Why Designing Posters Felt Pointless—Until AI Changed My Mind

Dear friends,

I’ve designed over 1000 posters in my life.

From daily news posters to events for the Love Foundation, theaters, exhibitions, musicians, and friends…

I used to obsess over posters by Peter Saville, Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, Herb Lubalin, Otl Aicher, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Experimental Jetset, Our Machine, Saul Bass, Designers Republic and Paula Scher.

I did study their grids, fonts, colors, and techniques, always asking, how did they do it?

But now? Posters don’t excite me like they used to. With Instagram, Pinterest, and AI, we’re drowning in amazing designs.

Everything feels done, remixed, adapted. I see stunning posters online, but I don’t feel anything—no curiosity, no excitement. These days, anyone can use AI or 3D tools.

Then, a few nights ago, I tried something new.

Using ComfyUI, I generated posters for my upcoming horror movie, GHOSTBIRTH 2. In just a few hours, I created over 400 designs. Many were bad (and totally unreadable), but some of the were truly amazing.

AI lets us visualize possibilities and sketch ideas quickly. Before designing the final poster, you can generate 1000 drafts, pick the one that fits best, and then refine it.

Please excuse the blood, gore and violence—GHOSTBIRTH 2 is a horror movie. 🫣
And it was so much fun to quickly generate that many posters.

Wishing you all a bloooody Saturday,

Marius

What do you think about AI in design?
Love it? Hate it? Let me know.