{ "archive_path": "archive/1789855459.38897", "base_url": "john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html", "basename": "ai-event-posters.html", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-19 22:04", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=john.hartnup.uk", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" }, "domain": "john.hartnup.uk", "extension": "html", "hash": "S0K8R31YS3YFQ95WT328", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=john.hartnup.uk" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:55.246205+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:54.727873+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:55.602718+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:55.256053+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:05:02.132817+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:58.992111+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmp03gtwggj", "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:58.981812+00:00", "index_texts": [ "The problem\n\nA now famous Facebook post shows us the\nscourge of identikit posters generated by AI.\n\nHere\u2019s an article on the subject from the Independent.\n\n\n \n \n A collage of AI-generated village fayre posters found online\n \n\n\nHere\u2019s another I found in the wild. With apologies for picking on the\nLeamington Beer Festival - they are by no means unique\n\n\n \n \n Leamington Beer Festival 2026 \u2014 with commentary from a passer-by\n \n\n\nThe problem with these is not so much that they\u2019re bad. They\u2019re OK,\nI don\u2019t love them. The problem is that once you\u2019ve seen that style 20 times\nit starts to irritate just from the sheer repetition.\n\nI knew that even ChatGPT was capable of a broader variety of styles than this,\nso I set out to prove it.\n\nI gave ChatGPT some invented event details and asked it to produce a poster.\nRather than go with the default look it would choose for a spring fayre,\nI made a point of specifying what I thought was a different style:\n\n\n Me:\n\n Produce a poster for a spring fayre.\n21 April - 11am to 3pm\nMill Beach Park, Honeyford\nFree entry\nTombola\nCakes and drinks\nPerformance by a samba band and a dhol band.\nCraft stalls\nCircus Skills workshop\n\n Go for a clean, unfussy, bright layout with a bold striking spring-themed\ngraphic. Avoid pastel/airbrush/oil style art or images of people.\n\n\nThis is what came back.\n\n\n \n \n First attempt \u2014 the default craft-fayre template\n \n\n\nNot as successful as I hoped. To me it still feels like what I\u2019m trying to\navoid.\n\nI asked for something deliberately different.\n\n\n Me:\n\n Make another one using a completely different design aesthetic of your choice.\nTreat the current one as a \u201cwhat not to do\u201d \u2013 not that there is anything\nwrong with it, but we want ours to stand out from other posters that look\nsimilar.\n\n\n\n \n \n Second attempt \u2014 Bauhaus / geometric modernist\n \n\n\nI think this is already much better. It stands out just be being different. I wondered what I would call this style if I wanted to ask for it again?\n\n\n Me: What is this design style you\u2019ve used called?\n\n ChatGPT: This one is leaning into a modernist / Bauhaus-influenced graphic style, with a bit of contemporary \u201cflat illustration\u201d layered on top.\n\n More specifically, you could describe it as:\n\n Bauhaus / Modernist Poster Design\n\n \n Rooted in the Bauhaus tradition (1920s\u201330s)\n Strong emphasis on function over decoration\n Asymmetrical layout with clear hierarchy\n Bold, simple sans-serif typography\n Limited, high-contrast colour palette\n \n\n Geometric Minimalism\n\n \n Built from basic shapes (circles, semicircles, rectangles)\n The flower is abstracted into almost symbolic forms\n Very little texture or shading \u2014 mostly flat colour\n \n\n Swiss Style (International Typographic Style) influence\n\n \n Clean grid-based alignment (even if loosely applied)\n Information-first layout\n Clear, legible structure\n \n\n If you wanted a shorthand label for a designer or printer, you could call it:\n\n \u201cBauhaus-inspired geometric minimalist poster\u201d\n\n If you\u2019re trying to stand out, this direction works well because most local event posters default to:\n\n \n bunting\n hand-drawn florals\n pastel palettes\n \u201ccraft fair\u201d aesthetics\n \n\n Whereas this feels more like:\n\n \n a gallery poster\n a design museum flyer\n or something you\u2019d see in a well-curated caf\u00e9\n \n\n If you want, I can push it further into a really distinctive niche (e.g. brutalist, risograph, 90s rave flyer, Japanese minimal, etc.).