10/07/2026
Sharing this as I feel this has been heavy on my heart lately. I have had so many AI generated images that has either cost me, or I’ve spent HOURS making into a design that’s somewhat close to what the image looks like. Please be mindful that AI is a great feature but sometimes realistically it isnt always achievable.
🚨 We need to talk about AI-generated artwork—and I’m saying this as someone who actually uses AI.
AI is an incredible tool. It can take something you describe and within seconds spit out an image that looks pretty damn close to what you had in your head.
But from a print-shop perspective, it has created two pretty big problems:
People think AI-generated means print-ready. And people are starting to expect HUMAN designers to work at AI speed.
Neither one is realistic.
Lately, probably 95% of the people who tell us, “I already have my design,” are sending us something AI-generated.
It might look AMAZING on your phone. Then we actually open the file for production and find fuzzy edges, hidden pixels, semi-transparent areas, weird gradients, distorted lettering, random colors, backgrounds that aren’t actually clean and details that simply aren’t going to translate correctly onto a garment.
Because AI is creating something for you to VISUALIZE.
It isn’t necessarily building a professional production file.
And here’s another side of AI that I don’t think people realize:
Real graphic design does not happen in 30 seconds.
When you type into AI:
“Make this purple. Change that font. Move this over. Add a hockey stick. Take that out.”
…and a new image pops out seconds later, it starts to feel like that’s how designing works.
It’s not.
When a real human is creating or rebuilding your design, we are physically making those changes. We’re adjusting artwork, cleaning edges, working with fonts, changing layouts, fixing spacing, correcting colors, preparing files and making sure what you’re looking at can actually be PRODUCED.
Then we send a proof.
You request changes.
We go back into the artwork.
We make the changes.
We send another proof.
Sometimes we tweak it again.
A custom design can easily take an hour or more once you factor in designing, revisions, customer communication and preparing the final production file.
And for many of our larger orders, I haven’t traditionally charged customers for every minute of that design time.
But that doesn’t mean the time doesn’t exist.
That’s an hour I’m not printing.
An hour I’m not embroidering.
An hour I’m not answering another customer.
An hour I’m not working on the orders already in production.
Now combine that with AI files that ALSO need to be cleaned up before we can even use them, and you can probably understand why this has become such a big issue for print shops.
We’ve always been extremely generous about fixing artwork. We’ve removed backgrounds, cleaned pixels, adjusted colors, sharpened edges and rebuilt pieces because we genuinely care about what leaves our shop.
But when we’re doing it over and over again, those “quick little fixes” turn into hours and hours of unpaid production time.
So we’re going to have to start drawing some boundaries around artwork.
If you provide an AI-generated file that requires significant cleanup or recreation, there may be an artwork/setup fee.
If we’re creating custom artwork for you, please understand that designing takes time.
And if you’re requesting multiple rounds of changes, please understand that each revision requires an actual person to stop, reopen your artwork, make those changes, export it again and send another proof.
We’re humans. 😂
We don’t get to type a sentence into ourselves and have a finished design shoot out the other end 15 seconds later.
AI is awesome for ideas.
AI is awesome for inspiration.
AI is awesome for showing us what you’re envisioning.
But AI hasn’t eliminated the need for graphic designers or production artists.
If anything, it’s made that job MORE important because someone still has to take that beautiful AI-generated idea and figure out how the heck we’re actually going to print it.
So please give your designers and print shops some grace when your custom design isn’t finished in five minutes.
Good design takes time. Good production takes time. And there are real humans behind both. 💜
