In pursuit of novel "mocktail" design inspiration, students leverage latent text to image AI.

With the rise in popularity of latent text to image AI, design students engaged with Midjourney while carrying a critical and curious mindset. What types of prompts can we input, and what do they mean? How do we assess output? How might we encounter bias - in the system, in ourselves? How might a designer critically and responsibly engage with such an AI?

To wrestle with these questions, students were tasked with designing a novel "mocktail" - a non-alcoholic cocktail beverage - while accounting for some visual style and some cultural reference.

Students read two New York Times articles:

Marchese, D. (2022, December 21). An A.I. pioneer on what we should really fear. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/12/26/magazine/yejin-choi-interview.html
Griffith, E. & Metz, C. (2023, January 7). A New area of A.I. booms, even amid the tech gloom. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/technology/generative-ai-chatgpt-investments.html

Find their mocktails, processes, and critical reflections below.

Critical I/O: Hybridity's heart is human

Lecture

To kick-off students' exploration into latent text to image AI, Asst. Prof. William Nickley delivered a lecture based on his Nov. 2022 Blurred Lines 3.0 talk, "Critical I/O: Hybridity's Human Heart" (see slides).

The 1790

Designed by Emma Bergman

Mocktail Description: Take a step back into the past with this mocktail, all the way back to 1790, the start of the Industrial Revolution. Let your taste buds enjoy the harmonious flavors of black smog and cold metal with a splash of whiskey and an orange peel to garnish. A time period represented in a drink.

Process: From the beginning of critical play, I knew I wanted to test the A.I.'s expression of a time period. I chose the Industrial Revolution because I feel it has a strong visual connotation connected to it. My mind goes directly to images of dirty streets and large factories and dark polluted skies. I wanted to test the A.I.'s ability to turn this time period into a mocktail. I kind of started backwards in testing its abilities. My first couple prompts were very long with a lot adjectives I wanted to see represented and I was pleasantly surprised with the products produced. I changed a few keywords to opposites of the original words to see how the A.I. would display the contrast. I played with a few more concepts but decided to stick to the time period one. I then wanted to see how the program would react with a simple prompt of just "Industrial Revolution" and "cocktail" rather than a complicated prompt. The mocktail products of Midjourney's interpretation of the Industrial Revolution and my interpretation through keyword's were very similar.

Reflection: Does Midjourney's A.I. have an accurate understanding of the Industrial Revolution? From a visual stand point, it seems like it. But can we trust any information A.I. spews out, absolutely not, especially on a conceptual level. A.I. can only go so far and it not developed enough to provide sound suggestions concerning perceptions, politics, feelings, and so much more. Yejin Choi touches on this point more in her interview with David Marchese and says it is hard to know far A.I. will be pushed and if it will ever be sentient. Concerning designers, I think A.I. can be a great resource for visual inspiration and depiction of multiple concepts but we should not make it responsible for creating new concepts and solutions. We, as designers, are responsible because we can interact with and respect the political, social and historical sensitivities of society.

The New Fashioned

Designed by Morgan Brown

Mocktail Description: The New Fashioned is a non-alcoholic and modern take on an old fashioned. Infusing a non-alcoholic whiskey substitute with lavender and a little fizz, while retaining the signature orange garnish

Process: I started off my search with just "mocktail" trying to get a sense of what the software would provide me with. From there I played with adding in artist and lighting styles, which I found a database of from A. E. Alexander. Additionally I was influenced by our professors presentation to see how the software would respond to the addition of the word "feminine."

Database: https://aealexander.com/midjourney-prompt-database.

Reflection: AI can have profound impacts on the way that designers approach the research aspect of their work. While using this software I was just struck thinking about all the times I was struggling to generate ideas and how beneficial it would've been to use an engine that would take the scramble of words in my head and turn them into an image. Even if that image was incoherent, it could still prove useful in visualizing the thoughts in my head.

Umber

Designed by Elise Aultman.

Mocktail Description: Basking in the golden warmth of a fireplace and sipping this simple mocktail is a great way to spend a chilly afternoon indoors. With a delightful balance of rich fruit flavors, it's sure to bring a little spark to your life!

Process: Prior to running any prompts, I scrolled through the server to get a sense of what certain words would generate and I looked through different styles and artists to brainstorm things to test. Once I created a list, I tacked them on to the simple prompt "mocktail". One of my goals in this was to see how far I could push the realism in small, complicated details (such as crochet and pointillism).

Reflection: Seeing how quickly and easily AI can generate fairly logical images and iterations, there's no doubt that it has a place in the design world especially during idea exploration. However, within the first few minutes of research it became clear how AI must be used carefully. Scrolling through the server I quickly realized how reliance on AI becomes problematic since it cannot ask critical questions about the things it depicts. Overall, however, the images generated are quite impressive and I can myself using it in the future.

Nectar

Designed by Erin Shaw.

Mocktail Description: This sweet-as-nectar mocktail will make anyone feel like flying as fast as a hummingbird! This drink has sweet floral notes that make you feel one with nature. An elegant sugar rim will make sure every sip you take, is a sweet one!

Process: I started off interested in how fashion design would be portrayed through Midjourney. I then used a website to help come up with ideas for themes, and started looking at more magical and "wonderland-ish" concepts. I loved how the flowers looked, and decided I wanted to incorporate a hummingbird into it. https://github.com/willwulfken/MidJourney-Styles-and-Keywords-Reference

Reflection: I think AI will help design out. I would have never come up with my final picture on my own, and I do enjoy the outcome. I iterated a lot more in my process a lot faster, which was helpful. I think a lot of people are scared of it taking over, but still my final image still has things I would do differently. I was getting slightly frustrated that the idea in my head wasn't just directly popping out with the keywords I could think of. I think AI can aid in the design process, and who knows where the technology will take us! It's exciting being at the beginning of it.

Ethereal

Designed by Kayanaat Chaudhry

Mocktail Description: The Ethereal Mocktail is a dizzying combination of flavors that leave a person feeling out of this world. Layers upon layers of different flavors combine on this mocktail arrangment to make it a full tasting experience!

Process: At first, I began to experiment with South Asian and Pakistani traits in my prompts, but I did not like the generalized and confused images Midjourney came up with as it just combined many things without real reason. After this, I explored a more otherworld and surreal style while also trying out many different stylistic words like "pixar, retro, ethereal, surreal, houndini, hyper-realistic," and more. I really enjoyed seeing what outcomes came out of these bits of experimentations and I continued to tailer what I wanted to see in my final image with variations and upscaling. Final Prompt: "maximilist and cartoon style of a mocktail arrangment with many different drinks and a beautiful ethereal and otherworldly background pixar and retro and surreal"

Reflection: Personally, I really enjoyed working with AI and I enjoyed looking at all of the examples online. The possibilities are endless and it is a tool that designers could use to further push the boundaries on what they are doing. It also makes being part of a design process very accessible for the average person which creates an even larger community for innovation, but the lack of real context and knowledge. makes some aspects difficult

Midnight Sunrise

Designed by Mark Celestina

Mocktail Description: The Midnight Sunrise is a refreshing mocktail with bright citrusy pops, coupled with a deep fruity bouquet and aroma, creating an invigorating beverage just as miraculous as its namesake.

Process: I started by asking Midjourney to create a mocktail that incorporated fruit, ice, magic, and a hint of smoke coming off the glass. However, the images it produced didn't fit the aesthetic I wanted. I envisioned the drink being composed of many colorful liquids that blended together harmoniously, producing a sunrise/sunset feeling. Final Prompt: "dazzling purple gradient carbonated liquid in a martini glass, lights and highlights, a little smoke coming off the glass, surrounded by ice, hyperrealistic, sun, with garnish and ice, Twilight hour"

Reflection: Artificial Intelligence provides designers with almost instantaneous iterations of designs that can be used to inspire original aspects of their own design. In using AI, designers and artists can utilize styles they would not normally default to, which strengthens their personal and technical skills.

