OHMY is a design and technology studio based in Leamington Spa. It works with clients like Sonder, RCA Records, and The Emory hotel. We spoke with Joe Burke, OHMY’s co-founder and creative director, about how the studio uses AI, and how he feels about it.
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Broadly speaking, are you excited for how AI will change the design industry, or nervous?
I’m excited and nervous in equal measure.
It’s good to be a little nervous; it keeps you on your toes. It’s definitely an exciting time, but things are moving fast. I’ve never really experienced a shift quite like it.
I’m hoping AI dusts off the heart of what we do and human input becomes more and more valuable over time. I’m nervous for people in roles where they could lose big parts of their hard-earned careers.
Do you have an agreed policy around AI as a business?
We’re careful about the legal side. Client materials don’t get thrown into just any tool, as most of them use data for training. We pay for subscriptions to make sure client content isn’t used that way.
Anyone at the studio can use AI – we encourage it. The simple rule is – use it as much as you want, as long as you’re happy to admit it. If you’d be embarrassed to say you used AI on something, you probably shouldn’t.
We’ve also updated our statements of work and contracts to remove liability related to generative AI tools. That was done with AI and a solicitor.
When did you realise AI was going to have an impact on design?
I think it was when the latest version of ChatGPT started rendering things in chat. Things were moving fast, even though it was still pretty flaky.
At first, it was almost laughable – a tool that couldn’t even draw a straight line or create decent typography was never going to be a threat. But then, all of a sudden, it could do it well. It’s wild how quickly things changed.
The next step is exciting – linking these tools into the ones we already use. The idea that AI can sit inside the systems where you’re designing, sketching, and exploring, and then help expand those ideas, is going to be powerful.
But it was that major ChatGPT release that made me think, “OK, this is here now, and it’s not going away”
Have you undergone any AI training, either as a studio or individuals?
No training, just a lot of research and experimentation.
How do you use AI in the studio’s creative process?
We use AI at different levels, from deep research to fleshing out concepts, reviewing, and spotting holes in our work. It’s genuinely useful having more “eyes” on things – it helps us find gaps in strategies that might have been missed.
As for shortcomings, it’s still only as good as what you put in. You need a strong strategic head, a sharp creative eye, and bags of taste. Otherwise, you’ll just get trash out the back. You can’t outsource those things.
Do you think clients care if/how you use AI in your work?
Clients have budgets and want the most for their money. If the studio can deliver more for that budget, they’ll be happier.
We’ve had clients include prompts in briefs asking if we can push things using AI. No-one’s asked us not to yet.
Do you use AI for any non-creative aspects of running your business?
It helps with some of the coding work and day-to-day formatting. We’ve also built a few internal tools using it to help with costing and estimating.
What’s one AI tool you’d recommend to other design studios?
I use a little tool called Talktastic multiple times a day. It lets me dictate to the computer in a much more natural way. It listens, tightens everything up, and uses AI to make sense of it.
Traditional dictation tools can be pretty basic. This one lets me throw three or four times more context into prompts I use in tools