\n\n\nWell, thanks GPT. I knew there was an endless array of design styles that it could produce. Instead of trying to dredge some names from my memory, I asked for suggestions.\n\nIt replied with a list of styles, some of which I\u2019d never heard of, some\nI recognised but couldn\u2019t picture, some which were names I didn\u2019t know for\nstyles I did.\n\n\n Me: Give me a list of styles to choose from\n\n ChatGPT: Here\u2019s a deliberately varied menu\u2014some safe-but-distinct, some quite left-field. I\u2019ve kept each one concrete so you can imagine how your fayre poster would actually look.\n\n \ud83c\udfa8 Clean but Characterful\n\n 1. Bauhaus / Modernist\n(What you just saw)\nGeometric shapes, primary colours, strong type\nFeels cultural / design-led rather than \u201ccraft fair\u201d\n\n 2. Swiss Style\nstrict grid, lots of whitespace\nBlack/white + one accent colour\nVery \u201cinformation design\u201d, almost institutional\n\n 3. Contemporary Editorial (Magazine-style)\nBig headline, elegant serif + sans mix\nThink weekend supplement or gallery leaflet\nCould feel surprisingly premium for a fayre\n\n \ud83c\udf3f Graphic & Illustrative (but not twee)\n\n 4. Risograph Print Style\nLimited ink colours, slightly misregistered layers\nGrainy textures, bold shapes\nFeels handmade but designed, not crafty\n\n 5. Cut Paper / Collage (Matisse-inspired)\nInspired by Henri Matisse cut-outs\nOrganic shapes, bold colour blocks\nVery striking from a distance\n\n 6. Botanical Scientific Illustration (Modernised)\nClean line drawings of plants, labelled or diagram-like\nMonochrome + one highlight colour\nQuietly distinctive, slightly academic\n\n \u26a1 Bold / Unusual Directions\n\n 7. Brutalist Graphic Design\nRaw, high-contrast, almost \u201cugly on purpose\u201d\nHeavy black blocks, stark type\nFeels rebellious\u2014very different from typical village posters\n\n 8. 90s Rave Flyer / Acid Graphics\nNeon colours, warped type, energetic layout\nCould echo the samba/dhol energy\nSurprisingly effective if done with restraint\n\n 9. Memphis Design (80s Postmodern)\nPlayful shapes, squiggles, clashing colours\nInspired by Memphis Group\nFun but still graphic and bold\n\n \ud83e\udded Quietly Distinct / Understated\n\n 10. Japanese Minimal Poster\nVery restrained layout, lots of empty space\nOne strong graphic element\nElegant, calm, and unusual in this context\n\n 11. Monochrome + Single Accent (Ultra-minimal)\nBlack, white, and e.g. bright green or orange\nTypography-led, almost no illustration\nRelies on composition rather than decoration\n\n 12. Wayfinding / Signage Style\nLooks like a park map or transport signage\nIcons, arrows, structured layout\nFunctional but visually interesting\n\n \ud83c\udfaa Slightly Playful but Still Clean\n\n 13. Modern Icon System\nEverything represented as simple icons\nConsistent stroke weight, grid-based\nFeels like an app UI or transport system\n\n 14. Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)\nBold inked shapes, slight imperfections\nLimited palette, strong contrast\nSuggests \u201cevent\u201d without being twee\n\n 15. Festival Poster (Contemporary Indie)\nBig central graphic + stacked lineup text\nBorrow cues from music festivals\nWorks nicely given the bands\n\n If you want a steer\n\n Given your brief (\u201cclean, unfussy, bold, no twee imagery\u201d), the strongest stand-out options are:\n\n \n Risograph\n Cut paper / Matisse\n Brutalist (toned down slightly)\n Japanese minimal\n Wayfinding / signage\n \n\n If one of these clicks, I can generate a poster in that exact style\u2014and push it properly, not just superficially.