Rhyme

Designed by Beibei Wang

Mocktail Description: The Rhyme(韵) is a mocktail with different levels of flavors. Drink it slowly, and enjoy all the rhymes the drink can bring. Take one sip by one sip, and Longjing tea, Sweet Osmanthus, and Camellia will wander in the aftertaste.

Process: Initially, I tested how well AI translates my idea into visuals. So I put "Spring Festival, Chinese New Year, Sweet Osmanthus, Camellia japonica, Monet art style, mocktail" into the prompt. It turns out very elegant and close to what I want. But what turns out could have more elements and feel more completed. Thus, I add "Chinese dragon" into my prompt and what showed up was not what a Chinese dragon would look like. So I ended up chose the first one that without dragon from the prompt. I kept developing it, chose the version I liked, and upscaled it. My final prompt: "Spring Festival, calligraphy, Sweet Osmanthus, Camellia japonica floating in the drink, lava, glacier, Mocktail."

Reflection: AI is a valuable tool for generating many random thoughts into a composition. Many designers need to be creative with their designs, which is a perfect tool to provide designers with more ideas and inspiration. But at the same time, designers should only use them as inspiration, and AI is not perfect. They can't think like how humans think and can't fully understand a culture. That's why we have designers with different culture background in this world to take the lead.

Super Troll

Designed by Peter Maczuzak

Mocktail Description: Find the Super Troll with a super bowl on his head filled with a concoction he made just for you. The drink emits a green color with unblended spinach floating in between the ice. Delicious. In the spout is a shot of espresso with an earthy aroma of dirt and grass. The drink is topped with berries and garnished with a leaf but don't eat it, it's his.

Process: With so many new prompts for AIs coming in at one time, I was able to get a broad sense of how to use it to develop almost any idea (the outlier being hands). I bounced off an idea for a troll theme cocktail and created some variations with that prompt. I also explored the capability of AI to recognize aesthetics by attaching words like "70s" or "Elizabethan" to the prompt.

Reflection: I found using AI as a way to extend my imagination which allowed me to develop imagery for concepts a lot quicker than I normally could. It can be useful to designers but will never master everything, like fingers. It can help a designer imagine their concept, but it can't help them build it.

The Floating World

Designed by Eason Chen

Mocktail Description: The floating world is inspired by the Japanese art genre Ukiyo-e. The drink has a faint scent of cherry blossoms. Although the first sip might be light, the robust aftertaste is like the surge of waves and austerity mountains.

Process: I started my research process with some random keywords to test how well the Midjourney responded to me. Then I decided to choose an art style or genre to focus on since I found that the Midjourney could put my search term together very well. I like the way the Ukiyo-e art blended into the mocktail. The soft drink melded with the muscular shape and design of the landscape fit compatibly.

Reflection: I found AI can help design a lot since it can quickly generate ideas. The results I got from the Midjourney are impressive and better than I expected. With AI, I can see infinite possibilities for moving forward. Overall, they are not perfect, but we can definitely use them as a tool to support us.

Tech-Savvy Sip

Designed by Sharon Longdong

Mocktail Description: Shift your attention to the new deliciously refreshing (and maybe a little dangerous) mocktail recently released on the market! Powered by many fruits (and wires), this drink will surely give your tastebuds an electrifying shock with flavor!

Process: I simply started off typing in objects and ideas that popped into my head from just looking around my bedroom. I had no clue where to start, so where better to start than looking at where I was at. I typed in words inspired by things ranging from the clock on my wall to the plants near my window. I also included the word "houdini" in some of my searches after learning in class the difference that it made in. I settled on a mocktail version that appeared to be using a piece of technology as its vessel, both intrigued and amused at the AI's ability to mash the two concepts together.

