AI-generated art is still very new and the designers and laypeople who are working with it are still in an experimental phase discovering together how far it can go. Though it doesn’t entirely replace the work of a traditional designer, it is another graphic design tool that helps to put ideas into visual statements quickly and economically, and is helping us at Furniture Bank disrupt the charity sector’s reliance on “poverty porn.”
With access to AI tools like MidJourney, Dall-E2, and stable diffusion, charities can compose a key phrase that encapsulates the reality of their clients. It takes tweaking, and practice, and to generate a well-defined concept you have to follow a creative process of digital creation and leverage skilled collaborators to make this possible.
Furniture Bank hired an “AI architect” Pablo Pietropinto, who worked with us with the following work methodology:
Like any form of art or skill, you can spend A LOT of time and expense learning the ins and outs of the process. We found hiring an AI Architect saved a lot of time, allowing us time to focus on fine-tuning the images to most accurately reflect our clients’ stories.
“As a university student, I really needed a desk to study at, a place to store my books. It's pretty hard to study on a bare floor, and I couldn't just get up and go to the library with a toddler.”
“Sleeping on the floor was painful. Without anything in my apartment, every little noise was amplified. Those blank white walls were black once the sun went down.”
“Right now, it still feels like I am homeless because I got an apartment but nothing in it—no bed, no furniture, no pots and pans. I got a key for the place but there’s nothing to sit on, just our clothes to sit on and sleep on.”
“When your place is empty, you feel empty. I’m grateful to be out of the shelter but it’s been sad here without furniture. These walls aren’t what makes a home.”
“Furniture Bank brought me a chance. This is my chance at a do-over. I have a place to live, and now, a place to sleep. With nothing in it, this room used to feel like a cell. Now I’m allowed to say I have a home.”
The idea of doing this project any other way was an impossible task in terms of ethics, time and costs.
In 25 years of operating, we’ve had two families invite us to see the realities of living in furniture poverty. The probability of finding 20-40 families that would be willing to allow professional photographers to demonstrate their reality behind the closed door is less than zero, not to mention the ethical and moral dilemma of asking those emerging from crisis to put their suffering on display.
And that’s not even factoring in the cost of a photographer for this complex months-long project—we would see the organization invest over $30,000 of funds to pay for photos.
In using AI, this project was completed within days, and cost less than $900 with an AI architect. Furthermore, we’ve been trained how to do these ourselves, allowing us to focus on finding stories, not photos for years to come!
Its a simple as imagining…
Type /imagine and describe in DETAIL what you want to see. Example here:
/imagine a child sitting on the floor, two books open on the floor, setting a empty room, urban home no furniture, intricate details, beam of sunlight through window
Based on your command, you will get 4 choices. You can run new versions, try alternatives to a particular composition or ask for a more detailed version!
Upscale your image to get a final version.
Check out the 40 images we created using AI that imagine the reality behind closed doors.
FURNITURE BANK | Registered Charity | #87253 1843 RR0001
Copyright © FURNITURE BANK 2023. All Rights Reserved.
Our Hours
Mon-Fri: 8:30am – 4pm
Walk-ins Monday to Friday, 9am – 3pm
Appointments Monday to Friday, 9am – 2pm
