The A.I.-Design Aesthetic That's Taking over the Internet

Michelangelo11 21 points 9 comments June 25, 2026
www.newyorker.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (4 comments)

marsmaps

"Notably, none of the designers I spoke to are against A.I. altogether. All of them said that the technology is unavoidable..." these people are not very bright

jabroni_salad

A lot of design is kind of rote and boilerplate and has been for ages. The original cliparts were paper books. Designers would clip out the pictures they want, glue them to their master document, and then run it through a photocopier. Then later we had the big hero web templates and stock images. Even though every person involved has an excellent camera in their pocket, the thought of using it was unbearable compared to just downloading a stock image. Then we got canva which was basically the perfection of cliparts and stock images. Now we have AI web design. It's just the newest step of the least exciting 'something needs to exist but its form is mostly without value' category of "content", which is itself a category so devoid of meaning that nobody doing it even bothers to give themselves the title of 'designer' or 'writer' or 'illustrator', instead self labeling as 'content creator'. For what it's worth though, I find AI designs to be mostly okay? They aren't exciting but at least the ultra low contrast design era is finally over and I can finally have usable scrollbars and easily find the login button on most websites now.

elzbardico

Sometimes I wonder if LLMs have been invented like decades ago and have been used since then as a secret tool to generate marketing copy, PR statements, Digital Transformation Slide Decks and Corporate Desing Illustrations. It is far more logical to believe that, than to believe that Memphis Corporate was a thing driven by humans.

tayo42

Wish there was some pictures. I've been noticing there's been higher quality but simmilar looking things like ads or promotions material. Im curious what the Ai look exactly is

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