Reflection: Overall, AI is a great resource to help designers generate ideas during exploration, but should not be heavily relied on. As amazing and interesting AI can be, it mainly takes the generalizations of a word or concept into it's answers. As designers (and humans), we have all this creativity and our unique thought processes to incorporate in our designs, which is something that technology won't be able to do.

Orange Aphid

Designed by Jude Gill

Mocktail Description: A delicious savory drink with various citrus flavors, garnished with mint leaves. Served in a glass jar, the Orange Aphid is meant to be a humble drink with simple ingredients.

Process: I started with naming the shape of the glass, since thats the one part I knew I wanted to keep consistant. I worked from there shaping the lighting and using keywords like "warm colors" and "photorealistic" to shape how the drink would start to form. Eventually I wanted to add an accent color, and thats where the mint leaves came in and I started to feel like I had a finished product. Lastly, I added a straw since it would be hard to drink directly from the lip of the jar, and placed it on a wood desk. The final prompt was: fancy cocktail in a glass jar with softoverhead lighting placed on a dark wood desk, photorealistic, delicious, warm colors, mint leaves, red straw

Reflection: I think AI technology is interesting and its amazing what it can do and how far its advanced in such a short time period. But I think that its something that needs to be handled with caution, especially because of where the software sources its seed images. If these images are sourced and used ethically, than I'd be interested in seeing what else the software can do. But until that happens, I'd prefer to keep my distance from it, since I see it as morally corrupt to work with images from artists that were taken without permission.

the Earned Burn

Designed by Gage Kime.

Mocktail Description: A sophisticated beverage that has been mastard to blend perfectly with superior choices of wood to be smoked. Tastes like the outdoors and relaxation after a long day of chopping firewood and setting it ablaze.

Process: I started by testing how well AI could create images crazy ideas i came up with to see what it would pick up on. I then started the dive into the drink by stating thati wanted it to look masculine, since AI does a good job at stereotypes. I then started adding extra things to the prompt that would make it more how I imagened this drink, I started adding things such as "cigar" and "fire pit". I then focused on finding words that would enhance the images to a quailty that made the drink feel how i wanted by trial and error but also by looking at others work in the public channel to try.

Reflection: I believe tat AI with int the past couple years has become much more intelligent and that it will only get better. Stating that, I do belive that as it becomes more intelligent it will aslo be usesd by designers more frequently and it will help to save time and with the ideating process by helping designers quickly visualize ideas and find new variatins based off of ideas the designers would like to move forward with in their process.

Gothic Sunset

Designed by John Paul Kuepper

Mocktail Description: Rest easy after having a "Gothic Sunset". A fresh smooth fruity flavor perfect for winding down. Let your taste buds be romanced by flavors that don't overwhelm your senses.

Process: I started fairly simple with the prompt "mocktail summer fun". I wanted to just get a feel for what the AI could do. After that, I jumped into using words for different visual styles. I got a bit carried away and just started adding more and more descriptors but wasn't getting what I wanted. So after adding a lot of words to the prompt I slowly started replacing and taking away words to give the AI more space to create something new. More words do not always equal better results

Reflection: All and all I think AI is a pretty cool tool. It opens the doors to my imagination. In the process, Id get stuck on what to ask for so I just started adding words and from that, the AI generated results that helped inspire me to be more creative. I don't think AI should be used to produce final results but rather as a tool to inspire creativity.

The Spooky Sip

Designed by Brett Enders

Mocktail Description: This bubbling midnight treat is sure to quench even a vampire's thirst. Layered with fruity flavor and deadly delicious jelly topping, this colorful graveyard classic will thrill your taste buds with citrus, berry, and a mint garnish.

Process: I started with the prompt "Shirley Temple drink mocktail with paper umbrella" because that's one of my favorite mocktails. This gave me some rather creepy results as the AI wanted to add the actual Shirley Temple into the image, so I changed my theme. I decided to try a Halloween mocktail, using variations, upscaling, and more descriptive prompts to get more refined results. The final prompt was "Halloween cute spooky colorful party drink mocktail photorealistic, graveyard background, cinematic lighting."

