Taxi Studio is a Bristol-based brand and design agency which works with clients like Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and the BBC. Here the studio’s AI lead, Stu Tallis, explains how they are using AI.
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Broadly speaking, are you excited for how AI will change the design industry, or nervous?
It’s fair to say that I’m both excited and nervous in equal measure. It’s not often that advancements in technology have such a seismic impact on an industry. With AI, the impact isn’t confined to one industry, it’s every industry, globally. This is big.
AI is going to fundamentally change how we work and how human value is perceived, and that’s the key aspect we should be focusing on.
We will all be using AI tools and platforms moving forward (in fact, many of us already are, whether we realise it or not) whether that’s automating repetitive tasks, augmenting our creative process, or acting as a digital advisor.
What we need to focus on is having a clear point of view about where we as humans add irreplaceable value.
Where, without us, the work simply wouldn’t be as good. For now, one thing AI can’t replicate is empathy, understanding human emotion, or having that gut instinct that tells you, “Something about this doesn’t feel right,” and then exploring that insight to create something extraordinary.
What excites me most is that AI will open doors. New opportunities, new ways of thinking, and new creative approaches.
But I’m also nervous because AI will inevitably take over many production tasks, and that will result in some job losses. As someone with emotions and empathy, I can’t ignore that.
Still, I believe that the human ability to dream, feel, and intuit will always remain a crucial and irreplaceable part of the creative process.
Do you have an agreed policy around AI as a business? If so, how did you create it?
Yes, we do. In March 2024, after months of exploring, experimenting, and attending seminars and talks on AI, we concluded that this technology is here to stay and it was going to change everything.
At the same time, it was evolving at breakneck speed. Aggressive, chaotic, and very much like the “wild west.” New tools and platforms were launching almost daily. Clients were excited one moment and hesitant the next. Confusion and hype were everywhere.
We felt it was our responsibility as a business to set clear guardrails, both to ensure we had control of how AI was used internally, and to provide transparency to our clients so they could trust that we were using it responsibly.
With that in mind, and inspired by my love of Isaac Asimov, author of I, Robot and his famous Three Laws of Robotics, I felt we needed our own equivalent.
So, we created our Five Principles of AI, which guide how we explore and apply AI tools across our business and client work..
When did you realise AI was going to have an impact on design?
Myself and one of our co-founders, Ryan Wills, have always been keen advocates of science and technology.
In 2023, when AI really began to gain momentum and Midjourney became available to the public, we had a moment where we said, “We need to get on top of this.”
Shortly afterwards, The Dieline released a video, Exploring the Intersection of AI, Design, and Packaging: Insights and Techniques.
That was a real WOW moment for us. It opened our minds to the possibilities and quickly expanded our awareness of emerging tools that could help us visualise answers to “What if?” questions almost instantly.
It was clear that AI had the potential to augment our creative workflows, of course, always in a safe and confidential way.
Have you undergone any AI training, either as a studio or individuals? If so, what was it, and what impact did it have?
Yes, we have. By mid-2024, I felt that the design team had developed a strong grasp of some AI tools, and I could already see the positive effects on our creative output.
AI had become a natural part of the process in many ways. However, I knew there was more we could do across all areas of the studio.
From client services through to operations and strategy. I started to look for training partnerships and there were countless opportunities out there, but it was difficult to discern which were genuinely valuable and credible, versus those simply jumping on the AI bandwagon to make a quick profit.
In the end, we partnered with the Pratt Institute, which is led by industry creatives who truly understand both our business, and the future of AI. We ran an intensive course with them in January, focusing on what AI is, how to master the art of prompt writing, how to leverage ChatGPT (including building custom GPTs to automate workflows), as well as a crash course in Midjourney and Adobe Firefly.
The experience really nurtured a mindset shift. From design thinking to thinking design across the entire business.
It made AI feel less daunting and far more accessible. As a result, the team gained an accreditation in ‘Creative AI in Design’ and began experimenting and integrating these tools into their daily workflows with confidence, which was exactly the impact I’d hoped for.
How do you use AI in the studio’s creative process? What is it good for? Where are its shortcomings?
We ultimately use AI to augment our creative process; to visualise our thinking at speed. That’s our main application right now.
When we have an idea, instead of spending many hours crafting early visuals, we use AI to accelerate the visualisation stage. This means we can dedicate more time to ideation and problem-solving, which is where the real value lies.
The challenge is that these tools are still relatively new, and it can sometimes feel like a false economy – you don’t always get the results you hope for.
AI-generated images can be flat, difficult to adjust, and achieving consistent output isn’t always straightforward.
However, this is improving rapidly. I believe that we, along with other businesses, will need to invest in both training and the time required to become fluent in these tools and the new language that comes with them.
Do you think clients care if/how you use AI in your work?
Yes, absolutely. This is exactly why we developed our Five Principles of AI, to ensure transparency and build trust.
Our clients are on the same journey as we are, navigating this new frontier of AI alongside agencies like ours, so open communication has been essential from the outset.
Each client is at a different stage of adoption and has their own policies and perspectives on AI. So it’s crucial that we understand these nuances and align our teams accordingly.
This ensures everyone is clear on what can and cannot be used in the creative process when working with specific clients.
Do you use AI for any non-creative aspects of running your business? If so what, and how does it help?
Since completing our training, teams across different functions of the business have been exploring various ways to use AI.
We are also proactively working on solidifying these practices. Our focus is on identifying where AI can help automate certain tasks, streamline processes, and make us more efficient. Ultimately freeing up more time to focus on the important, high-value work.
Beyond the best known tools, what is one AI tool that you would recommend to other design studios?
I would recommend Vizcom. It’s an excellent tool for enhancing the design process, allowing you to take a hand-drawn sketch of an idea and quickly transform it into a 3D visual that can be refined, modified, and developed at speed.
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