WordArt

Growing up, my first exposure to graphic design was WordArt. For those of you who don't know what WordArt is, it was a feature in Microsoft's various office applications—primarily MS Word—that offered stylized fonts and decorative text effects. The picture below makes it clear.

Making WordArt felt like an accomplishment. We'd design them in MS Word, print them out, and paste them on walls to display in our art galleries.

I liked WordArt then, and I still do. But I hardly see anyone using it anymore.

Now what I see is YouTube filled with AI-generated thumbnails. People making educational PDFs generated by Claude. And I don't know about other people, but I can tell what's AI-generated and what's not—and it's so obvious to me. It disgusts me.

If a video has an AI-generated thumbnail, I'm not clicking it. If I see an AI-generated informational flyer, I'm not reading it. AI-generated logos, AI-generated voices, AI-generated scripts. Probably AI-generated people and their personalities.

People are so adept at analysis these days. Hardly a day goes by when I don't see AI-generated charts, graphics, and analyses of something or other.

It pushes me away.

To quote Kendrick Lamar:

"I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of the Photoshop...

Show me somethin' natural like a** with some stretch marks."

I'm sick and tired of AI-generated slop and garbage. Show me something human-made. I'd take something made in MS Word over AI-generated garbage every single time.