How creative agencies, like Upspire Labs, are leveraging generative AI in their workflow

How We’re Leveraging AI to Boost Creativity at Upspire Labs

AI is everywhere these days—whether it’s being touted as the tireless assistant that never needs a coffee break or as the catalyst for creativity in the arts. While there’s some truth to these claims, what truly matters is how AI is used rather than just what it’s used for. At Upspire Labs, we’re only beginning to tap into the potential of AI. For us, it’s like a part-time assistant (that doesn't make coffee), and we’re curious to see how its role in our creative process might evolve in the future. For now, here’s a glimpse into how we’re using AI in our work and what it means for our clients.

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Research: Streamlining the Discovery Phase

One of the most time-consuming tasks in any creative agency is the research phase—often called discovery. Whether it's gathering insights through Google searches or directly asking clients about their competitors, research requires a significant investment of time. We’ve started incorporating AI into this process, asking it questions like “Who are Nestlé’s top 5 competitors?” The results might not always be groundbreaking, but they offer an alternative perspective, occasionally revealing discrepancies worth exploring further. For instance, our AI left Hershey’s off its list—no Kisses for you!

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Creative Inspiration: A New Way to Discover Colors and Themes

AI isn’t just useful for mundane tasks—it’s also helping us kickstart the creative process. We can prompt our AI tools with queries like “What are popular colors in web design today?” While the answers might be general, they help guide us in the right direction. We can then ask our generative AI tool to craft a color palette or even visualize an entire scene, providing a fresh source of inspiration. Previously, we would have scoured the internet for visuals to sample from; now, we simply describe our vision, and AI delivers precise results. For example, we recently prompted MidJourney to create a vaporwave scene with a sports car on the PCH at sunset using bright neon colors. While the image wasn’t perfect, it gave us a color palette that we could refine and use in various creative assets.

Pushing Boundaries: AI in Design and Composition

We’re also exploring how far we can push generative AI in design and composition. On a recent book cover project, we used AI to generate rough concepts based on specific prompts like "Moscow, Soviet Union, cold war, brothers, spy.” Although the AI-generated images had some quirks (weird artifacts and all), they provided a solid foundation for us to develop our original vector artwork. We incorporated thematic elements like buildings, people, shadows, textures, and colors, allowing our human creativity to refine and enhance the final product.

What’s more, sharing these AI-generated concepts with the client early on saved us multiple revision cycles, which is a game changer. The client had more options to choose from, resulting in a better final product.

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Looking Ahead: AI as a Creative Tool, Not a Threat

As we continue to learn how to use AI efficiently, we’ll be incorporating more of these tools into our creative process. We don’t view AI as a threat to the creative industry—in fact, we believe it highlights the importance of human eyes, analytical understanding, and empathy in design. AI is just another tool in our creative toolkit, much like desktop publishing software was in the early '90s.