I’m going to say what pretty much everyone is thinking, except maybe the people still making them: I’m tired of AI-generated flyers. They’re everywhere, and yes, a lot of them are ugly. But honestly, that’s not even my biggest issue with them. The bigger problem is that most of them don’t work.
They have everything and the kitchen sink squeezed into one graphic. The event name, date, time, location, sponsors, calls to action, giant logo, background image, decorative elements, and a few text effects for good measure. Everything is competing for attention, so nothing really gets it. Your eye doesn’t know where to go first, what matters most, or what you’re supposed to do next.
And the result? After someone spent all that time prompting and tweaking an AI-generated design, there’s a pretty good chance the person it was meant for is just going to scroll right past it.
Good Design Knows What to Leave Out
This is the part I keep coming back to. AI can be good at generating, depending on the prompt, but good design requires judgment, hierarchy, restraint, and knowing what to remove.
A lot of design is editing. What does someone actually need to see first? What comes next? What deserves more space? What can be smaller? What can disappear completely? Does all of this information even need to be on the graphic, or could some of it go in the caption?
Sometimes what makes a design better isn’t adding one more element. It’s taking three of them away.
There’s a reason “less is more” has stuck around for so long. I also keep thinking about the advice commonly attributed to Coco Chanel: look in the mirror before leaving the house and remove one accessory. I feel like AI-generated graphics need the same rule. Before you post it, look at it one more time and remove something. Maybe two things… or seven.
Use AI Without Losing Your Brand
To be clear, I’m not against businesses using AI. I use AI. I also understand budget constraints, and hiring a designer for every social graphic, flyer, or marketing piece isn’t realistic for every business.
The good news is that design is more accessible now than ever, and that brings a lot of benefits. Canva has made it possible for businesses to create more materials in-house, templates can give you a strong place to start, and AI can be genuinely useful for generating imagery or ideas.
The issue is when access to the tool starts to feel like a replacement for the decision-making and strategy behind the design. AI makes a lot of things easier, but just because we can use it for what feels like virtually everything these days doesn’t mean we should. It’s easy to get caught up in how much time AI can save without stopping to ask whether the end result is actually good for your brand. Saving time is great, but not if what you’re creating isn’t doing its job.
Most people creating these graphics aren’t giving AI art direction. They’re giving it a list. Here’s the event name. Here’s the date. Here’s the location. Here’s the logo. Here’s the copy. Make me a flyer.
And AI does exactly what it was asked to do. It tries to fit it all in.
A designer looks at that same information and asks different questions. What does someone actually need to know? What’s the one thing I need them to notice while they’re scrolling? How do I make that obvious?
That’s visual hierarchy, but really it’s understanding how people take in information and making it easier for them.
Branding is another place where I would be careful. AI is far from perfect. If you give it your logo, it may change it. If you give it copy, it may change that too. You can tell it not to, and it still might.
If you’re using AI to create visuals for your business, I think you’re much safer generating the image you need and then bringing that image into Canva or another design program to add your real logo, actual fonts, brand colors, and final copy yourself.
And if you’re still learning those tools, use a template. There is absolutely nothing wrong with starting with a layout that already works and adapting it to your brand. Just because the program gives you 50 text effects doesn’t mean your headline needs all 50 of them.
When Everything Starts to Look the Same
There’s one more thing I’m noticing as AI-generated design becomes more common: a lot of it is starting to look the same.
Similar imagery, similar effects, similar layouts, similar fonts. It all starts to blend together.
That might be fine if the goal is simply to make something, but if the goal is to build a recognizable brand, that’s a problem. The whole point of developing a brand identity is to create something people begin to recognize as yours. Your business shouldn’t suddenly look like everyone else’s just because everyone has access to the same tools.
So no, I’m not saying stop using AI. I’m saying use it as a tool and learn where its job should end. Let it help you generate an image, explore an idea, or get started when the budget is tight. Then step in and make some decisions. Edit the copy. Simplify the layout. Protect your logo. Use your actual brand elements. Ask what really needs to be there and what can go.
Good design isn’t just knowing what to add. It’s knowing what to leave out.
AI can generate. The art of the edit is still up to us.
And hey, if you want branded Canva templates your team can actually use, or some guidance on where AI fits into your design process, I can help with that too.
– Danielle
