Artists and brands adopt lo-fi aesthetics to push back against AI
Updated
Updated · The New Yorker · May 6
Artists and brands adopt lo-fi aesthetics to push back against AI
8 articles · Updated · The New Yorker · May 6
Vermont artist Christine Tyler Hill grew her mailed zine from a TikTok surge of 1,000 subscribers in 24 hours to more than 3,000 readers.
Brands including Guess, Apple, Picador and Granola are using rough, handwritten, grainy or pixelated visuals to signal human effort and stand out from polished AI-generated imagery.
The shift reflects fears over creative livelihoods and a wider appetite for authenticity, even as AI tools increasingly mimic scribbly, imperfect styles once seen as distinctly human.
Could the embrace of handmade, imperfect design become just another trend—what happens when AI can perfectly fake even 'authentic' messiness?
As AI-generated art gets better at mimicking flaws, how will artists and audiences redefine what truly feels 'human' in creative work?