How a Scandinavian Design Group Uses AI

Scandinavia has always been known for its unique design approach: simple, functional, and elegant. Holscher Design, a leading design group in this region, is taking a bold step forward. By incorporating AI tools into their parts of their workflow, they’re not only speeding up their design process but also unlocking new avenues of creativity. It’s a fascinating blend of traditional Scandinavian aesthetics with the power and precision of modern technology. In this article, we’ll explore how Holscher Design is setting a new standard, proving that innovation and tradition can indeed go hand in hand. 

Who is Holscher Design?

Holscher Design, based in the heart of Copenhagen, Denmark, stands as a beacon of Scandinavian design excellence. With a legacy spanning over four decades, they have firmly established themselves as one of Scandinavia’s most recognized and award-winning design agencies. Their portfolio boasts more than 70 awards, a testament to their commitment to quality and innovation.

At the core of Holscher Design’s philosophy is a deep-rooted desire to design for powerful brands, not just within Europe but across the globe. Their approach is holistic; they aim to engage people, solve real-world problems, and craft solutions that resonate with human beings. This is evident in their specialization in mobility and urban design, where they have crafted solutions for notable clients such as Aarhus Light Rail and Bombardier. Other notable clients include FLOS, Cisco, LEGO and Phillips.

AI at Holscher Design

During our visit to the Scandinavian design group, we were lucky enough to get the chance to talk to one of Holscher Designs most prominent junior designers, William Theorell. William gave us insights into how widely available AI tools can become powerful catalysts of productivity and creativity when utilized properly. 

William agreed to walk us through the entire design process from start to finish (a very simplified version that is). Even better, to illustrate how AI tools are used in the process, we used an example of a simple stool from IKEA (obviously).

A quick disclaimer: While AI tools are frequently used at Holscher Design, they are far from being used in every project. The usage is very dependent on the specific client and the object that is to be designed. 

1. Step: Inspiration

Every creative process starts with inspiration. Whether you’re Ernest Hemmningway or a clickbaiting tabloid journalist, you’ll often get your ideas from your surroundings. At Holscher, the design process always starts with a search for inspiration. William informs us that he’ll often use Pinterest as a source of inspiration when given new client projects. Containing millions of posts on lifestyle, furniture and interior decoration, Pinterest is quite the creative resource. Just one annoying detail: the pictures on Pinterst are often real. Meaning, that if you’re inspired by a post on Pinterest, there will always be that annoying voice in the back of your head telling you that your creation is too similar to your inspirational source. 

So what do you do? You use AI instead.

AI tools: ChatGPT & Midjourney

To get visual inspiration for the project of creating a stool for IKEA, William would go to Discord, where he finds Holscher’s private Midjourney channel. Before he starts prompting Midjourney to create images for inspiration, he wants to make sure that the prompts are optimal. To create the best prompts, William will first go to ChatGPT. The process is the following:

1. Make sure ChatGPT understands the design style of the client. In this case, you want ChatGPT to take into account the simplistic and natural design of IKEA.

2. Ask ChatGPT to make a prompt for Midjourney. The prompt should of course include your project (in this case a stool) and the design style (simplistic and natural). 

3. Prompt Midjourney and refine. If the Midjourney output is not ideal, go back and refine the prompt in ChatGPT or try using the different versions of the output (v1, v2,  v3 etc.)

Let’s check out the output in our example:

After sufficient refining, William will pick an example design that he’s satisfied with; in this case the upper left stool. Anything from the coloring to the curvature of the legs can be a source of inspiration – so the little details are extremely important.

Quick intro: What is ChatGPT & Midjourney?

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a form of generative artificial intelligence that specializes in natural language processing and understanding. It learns from vast amounts of data to generate text that mimics human-like conversation. This AI can understand and respond to user prompts, making it a powerful tool for various applications, from chatbots to content creation.

If you wanna check out other AI-powered chatbots, take a look at our picks for the best AI chatbots in 2023.

Midjourney

Midjourney is another innovative generative AI, but its expertise lies in creating visual content. By taking textual prompts from users, Midjourney can generate images that align with the described theme or concept. This technology has vast implications, both artistically and professionally, allowing for the creation of unique visual content tailored to specific needs. Whether it’s for graphic design, advertising, or personal projects, Midjourney offers a fresh approach to visual content creation, transforming written ideas into vivid imagery. 

