DALL·E 2 and The Origin of Vibe Shifts
I&#x27;ve been doing web design long enough to have experienced the swing <i>from</i> illustration to photography, and then back to illustration. I don&#x27;t really think it has to do with signaling wealth or status. Here&#x27;s what I think: Most web designers are <i>not designers</i>. Most people on web design teams, in hierarchies of management, who style themselves &quot;art directors&quot; or who interface with the clients, are <i>not designers</i>. Most directives that come at people building websites come from marketing teams at companies, composed entirely of people who are <i>not designers</i>. Those people get to work in the morning with one goal: To impress their boss at the corporation by collecting tons of screenshots of other websites and marketing campaigns that have recently been popular, collating them and listing the features that these non-designers think, in their non-design opinion, made those things successful. What you end up with is a feedback loop where every marketing department follows every other one, and demands a copy of the latest trend, without any regard for the company&#x27;s actual brand. Which designers are then obliged to do, even if we know it&#x27;s stupid.<p>The longest running brands I represent use a mix of illustration and photography, and that mix is specific to the way they choose to present themselves. In fact, understanding that particular mix for each business, creating style guides that delineate when one thing or the other should be used, and <i>not messing with the mix if it&#x27;s working</i> is crucial to maintaining consistency and building brand recognition over time.<p>TL;DR, most web designers have no design background, and companies hand too much control over online branding to people who are competent coders but should not be responsible for image.<p>Also, the idea that Dall-E2 or any further iteration is going to replace either photography or illustration at the high end is counterintuitive. The high end is going to just go further to show it&#x27;s not AI-generated.