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 Return of Print!
3 January 2024 | Issue #29 |
My word for 2024: Analog. After a year figuring out generative AI, we're going to see those practices put into use in 2024. Some of it will be impressive. Most of it will not. Even though the image generators will get better, much of what we'll see will be generic and boring by the end of the year. For those of you with design skills, you'll be in luck! Analog (non digital, non computerized) experiences will take center stage by the end of 2024. The Tilt founder, Joe Pulizzi, is saying that print will be a huge differentiator for marketers in 2024. The least cluttered inbox is the one at the end of your driveway. I'll have more on this topic in a few weeks! With the presidential election in the US this year, expect to see a lot of AI-generated fake imagery and video in attempts to disinform the general public. Propaganda isn't new. But propaganda at scale is where the real concern lies, according to Paul Roetzer of the Marketing AI Institute. Seeing things with your own eyes will be critical for believing what is said and done. More people will attend events than we've seen in years. Finally, with the impending rise of quantum computing, which will lead to the inability to password-protect anything, I wonder if critical information – like CIA secrets – will be removed from the digital domain and they'll go back to analog records. I know this one is pretty far fetched, but they'll have to figure out some way to prevent state secrets from being stolen. I debated whether the word should be analog or artisanal. Of these three things, it's moving away from a binary digital space to an analog space. Print materials can be artisanal, but I don't think live events could be categorized that way. What does this mean for you? Well, if you have print design skills, then you can be at the forefront to the counter programming that we will see in 2024. Do you have a word for the year? All the cool kids are doing it.
🤔 An Artist in Residence on A.I.’s TerritoryOpenAI named its first Artist in Residence. The art community is split, with some seeing A.I. as a revolutionary tool and others as a threat to the value and uniqueness of human-created art.
👩🏾🎨 28 AI Tools You'll Be Shocked Are FreeMany AI tools start free and then start to monetize. If you're like most of us, you find about these apps 15 minutes before everyone else and then you have to pay.
Learn more (video and list) 👨💻 Google Reportedly Replacing Some Human Staff With AI (up to 30,000 people!)Google's making headlines again, but this time it's about how they're reportedly planning to replace some of their human sales staff with AI. It's a bit of a reality check, showing how even the big tech companies are looking to AI to take over roles traditionally filled by people.
Microsoft Designer and Copilot for mobile are both now available. Wondering where to start with Microsoft Designer? Check out this Thread. The early reviews aren't great. But if you're looking to try it out, this will get you started. For those who have design experience and software, this probably isn't for you. Copilot on iOS and Android is interesting because it basically gives you access to the pro version of ChatGPT and Dall-E. It's free for now, so I suggest checking it out. OpenAI just reported $1.6B annual revenue, so I doubt it's going to let its biggest investor, Microsoft, just give it away for free for long. Wordle for design nerds! Do you like being incredibly frustrated with hex colors? If you do, there's now a game where you can guess the hex color of the day! https://hexcodle.com/ Thanks to Frank Prendergast for turning me on to this. It's 2024. Do you know where your design career is going? 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...