With rapid growth and innovations in artificial intelligence, many products and industry standards are incorporating AI into their work and changing how processes are done. In many cases this fundamentally changes jobs and, more recently, it’s changing how students are taught to work in those jobs.
Dr Anthony Cepak, an assistant professor in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Communications, has changed how he teaches publication design because of AI innovations in the Adobe software program. In particular, he’s incorporating changes into how he is teaching his Communication 3350 course, Publication Design I, in fall 2024.
“There are several highly technical skills in the Adobe Suite that have been automated using generative AI technology,” Cepak said. “I am bringing these automated tasks into the creative workflow of my publication design I class.”
These innovations could change the graphic design field entirely, Cepak said. Tedious tasks such as removing backgrounds from images to isolate subjects, recoloring objects and removing objects have been a significant part of graphic design but, assisted by AI, this work now can be done in a fraction of the time once required.
Cepak has a creative consulting practice in addition to being a UTC professor and said his own approach to design work has been influenced by AI’s increasing prevalence.
“I am starting to use [AI] more and more in my professional creative consulting work,” he said. “It is not yet capable of producing client deliverables but a very good place to start with idea generation and inspiration.”
He said hopes to prepare his publication design students for the changing field.
“[The students] can expect to save time on some of the more complicated technical aspects of the design software, so they can spend more time on being creative,” he said.
Majoring in Communication at UTC
Cepak said he believes being creative is as important in design work as it has ever been and he sees the industry shifting to need more art directors and out-of-the-box thinkers.
“My hope is [the innovations] will free students up to spend their time more on the creative conceptualization of their designs, “ Cepak said.
In February 2024, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Pam Riggs-Gelasco awarded Cepak a $1,500 stipend for his work to incorporate AI into his teaching.
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