Last week Pentagram, the largest design firm in the world—and widely considered the most prestigious—released a new website commissioned by the federal government, for which illustrations created using generative AI were central to the budget and the outcome. The story was immediately picked up and critiqued by Fast Company, Graphic Design USA and others. Following is a rundown of events as they unfolded, starting with a report from Bobby Aaron Solomon:

“Led by partner Paula Scher, the overall design is quite standard in it’s look and feel but it was the fun fact that they decided to use AI software Midjourney to create a set of 1,500 icons rather than hiring a illustrator to do so. The comments on their post on Instagram sums up the sentiment quite well, a ton of negativity, with a smattering of the usual “AI iS jUsT aNoThEr ToOl” apologists repeating the same tired phrase, “AI is here and you have to get over it.”

“Firstly, if you are a creative, AI can make you and your skills obsolete, period . All artificial intelligence is trained on existing data, existing creative on the internet and on social platforms, and the people making AI have no great moral standing to respect your work. Those entities are out to make cold, hard cash the very same way that Pentagram is.

The Pentagram commission, from their IG page
pentagramdesign

In 2024, the Federal Government of the United States partnered with Paula Scher’s team at Pentagram to design a website called performance.gov. 

Federal law requires the White House and major agencies—such as Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others—to set strategic goals to benefit the public.

Progress towards these goals is documented and made available in reports on the performance.gov website.

The website is run out of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and General Services Administration (GSA). These divisions of the government do not have an in house art department nor the capacity to hire illustrators.

Key components the design team needed to invent were the writing style, the use of photography, and the illustration style.

For more insight, click the link in our description!

Pentagram project team: @kiiiirstin@brunobergallo @oliviaevaray@yyansong @laroccaf

How they did it, reported by Graphic Design USA

Pentagram also used the AI tool Midjourney to create the illustration style. They started with handmade inputs — paint and cut paper —  and fed examples into Midjourney to train it on the aesthetic. After several rounds of prompts, the components became 1,500 ready-to-go icons for any agency to use going forward. And, thus, a controversary was born: the use of Midjourney has been divisive. Some in the creative community see the work as the cutting edge use a new technology by a smart and innovative design firm leader. Others are upset and disappointed at the firm’s embrace of automation over the hiring of real people and are critical, to the edge of vitriol, about the work’s shortcomings.

What artists are saying

 mikeyburton

Years ago, pentagram was tasked with redesigning the Atlantic, and they asked me to do spot illustrations for the monthly dispatches section. This job didn’t pay a lot (after all, it was just any 1/8 page illustration) but it was steady, notable work for a renowned publication. I worked on these for over a year. They kept me sharp as an illustrator, gave me confidence. Like most things, just doing the work lead to other jobs. Heck, I did a job this year (13 years later) and one of these pieces still was haunting the mood board. 

It’s important to give work to actually humans. I know we all work in a technology based industry, but if leading companies aren’t putting work in the hands of actual artists, then who will?

These illustrations could have been so much better if you just hired an illustrator instead of using Ai. It is disappointing to see Pentagram using Midjourney. Does the client know that their assets are not able to be copyrighted? Does the client know that Ai imagery is the result of stolen artwork? Using Ai in your design work doesn’t add value. It cheapens it.

abstractsunday

Nooooo!!!!

alexxgrigg

The gov doesn't have the "budget or capacity" to hire illustrators .... But they have the budget and capacity to hire one of the most expensive design agencies in the world. Interesting justification. Wanna take another swing at it? 

kortizart

This is gross and terrible. Midjourney is currently being sued by artists like myself for its egregious copyright violations as it relies on the work of artists like myself to even function at capacity.  It is also is a clear threat to artists livelihoods as shown by such a large marketing firm, on such a massive project, with PLENTY of funds to contract of 5-6 artists to all do this work. This is egregious and made even more so considering the US goverment, one of the richest in the world, is OK with stealing from artists. Disgusting.

ohmgeez

sad and disappointing from a dream client / design powerhouse. call me next time since i live around the corner =/

msaunders_ink

Hey saw the article , I think you are missing the point. If you move all egos aside , designer , illustrator etc (must admit you saying I draw all day and that’s all I do for a job kind of funny ) At the end of the day people look upto pentagram as a quality agency and if the top is cutting corners to make a project , what standard does that set for design and the industry . It goes way beyond this project the issues that are at play.

ciera_leigh

In Paula's response on Fast Company, she pretty much said if you don't agree with this usage then you don't understand design. As a heavyweight studio that literally shapes how design is viewed, not only within the community but also with corporate clients, you all had the perfect opportunity to make a statement about the ethics of AI and the value of human creativity. Instead, you all chose to use AI to replace opportunities for junior/mid-weight designers and give an excuse to corporations who use AI for creative replacement. There was a chance to do something groundbreaking in visual communications but, instead, you played right into how AI is being weaponized against laborers in capitalism and with the government agencies that have the ability to help regulate these usages. I don’t know about what design is to ya’ll but this aint it. 

o_fishel

These illustrations could have been so much better if you just hired an illustrator instead of using Ai. It is disappointing to see Pentagram using Midjourney. Does the client know that their assets are not able to be copyrighted? Does the client know that Ai imagery is the result of stolen artwork? Using Ai in your design work doesn’t add value. It cheapens it.

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Pentagram responds

In an interview with Fast Company, Scher argues that this use of AI is a best practice for a modern design firm. She argues that 1,000+ government-approved icons, necessary to make the scheme work, would have been impossible given Pentagram’s three-month, five designer window on the project (plus another three months unpaid). “My argument about this, and where the differential is, is that the definition of design in the dictionary is ‘a plan’,” says Scher. “We created a plan, and it was based around the fact that this would be self-sustaining, and therefore was not a job for an illustrator… We will use the best tools available to us to accomplish the ideas we have.”