‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ art goes viral because it’s not AI
Many fans of the film were more positive after learning that the work of art was created by a human.
These days, moviegoers are on the lookout for any signs of AI art, and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” seems to be a prime example. A meme that appears in the film has all the hallmarks of AI negligence, but the backlash against it is put to rest: it turns out that it was created by a human artist who inadvertently replicated the look of AI art more convincingly than AI can replicate human-made art.
Fans of the film are delighted by the news, and the fact that the image turned out to be man-made somewhat changes the obsession some fashion brands have with machine-generated imagery (we’re talking about you, Skechers). It also makes up for the odd design decisions in those “The Devil Wears Prada 2” posters.
As shown in the video in her post above, Alexis Franklin, a digital artist using Procreate and Photoshop, created the image manually. She wasn’t specifically asked to recreate the look of AI, but rather to “create a cheap meme.”
Given that many memes today are generated using artificial intelligence, it makes sense that the image would end up taking on a slightly strange, soulless look of AI-generated imagery – even without the use of the technology. There are some characteristics commonly associated with AI art, including blurry and distorted letters and the ubiquitous retro gold hue (also known as “pee filter”).
“I was disappointed when I saw this, but now I just appreciate it even more!” one person wrote on Instagram. “The fact that they could have used AI because it could have been a joke, but choosing not to is a slap in the face to AI-generated content, and I couldn’t love it more!” wrote someone else.
Writing about X, Alexis said she was surprised that the artwork had caused such a stir.
“I was hired to create a meme, not necessarily a picture, and since the image wouldn’t stay on the screen for long, I kind of used a ‘logo’ mindset – it had to be immediately readable as obviously doctored and fake, because that’s what a joke is.”
“I didn’t go heavy on the brush strokes or ‘artistry’ of it. But the response to this has been so interesting. ‘You nailed the AI slop of it!’ is such a harrowing compliment.”
Source:
Images courtesy of Alexis Franklin.
