rp Reacts: Pentagram, Generative AI, and Creative Controversy

Pentagram, an agency we've long admired, recently faced a little creative controversy over its use of generative AI in creating Performance.gov, a government website. This project incorporated 1,500 icons designed using Midjourney’s AI image generation. It’s the firm’s first public work of its kind.

The reception was a bit polarizing within the design community. Supporters praised the project as innovative and a forward-thinking use of technology. Critics, however, accused Pentagram of prioritizing automation over human artistry and arguing that the quality of the work had suffered as a result.

A debate about the role of AI in creative industries? We simply had to weigh in..

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There’s long been the idea that anything Pentagram (especially Paula Scher) does is gold. Even trying to remain objective about it (I do fall into the believer camp), this is still a smart play for this project and client. They’re using new tools to make information more accessible and they’ve combined design thinking and technology to solve a problem. I feel like that mindset is exactly where rp sits on the ethics and usage of AI spectrum. The idea was human and that’s what really matters. Sidestepping bureaucracy is a brilliant use case.

- Drew Beamer, Creative Director

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If you spend any time in design communities on Instagram or reddit, you might think the only opinion you're allowed to have on artificially generated content is that it's bad. But the reality is that it can be genuinely useful when used to its strengths. Cameras and printers didn't eliminate the need for painters, computers and word processors didn't eliminate the need for typesetters, and generative AI will not eliminate the need for creative professionals. 

Unfortunately, it's really easy to skim through social media and come to a hasty conclusion that big bad Pentagram typed some words into the Midjourney tab on their browser, punched illustrators in the face, and took off early. Those sentiments won a lot of internet points. But in reality, Pentagram took the complex problem of making government performance more accessible to the public, and found a solution that can evolve with the client's needs, it just so happens to involve AI. They're not the first to do it, and they won't be the last.

- Spencer Watson, Senior Designer

Instagram redesigned their logo a few years back, and design Twitter was in shambles for weeks, all without any AI involved. 100% human. (Well, all human and whatever software they used. I don’t think they used sticks and rocks.) My question however, did Pentagram strategically play up the AI angle, banking on the ole “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” They could’ve easily just launched into the night without a word about AI or any of the AI tools they used, but we’d probably never have had the whirlwind of enlightening critique and attention around the clever process they used. So in conclusion, yeah, Humans using tools to make novel beautiful things for other Humans is always cool.

- Matt Reed, Creative Technologist

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Pentagram walks on water as far as I'm concerned. If they advocate for AI as an integral part of a brand expression, I'm here for it.

- Nate Fleming, Director of Strategy

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I personally don't have a problem with it. Based on the information available, they used AI the way it should be used: as a tool for enhancement. If they'd fully gone in and used AI from the ground up that would be one thing, but it looks like they put in the work to curate a custom data set and used the AI to generate unique outcomes based on that limited, curated data set. I can understand people who might argue that the work product they generated isn't ‘art’, but it seems to me that they did it the right way.

- Sterling Crawford, IT Operations Manager
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They were allowed to use AI on a government project?
- Mario McDonald, Sr. Staff Accountant

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