I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
The real winner in John Henry vs. the Machine
18 January 2024 | Issue #31 |
This past week I saw a familiar theme across many articles: AI's impact on jobs. It may have started with the IMF reporting that AI will impact 40% of jobs and increase inequality. The thinking is that AI will replace jobs that are currently being outsourced to countries that don't have the infrastructure to retrain its people. The IMF also predicts that people who adopt AI, workers who tend to be younger and higher-income, will be see greater increases in their pay, compared to lower-income and older workers. This aligns with the message I've been trying to preach: you need to be adaptable. The IMF's managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, thinks policymakers need to work to protect workers. I think that's wishful thinking. History has shown that when technological advances are discovered, they don't usually go away. John Henry won the battle against the steam-powered rock drill, but he lost the war. The real moral of that story should be the guy who learned how to run the rock drill. With that in mind, let's look at some ways to learn how to use the rock drill.
🦆 Can Recraft’s foundational model for graphic design swerve the AI controversy?There are a handful of new genAI imagery tools out there, and they're all trying to find their unique niche. Recraft is positioning itself as a tool that allows you to create on-brand images, logos, and vectors, but it doesn't train its model with your content. If you upload a reference image, it doesn't go into the general LLM for anyone to use in the future. 📸 Stock Photography vs AI-Generated Content: Legal and Creative ConsiderationsThis is an interesting editorial about the pros and cons of different types of images. Personally, I use both options to create images. Sometimes, like I detailed last week, I'll take a stock photo and then use the generative AI capabilities in Photoshop to alter the image. This editorial gets into some additional areas, such as SEO, but the main thing to pay attention to is the legal implications of using AI to generate images.
Raoul Ranoa sent over an interesting article about locations where AI will have the greatest impact. It looks like areas with the highest density of tech companies (silicon valley, the northern east coast) will be most influenced by AI. This makes sense to me, but it's good to see Princeton-based research back this up. After decades of automation changing the jobs of blue-collar workers, automation is now coming for white-collar workers. Raoul and I continued chatting about what AI actually means from a productivity standpoint. How much time will be saved due to adopting AI tools? I was able to make some predictions based on my own experience, but that's anecdotal. This week I'm going to look around to see if there have been any actual studies done that measure the time saved by AI. If you know of any studies, please send them my way. Affiliate of the Week Each week, I read many articles from many sources. Any time I come across an article that may be interesting to you, I add it to my AD Newsletter note in Notion. Also within this note is where I keep my UTM codes so they're easy to copy/paste into here. I was a paid subscriber to Evernote for more than ten years. But a few months ago I made the switch to Notion and I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Now I have my notes and lists, but also project management. HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
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Marketing by Design – Design thinking that makes marketing work
I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
09 November 2026 | Issue #139 In this issue: Marketing is your starting pitcher MPB2B Design quote of the week Marketing is Your Starting Pitcher In baseball, the starting pitcher is the star. Fans pick the night they buy tickets around who is on the mound, and an ace can make a game must-see and nearly guarantee a win. Teams pay for it. In 2026, a pitcher was the highest-paid player on 12 of 30 MLB teams, and Zack Wheeler leads the way at $42M. Middle relievers carry the game to the closer,...
26 October 2026 | Issue #138 In this issue: Creativity is less important than consistency Amazing real-world video effects Design quote of the week Why Consistency Beats Creativity in B2B Branding Your audience isn’t nearly as familiar with your brand as you are. And that’s a problem when you’re constantly changing it. Years ago, I worked with a CMO who had a habit of explaining our solution story to the marketing team. Over and over again. He’d stand at a whiteboard or one of the glass walls...
11 October 2026 | Issue #137 In this issue: Avoid these AI design tropes Don't use Muse if you like privacy Design quote of the week I Know You Used AI for Your Design You already know the em dash is a dead giveaway of AI writing (sorry, Ann Handley). Design has its own tells, and there are a lot of them. None of them is wrong on its own. A good writer can use an em dash on purpose, and a good designer can use any pattern below on purpose. They become a tell when they show up because nobody...