Project Brief
Begin by exploring the available options. You can start with a list of AI resources, but feel free to seek alternatives as well. Consider how AI-based tools can enhance a project in areas such as research, brainstorming, prototyping, testing, communication, and other related tasks.
Using Leonardo.AI for Exhibition Design
“Cultural Probes and the Unspoken Labor of Care” examines how design can reflect and address the emotional, mental, and logistical challenges that caregivers face daily. The vision for the exhibition began as a tribute to caregivers, creating a space that centers on their lived experiences and emotional labor. To conceptualize how this experience could honor and engage with those narratives, I utilized Leonardo.AI to visualize the flow of the exhibition.
This tool helped me consider how visitors might navigate the space, interact with the reflections gathered from the cultural probes, and connect with the struggles and resilience inherent in caregiving. Each generated concept served as a prompt for designing with empathy, elevating not only the stories shared but also the quiet strength behind them.
Given the emotionally complex nature of caregiving, I was very curious about how artificial intelligence would perform when prompted in a more subjective and imaginative manner. I intentionally avoided overly literal prompts to see how AI would respond in an emotional and abstract context that cannot be replicated, but can only be understood through personal experience.
Original Prompt: Curate a set of 5 posters with different designs that are dedicated to acknowledging the quiet struggles of people who care for their loved ones. These are people who are not professional caregivers but rather friends, parents, and children who have to now care for someone they love. The designs should be an ode to these caregivers who care so much about the person they are taking care of while also acknowledging the difficulties that come with the role of caregiver who is now caring for their friend, parent, child or both while also having to balance their own responsibilities outside of caring for their loved ones. The posters need to encapsulate the emotions and not just be photographs of people. There needs to be an emotional component that shines through and celebrates and sees these caregivers and their struggles.
Moving to Adobe Firefly
After using Leonardo.AI, I realized I was not being specific enough and needed to brainstorm alternative ways to communicate what I envision as part of the message I am looking to convey to a general audience that also evokes raw emotion. Leonardo.AI also seemed to be very limiting with changing the type of design style and how often images can be generated, so that led me to move away and into Adobe Firefly.
Revising Prompt with ChatGPT
After learning to be more descriptive about what I wanted illustrated for the exhibition posters, I was curious to see how Chat[GPT] would revise the prompt. This is what it produced:
My Production & Findings
Using AI to create posters or any materials related to my senior thesis project felt completely out of place due to the project’s strong emphasis on human-centered research. Applying artificial intelligence to a subject that is so inherently humanistic presents a conundrum and an element of irony. While AI can generate illustrations and explore possibilities of human experiences, it ultimately falls short of capturing the true essence of what it means to be human, especially in a space so emotionally complex like caregiving.
My Prompt
Design a series of 5 visual posters that honor the often-unseen labor of non-professional caregivers—those who care for a loved one not by choice or training, but out of deep love and necessity. These may be adult children caring for parents, parents caring for children, or friends caring for friends.
Each poster should serve as an emotional tribute: a visual acknowledgment of the quiet struggles, deep compassion, and constant balancing act caregivers face as they support others while managing their own lives.
Avoid literal depictions or portraits—instead, express the emotional weight of caregiving through metaphor, typography, illustration, or abstract forms.
Let the posters see caregivers in their full complexity: exhausted, devoted, invisible, powerful, and worthy of recognition. An ode to these caregivers, as they are the people who care selflessly.
Let the posters see caregivers in their full complexity: exhausted, devoted, invisible, powerful, and worthy of recognition. An ode to these caregivers, as they are the people who care selflessly.
ChatGPT Prompt
Design a series of 5 visual posters that represent the often-unseen labor of non-professional caregivers—individuals who care for a loved one not necessarily by choice or training, but out of necessity. This group may include adult children caring for parents, parents caring for children, or friends caring for friends.
Each poster should serve as a visual acknowledgment of the challenges, compassion, and balancing acts that caregivers experience as they support others while managing their own lives. The designs should avoid literal depictions or portraits, instead utilizing metaphor, typography, illustration, or abstract forms to convey the emotional aspects of caregiving.
The posters should reflect the complexities of caregivers, highlighting themes such as exhaustion, devotion, invisibility, power, and the recognition of their contributions. This project aims to honor caregivers for their selfless support.
