icons, shapes and neatly arranged pieces of information. Sometimes it appears the brief may also have included: “Could we try another font?”
There’s nothing obviously wrong with it. At first glance, it can look rather impressive.
But then another one appears. And another.
Before anyone thinks I’m about to have a rant about AI, I’m not. I use it every day, and I genuinely enjoy it. It helps me think, question, explore and reach ideas I might not have arrived at alone. It challenges me, teaches me and helps put words around things I can see or feel but sometimes struggle to explain.
As a visual thinker, I find that enormously useful.
But the more I use it, the more I notice the difference between producing a polished graphic and creating something that genuinely belongs to a business.
When more becomes the default
Ask AI to create a social media graphic and it will often give you plenty: more words, more fonts, more colours, more images and more effects. Everything is invited.
Nobody has been asked to leave.
The result may look finished, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it communicates well.
Good design is rarely about fitting in everything you can. Often, the real work is deciding what matters most and being brave enough to leave the rest out.
Where should your eye go first? What can be removed?
Does the type feel like the business?
Do the colours belong to its wider identity?
Is the message immediately clear?
And perhaps most importantly, could this piece of communication belong only to this business, or could almost any logo be placed on it?
That last question matters.
Because if every business begins with the same tools, follows the same visual suggestions and accepts the first polished result, we end up with a lot of content that looks professional but says very little about the people or businesses behind it.
Your brand has a personality
Brands have personalities, just as people do.
Each has its own character, story, values and way of speaking. Some are quiet and considered. Others are energetic, playful or bold. That individual identity is what helps people recognise a business, remember it and feel something about it.
Your brand isn’t simply your logo placed in the corner of a graphic. It’s all the little choices that make something feel as though it came from you.
When the same visual language is applied to every business, the work may become more polished while the brands themselves become less distinct.
That doesn’t mean AI can’t create work that feels specific to a brand. Give it the right context, examples and direction, and it absolutely can. You can see that considered approach across some of my own design work.
But it doesn’t arrive knowing what matters to your business. Someone still has to provide that knowledge, recognise when its personality has been lost and guide the work back.
AI can learn your brand. But first, someone has to show it what is worth protecting.
Making something isn’t the whole job
AI can already do things that would have seemed extraordinary only a few years ago. I have no idea exactly where it will take us, but designers would be kidding themselves if they pretended it wasn’t changing the way we work.
Some work that once required a designer can now be done quickly by almost anyone. That’s real, and the technology will keep getting better.
But making something is not the whole job of designing it.
Design also involves understanding the business, its audience and the context. It means creating hierarchy, noticing when something feels out of balance and having the confidence to take things away.
Those decisions are often invisible. People notice when a design feels clear, calm and right, even if they can’t explain why. What they don’t see are all the choices behind it, including the ideas that were quietly shown the door.
Restraint is part of the work.
AI is a collaborator, not a magic button
Working with AI has not made me value design less. It has made me more conscious of what I bring to it.
AI gives me breadth. It offers different angles, challenges assumptions and makes an excellent brainstorming partner. I can follow an idea, test it, pull it apart and look at it from directions I might otherwise have missed.
But strong results don’t come from pressing a button and accepting whatever appears. If only it were quite that easy.
They come through conversation, direction and refinement. That same collaborative thinking sits behind the way I approach design projects. I still need to notice when the type is wrong, when an image feels artificial, when the hierarchy has disappeared or when the business itself has become lost beneath all the cleverness.
AI can show me ten possibilities. My experience helps me decide which one is worth pursuing, what needs to change and when it is finished.
That is not AI replacing creativity. It is a different kind of creative process.
Before you publish, ask one more question
I don’t think the most interesting question is, “Was this made with AI?” Before long, that may be almost impossible to separate from everyday creative work anyway.
The better questions are:
Does it communicate clearly?
Does it feel true to the business?
Is there a recognisable point of view?
Has someone made thoughtful choices, or has everything been included simply because it could be?
Use AI. Enjoy it. Explore what it can do. But don’t become so impressed by the polished result that you forget to ask whether it still looks, sounds and feels like you.
AI can be part of excellent design, just as it can be part of forgettable design. The tool alone doesn’t decide the outcome. The person guiding it still matters.
The question isn’t whether AI was used.
It’s whether your business survived the process.
Does your content still feel like you?
If your content is looking polished but your business seems to have gone missing somewhere along the way, I can help you bring its personality back into the picture.
Sheree Sherlock is the designer behind Applebee, helping small businesses become clearer, stronger and easier to choose through thoughtful design, websites and marketing.
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