Reflection: As much as I hate AI art for screwing over hard working artists, even I have to admit that this is a great way to generate ideas for designs. It's a great starting point, especially if you're in an art block and need to get inspired. I'd use it as a sort of Pinterest board to get ideas for actual, human-made art and design work.

Neo-African-American

Designed by Dedié Adissem

Mocktail Description: Neo-Native is an idea about identity. More specifically it was coined for those native to an area. The Neo- African- American mocktail stylistically embodies a cross between those who were stripped of their history and also the ambiance of what that ethnic history looks like through the elements included in the mocktail.

Process: I immediately knew I wanted whatever I was going to enter in the prompt needed to be personal to myself. I learned alot from what the AI imagines Neo-African American means by entering prompts into the server that were off the mark. Making the prompt more concise helped with the idea of whatever Midjourney thinks Neo-Native means along with what African-American is.

Reflection: I believe that AI is innovative and critical in the growth and development in the creative world. However, I dislike how it is taking away from the process of truly creating things from scratch, although it can be tool that can be built upon when creating something and needing just possible inspiration. It is fun to enter prompts and see an outcome that you had a general idea of, and be suprised by whatever the program gives an output of.

Rococo on the rocks

Designed by Emily Straughn

Mocktail Description: Rococo on the rocks embodies the light and luxury of 1700s Rococo era paintings. First enjoy the soft aroma of the garden herb garnish, then savor the bright citrus and sweet honey refreshment. It's the perfect complement for a summer afternoon.

Process: Rococo paintings typically consists of a light, airy, soft painterly style, so I was surprised when my first prompts gave me images that were very dark and moody. It wasn't enough to achieve a Rococo style by including the word Rococo, I had to include adjectives describing Rococo in my prompt in order to achieve the style. I found a list of different keywords and examples on GitHub that inspired my prompts (github.com/wilwulfken/MidJourney-Styles-and-Keywords-Reference).

Reflection: I think AI can be a useful tool, but there are shortcomings that make it obvious it doesn't have the capacity to 'replace' designers anytime soon. Yejin Choi in New York Times article, 'An A.I. Pioneer on What We Should Really Fear', explains that AI lacks common sense. So as of now, AI is best used as a tool by designers who are critically aware.

Dragons Breath

Designed by Harrison Dodd

Mocktail Description: This drink may be a little too hot to drink. There is a large dragon that flys over the glass spewing the drink into the glass.

Process: I started out typing "lava fire glass drink splash burning orange red smokey splashing". This got me some cool results, but it wasn't unique enough and I new the AI could come up with something cooler. So, I added a few words including a dragon and a few other descriptors and got 4 really cool mocktails. From there I remixed my two favorites and upscaled the best of those 4.

Reflection: Ai is a extreamly powerful tool and I think it has the ability to aid in the process of design. However, it quite obviously has a difficult time interpreting you if you are not carful enough with your words. One word that can be interpreted in another way will completely change the outcome of what you get. This can be interesting sometimes, but most of the time it is a confusing mess of random things.

The Royal Refreshment

Designed by Mark Boyd

Mocktail Description: Take a trip back in time with the royal refreshment and taste what the kings and queens of the past may have enjoyed on a night out. This fruity concoction with quench your thirst and your longing for power.

Process: I went into this with no idea of what my final result would look like, but I throughoughly enjoyed the process. I began with ancient and deadly with a splash of shirley temple. I switched words around and added a few descriptors and ended up with my final product. My final prompt was: ancient beverage mythology Shirley temple glass fruit 4k contrast drip clink.

Reflection: AI is quite the tool, and is very powerful. Although Midjourney was a slightly confusing tool to understand at first. Once seeing the capabilities of the tool I really enjoyed playing around with the limits of the tool. In refelction of it I believe that the tool is great if used in the right context, to be used for ideation and quick iteration and not for final product making. In this way it doesn't take over our jobs but rather expand on what we're capable to create.