Midjourney is available for $8/month and is set up through Discord.

Midjourney is one of many AI tools being able to produce images, if you’re looking for alternatives check out our list of AI image generators. 

2. Step: Modeling & Rendering

After having picked a design that he likes, William will make a simple 3D model of the concept. Here the focus is on implementing the features from the Midjourney that he likes, for instance the curvature of the legs.

Simple 3D model made in Rhino 7: 

Of course this part requires some skills in 3D modeling in the Rhinoceros software program. 3D modeling with AI unfortunately isn’t available in Rhino 7 yet, but other state of the art AI  tools for 3D , such as 3DFY, is at the frontier in industry.

AI tool: Vizcom

At this point, William might wanna show a rough version of the design to his team. To make it more presentable, the design will be rendered with more realistic details. For this, William uses the AI-powered rendering tool, Vizcom. 

What is Vizcom?

Vizcom is a smart AI tool that helps turn your drawings or images into real designs quickly. It’s like having a helper for your art projects. With cool features like Live Render and 3D Paint, you can see your ideas come to life. Whether you’re sketching or painting, Vizcom makes it easier and faster. Just give a simple prompt explaining which details you’d like to see in your rendered version.

In the example, William gave Vizcom information about the material he envisioned for the legs and the seat of the stool. Within Vizcom, you can also choose different versions of the rendered design, similar to Midjourney. You can even decide the level of “power” Vizcom can use in the rendering, i.e. how far from the original image can Vizcom’s output be. In the example, this setting is about 90%.

Here’s the outcome after Vizcom did its magic:

3. Step: Retouch, details and more

Before presenting the design concept to the client, there’s always room for minor improvements and adjustments. Enhancing the image through retouching, placing the design concept in an environment and adding elements to the settings are all important factors for a good presentation. 

Like every good designer, William will turn to Photoshop for these endeavors. 

AI tool: Firefly (Adobe)

Following the development of generative AI, Photoshop (or Adobe) implemented some stuff of their own. Using Firefly, the AI integrated into Photoshop, William can add elements and objects to the design with just a single prompt.

Firefly’s image expansion feature and/or generative fill are especially valuable additions to the toolbox that is Photoshop. After experimenting with different settings, backgrounds and adjustments, we finally settled on an image fit for the “presentation” of our example. 

Firefly’s generative fill:

What is Adobe Firefly?

Adobe Firefly is a cutting-edge AI tool designed by Adobe, tailored for creative tasks. It’s not just a standalone product but also integrates into various Adobe applications, such as Photoshop. Firefly is built to understand and cater to specific creative needs, making tasks like graphic design, product design, and video production smoother and more intuitive. With its user-friendly interface and a rich set of features, Firefly is set to redefine how designers work, offering real-time edits, feedback, and collaborative sketching capabilities.

Firefly is actually listed on our top picks for AI photo enhancers.

What’s the future of AI in design?

At Holscher Design, the use of AI-powered tools enhance creative processes and the efficiency of bringing an idea to life. Even though the tools aren’t used by everyone or on every client projects, the times that it’s used was with great satisfaction. 

Midjourney was selected as the most suitable text-to-image generator (quite a few different models was tested). This was primarily due to the quality of output (Midjourney exceeds at hyperrealistic images), the performance of the tool in terms of time, and lastly the collaborative environment set up in Midjourney’s Discord. Midjourney has also been a user favorite, when generating branded content. 

An interesting development in the generative AI sphere, is the recently launched DALL-E 3 by OpenAI. The third generation of DALL-E have significant upgrades in terms of the output it produces and the way it is prompted. The way it understands prompts is beyond many of its predecessors’ peers; instead of requiring people to learn how to prompt engineer, DALL-E 3 is much more capable of understanding the prompts given and producing accurate outputs.

Even better, DALL-E will be integrated into the ChatGPT chat interface and its API (available to Plus users). Considering how William used ChatGPT to create and refine Midjourney prompts, two separate systems, an integrated solution with highly compatible AI models will definitely produce amazing results for designers of all sorts.