\n\n\nAsking for specific aesthetics produced a variety of posters.\n\nNow, I\u2019m not claiming these don\u2019t have a whiff of AI about them. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s really my goal - we can be honest that we\u2019re using AI, we just don\u2019t want it to have that look that everyone\u2019s sick of.\n\n\n Me: Please give me Stamp / Letterpress Style (Modernised)\n\n\n\n \n \n Stamp / letterpress style\n \n\n\n\n Me: and now please Japanese Minimal Poster\n\n\n\n \n \n Japanese minimal\n \n\n\n\n Me: Now do Memphis Design please\n\n\n(I didn\u2019t know what Memphis Group design was, but I recognised if when I saw it.\n\n\n \n \n Memphis design\n \n\n\nThen I got a bit silly. Designers Republic is a design agency famous for\nrecord covers from the late 80s onwards.\n\n\n Me: And now in the style of Designers Republic\n\n\n\n \n \n Designers Republic inspired\n \n\n\nOne note here is that along the way, the poster has acquired extra text\n(\u201cA day of music making and family fun\u201d) \u2013 it\u2019s decided that Designers\nRepublic would have thrown in some text of that kind, so it\u2019s come up\nwith some words. Those words are now in the chat context, so they appear\nin subsequent posters.\n\nIf you were working from scratch, you\u2019d just ask for the style you want\nin the first place, and avoid picking up trappings as you go.\n\n\n Me: Now as if a professional graphic designer has added typography to a poster paint drawing by his young child.\n\n\n\n \n \n Child's poster paint + professional typography\n \n\n\n\n Me: Now with the aesthetic of a photocopied 1980 punk fanzine. But with some colour snuck in.\n\n\n\n \n \n 1980s punk fanzine\n \n\n\n\n Me: Now please make one in the style of a 90s drum n bass gig flyer, with early 3D/fractal computer imagery\n\n\n\n \n \n 90s drum and bass flyer\n \n\n\nBack to sensible ideas, naming an art style but asking for a poster\nthat movement might have used, seems like a strong tactic.\n\n\n Me: Now in the style of a contemporary 40s poster for a cubist exhibition.\n\n\n\n \n \n 1940s cubist exhibition poster\n \n\n\nSo there we are. The sharp-eyed are still going to recognise these as\nAI-generated, but they\u2019re distinctive, and I think they\u2019re not ugly.\n\nSo that\u2019s the moral - you don\u2019t have to make posters that look like everyone\nelse\u2019s.\n\nThere\u2019s a further step - you don\u2019t have to ask AI for posters as images\nthat can\u2019t be edited. Claude and Gemini can generate HTML, PNG, PDF,\nwhere the text is real text, layers are real layers, you can change fonts,\nmove things around, edit the text \u2013 but that\u2019s more than I want to talk about today.\n\nInspired by this blog post, I went on to make a catalogue of one hundred poster styles,\nwith ready-to-paste prompts and example images for each one." ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:57.084464+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:57.076551+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "AI-generated posters don\u2019t have to be horrible | \u2018ERE I AM - JH!", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:57.063304+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:57.053008+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-19T22:04:55.613183+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "AI-generated posters don\u2019t have to be horrible | \u2018ERE I AM - JH!", "warc": null, "wget": "john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789855459.38897", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-19T22:04:58.992111+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-19T22:04:54.727873+00:00", "path": "/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "7ade0b9a-02b0-42e9-83c2-207074273b1b", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789855459-import.txt" ], "tags": null, "tags_str": "", "timestamp": "1789855459.38897", "title": "AI-generated posters don\u2019t have to be horrible | \u2018ERE I AM - JH!", "updated": "2026-09-19T22:04:54.727375+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-19 22:04", "url": "https://john.hartnup.uk/2026/06/07/ai-event-posters.html" }