Why Good Design (Alone) Won’t Cut It Anymore
by Michael Essek · Updated: July 21, 2026There’s a lot of AI ‘cope’ coming from artists and designers – as they try to deal with the upcoming AI armageddon.
But it’s not all bad news – because your design skills aren’t what really generate sales anyway.
So what is?
Well first we need to understand why design alone doesn’t generate sales.
It’s not because design isn’t important, and it’s not because your art isn’t good or attractive.
It’s because buyers care about MORE than just ‘how something looks’.
(ok – a minority of people may be buying certain products based on aesthetics ‘alone’ but for the vast majority of sales, it’s about much more than that.)
Think of it this way:
When you watch your favourite film, you aren’t enjoying it solely because of the visuals, lighting or camera angles.
When you go to your favourite restaurant, it isn’t just how the food looks that keeps you coming back.
It’s always design (visuals) + something else.
Good Visuals + Good Story = Good Film.
Good Looking Plate + Good Tasting Food = Good Meal.
And when it comes to designs for products such as T-Shirts – it’s almost always: design + message.
A (good) design is an effective carrier for a message or idea.
Yes, people buy both design + message together in one package (you can’t separate one from the other) – but the design is what supports and carries the message – not the other way around.
( my crudely drawn attempt to illustrate this:)
If you’re good at design, then you’ll ‘ease’ the carrying of that message to the reader / wearer / buyer (which makes a sale much easier). If you’re bad at design, then you’ll hinder it, or confuse it completely (which makes a sale much less likely).
But the bottom line is this: you can’t sell a design that has no meaning or message (certainly not consistently, and certainly not at scale).
And that’s why AI image generation isn’t ‘game over’ for all designers everywhere.
It isn’t game over for designers who are able to generate, create and spot winning ideas and concepts.
A winning idea or concept is one that carries a message effectively.
And the designer who can come up with such ideas by themselves, consistently, is always going to beat the designer who must always be given a brief to work from.
But if you can’t create your own original ideas – then you really are a sitting duck for the AI ‘artists’.
So the advantage is with those designers who aren’t JUST designers – they’re also IDEAS people.
These people can look at a market, a topic or trend, and come up with original concepts that become winning designs.
They can do that repeatedly, consistently, at scale.
And that’s why they win, and why they don’t need to lose sleep over any AI.
I hope you found this helpful.
This is a sample chapter from my book ‘Hold On To Your Bots’ – what AI means for your designs and your business:
