The Impact of Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Design Education: A Case Study of Logo Design Processes

Abstract

This study examines how integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the design process influences the outcomes and thinking of design students in brand logo creation. Using a qualitative approach, we recruited nine visual communication design students from a university in southern Taiwan and assigned them to an AI-assisted co-creation group (n=5) and a non-AI group (n=4). Over three weeks, participants completed a logo design task for “YO-Café,” maintaining weekly logs across three phases: data analysis, ideation development, and design execution. Data sources included process logs, final artifacts, expert evaluation (focusing on identifiability, aesthetic quality, and relevance to the brief), and semi-structured interviews with students, experts, and an instructor experienced in AI integration. Results indicate that AI improves efficiency in data gathering and facilitates early-stage concept scaffolding; however, overreliance on AI tends to reduce exploratory thinking, yielding safer visual vocabularies (e.g., coffee cup/bean motifs, brown palettes). Non-AI works displayed greater stylistic diversity and authorial interpretation, though sometimes less immediately associated with coffee. Experts jointly awarded “Best Brand Award” to a non-AI work that balanced clarity, adaptability, and commercial applicability. The study recommends introducing AI after foundational training, positioning AI as a co-creative tool, and emphasizing problem framing, critical judgment, and integrative communication within design education.