Title	AI GRAPHIC DESIGNER NIKOLAY IRONOV
Brand	TRIFON PILS BEER, MURMURIZM, PELMENI ONE LOVE RESTARAUNT AND OTHER
Product/Service	VARIOUS GOODS AND SERVICES
Category	A05. Brand Strategy & Experience
Entrant	ART.LEBEDEV STUDIO Moscow, RUSSIA
Idea Creation	ART.LEBEDEV STUDIO Moscow, RUSSIA
PR	ART.LEBEDEV STUDIO Moscow, RUSSIA
Production	ART.LEBEDEV STUDIO Moscow, RUSSIA
Post Production	ART.LEBEDEV STUDIO Moscow, RUSSIA

Name	Company	Position
Artemy Lebedev	Art. Lebedev Studio	Artistic director
Sergey Kulinkovich	Art. Lebedev Studio	Art Director
Misha Grin	Art. Lebedev Studio	3D designer
Alena Sofina	Art. Lebedev Studio	Designer
Roman Kosovichev	Art. Lebedev Studio	Programmer
Georgy Eterevsky	Art. Lebedev Studio	Technologist
Alexey Malkov	Art. Lebedev Studio	Type designer
Anton Astafyev	Art. Lebedev Studio	Video designer
Maxim Lukashevich	Art. Lebedev Studio	Technical designer
Vasily Dubovoy	Art. Lebedev Studio	Technical designer
Yana Guseva	Art. Lebedev Studio	Technical designer
Oleg Dobrygin	Art. Lebedev Studio	Composer

Why is this work relevant for Innovation?

A Russian design studio has developed an AI designer and, for over a year, had been passing it off as a human. To date, the network has been used successfully in over 20 of the studio’s commercial projects. All clients were unaware that their designs were being created by a machine. Nikolay Ironov’s work was approved by clients and then released to huge audiences. Today, Ironov’s work can be seen in businesses throughout Russia, on branded products, and in endless YouTube clips.

Background

Neural networks offer an unlimited number of fresh perspectives and can create thousands of new meanings. Engineers set the parameters, and the networks come up with fascinating (and sometimes entirely unexpected) results. Even the photo of Nikolay was also generated. It was created by a neural network from photos of all employees of the studio. Design is an inherently progressive field. As such, the innovations we make in our industry invariably pave the way for other companies.

Describe the idea

A.I. brings new ideas and innovations in branding and graphic design. Many clients were ecstatic about the media buzz surrounding the project, even more interesting was that many of them gave positive feedback on the results before they knew anything about Nikolay Ironov’s involvement. This proves that artificial design, developed by a machine, is now at a stage where it can be used and loved by clients – and also by end brand consumers. These logos and identities were delivered for SMB companies. These unique designs have boosted their brand awareness to the sky level.

What were the key dates in the development process?

In April 2019 was released the first logo by AI Designer Nikolay Ironov. In June 2020 the studio revealed the secret of his work for 20 brand identity projects. In October 2020 Ironov presented the first result of his collaboration for a clothing collection of Murmurizm brand.

Describe the innovation / technology

Ironov can take the information provided on a company, such as a brand’s name and a description of its work, and then cherry pick words to turn into images. Following this, the results are modified by an army of algorithms that scale, refine, and simplify the design, while also generating different colour schemes and fonts. The result? A seemingly endless range of logo options for the client. Essentially, Nikolay Ironov’s brain is a combination of different design automation systems that serve different stages of the design process. Now, these systems have been combined, users can experience seeing a brief transformed into a corporate identity design pack right in front of their eyes. One of the main issues with design education is that despite a designer’s knowledge of what ‘good’ design is. There are invariably walls built inside the designer‘s head during the education process, which means that while seasoned designers may know how to produce good work, somewhere deep inside they are often afraid of creating something which oversteps the mark. When Ironov was ready, he was tasked with some real projects for clients without their knowledge. After a year of Ironov working undercover, we revealed the secret.

Describe the expectations / outcome

AI Designer Nikolay Ironov got over 100 publications in the mainstream media around the world including Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, The Next Web, and many many others. If you want your brand identity to stand out in this age of start-ups, personal branding, and microbusinesses, you have no other option but to pay through the nose. We aim to democratise design by reducing the cost while delivering the same results. After all, we are all art directors now. These types of solutions seek to liberate designers from the monotony of the many actions required in the design process. Given that (unlike his human coworkers), Ironov can work 24 hours a day, doesn’t get sick, and never suffers from artistic blocks, we think it’s only polite that humans allow him to play ball.