Lesson 4 of 7 · 19 min
Brief AI like an art director
Goal:Write prompts that get specific results, not average ones.
“a poster for Design Night”
“students on a budget”
“readable on a phone”
“bold and playful”
“three different options”
Switch the parts of the brief on and off. Watch the result go from generic to specific.
Design a poster for Design Night.
A simulation: real tools vary, but missing parts always get filled with averages.
→ Paste the full brief into ChatGPT and Claude. Compare what each gives back, then log it in your journal (Lesson 6).
The first result is a starting point. Art directors don't throw it away and start again: they look closely, name what isn't working, and ask for one change at a time. That loop is where the design gets good.
- 1 · Look
Squint at the result. What do you see first?
- 2 · Name it
"The date is too small to find."
- 3 · Ask for one change
"Make the date twice as big; keep everything else."
- 4 · Compare
Put both versions side by side. Better? Log it.
Practice the loop. For each result, pick the follow-up that will actually fix it.
The poster looks good, but you had to search for the date.
All three options look like the same corporate template.
The headline text is too long and wraps onto four lines.