Catalyst for Creativity or a Hollow Trend? A Cross-Level Perspective on The Role of Generative AI in Design

Generative AI image creation tools have the potential to transform design education and practice, but raise critical concerns for creativity and ownership. We leverage the 2022 launch of tools like Midjourney and DALL.E as a point dividing design enthusiasts into pre- and post-tool learners. In this paper, we conduct 28 artifact-based interviews with designers at varying levels of tool introduction, to understand how they perceive and use generative AI in their design roles. Our results indicate a rift in the value system of designers, with experienced designers being more circumspect about the loss of traditional creativity and foundational design skills. On the practical side, there exists a tension between the growing marketability of AI-related skills for design vs. the limited affordances of these tools for achieving meaningful designs. We discuss implications for the shifting definitions of design as a field, creativity and ownership, and AI in the design curriculum.