AI tools are increasingly present in our world today, including in our professional ones. Ignoring them would be doing you a disservice. But using them uncritically would be doing you an even greater one.

AI can be biased, incorrect, and limited. As designers and thinkers, your job is to interrogate the tools you use — including this one. In The Studio, we use AI as a thinking partner, not an answer machine. Understanding how to prompt well, evaluate output critically, and document your process honestly are skills that will serve you far beyond this classroom.

✔  Brainstorming off of your initial ideas — with your own critical lens applied

✔  Researching visual references, design movements, or historical context (verify sources used)

✔  Getting feedback on a draft or concept to help you revise and push further

✔  Learning new vocabulary or technical skills (e.g. typography terms, color theory)

✔  Practicing prompt-building as a professional skill, documented in your process record

✔  Supporting written reflections — drafting, grammar, and clarity (ideas must be your own)

✖  Submitting AI-generated images, layouts, or designs as your own finished work

✖  Using AI to write your artist statements, reflections, or proposals without disclosure

✖  Bypassing the design process — AI does not replace sketching, iteration, and decision-making

✖  Entering confidential school, client, or classmate information into any AI tool

Your portfolio must reflect your thinking, your process, and your growth. AI cannot sketch for your sketchbook, make your design decisions, or develop your creative voice — those things belong to you, and they are what evaluators, clients, and future programs will look for.

Think of AI the way you would think of a reference book or a peer critique: useful input, not the final answer. You still have to do the work.

Any time AI is used in your process, it must be documented in your process record. Include:

▸  The tool used (e.g. Claude, ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly)

▸  What you asked or prompted it to do

▸  What it gave you — and how you evaluated or changed it

▸  How that output influenced (or did not) your final decisions

AI citations belong alongside your sketches and drafts — as evidence of your thinking, not something to hide.

Submitting AI-generated work as your own without disclosure violates our school's academic honesty policy. The same standards that apply to copying another student's work apply to presenting AI output as original creation.

If you are ever unsure whether a use of AI is appropriate — ask before you submit, not after.

✔  Never enter your full name, student ID, address, or personal data into public AI tools

✔  Do not input classmates' names, images, or identifying information without their consent

✔  Treat AI output with the same skepticism you would give an anonymous internet source

✔  Approach AI use with the same respect, fairness, and integrity expected everywhere in class

✔  Be aware that AI systems carry bias — notice it, name it, and do not replicate it in your work