AI art direction

Member lesson

The generic middle, and how to leave it

Lesson 5 of 10 in AI art direction.

Why Nothing Looks Cool Anymore · Design Theory
Lesson

Every unsteered generation lands in the same place. Warm, hazy, symmetrical, front-lit, shallow depth of field, a slightly ornamental composition and nothing at the edges. It is competent and it is the exact centre of the training data, which means your competitor is getting it too.

lowplausible, vagueusefulobeys and breatheshighobedient, burntobedience is bought with plausibility
Three panels showing low, useful and high guidance, with contrast rising across them.
A wall with a dense cluster of similar framed pictures in the middle, each showing a centred vase in soft hazy light. Far off to the right hangs a single frame with a sharply lit, awkwardly cropped corner of a chair and a hard black shadow.
The crowd in the middle is the default. The lone frame at the edge made a decision.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Where a model goes when unsteered. The average of everything it was trained on.”

    • Decision fatigue
    • Default aesthetic
    • Canon
    • The middle
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A tool's unsteered look. Recognisable, and dated within a year.”

    • Good enough
    • Irreversible step
    • Default aesthetic
    • Authorship
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The only reliable escape. A decision the average would not have made.”

    • House look
    • Specificity
    • Category convention
    • One variable

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