This week copywriter Steve Girdlestone walks us through how he uses word prompts in Adobe's AI Firefly to create real images of kiwifruit. And unreal illustrations!
I’m terrible at drawing – which might not be such a handicap for a copywriter, but I often can’t help myself if I think it will help sell an idea.
When I left college and moved to London, I was living with a bunch of Art Directors. They said, “You should get into advertising. Can you draw?” Without any hesitation I said, “Of course.” Then I grabbed a pencil and showed them a sketch. They took one look, “You should become a copywriter.”
That blow to my confidence didn’t stop me. I became a copywriter and guess what? Words still look better with pictures. But with no time and money, what are you going to do?
Well, AI comes to my rescue. I use the AI assist in Adobe software to quickly add visuals to my ideas. They are not Leonardo d’Vinci and I can hear the tuts and grumbles of the art directors but it is a massive help, to either quickly add visuals to a presentation or social posts.
My drawing has become a skill of writing prompts. The more skilled I get at writing prompts, the better my drawing gets.
Sure, have a look at this quick Loom. To demonstrate Adobe Firefly's AI capabilities I just randomly input three words 'Kiwi fruit cut' into the software. First I did it as a photo, then an illustration, then chucked it into a presentation. Wild.
If you have an idea, even to present internally or to show a designer, it helps to visualise it. This is a quick way for them to get the picture - literally! But TBH as I've got better, I also use it for my own training videos and social posts.
If you aren't au fait with Adobe, another great tool is Gamma which uses powerful AI to generate working presentations, documents, or webpages that users can customise and refine in under a minute. Users simply start writing in Gamma and it handles turning text into beautifully designed content.
You still need an idea. Pictures without words will be just decoration but pictures that make you re-appraise the words have power. That interaction still needs a human mind. Also, the more creative you can be with your prompts the more creative you can get the AI to be.
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