Artificial Intelligence and Visual Identity Design

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into graphic design has transformed contemporary visual creation, generating new debates on creativity, authorship, functionality, and project thinking. This study examines two visual identity proposals developed by university students for Dora del Hoyo, an artisanal bakery and pastry venture affiliated with the Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociales y Económico Familiares (ICSEF). Grounded in a Practice as Research (PaR) approach, the project explored how traditional and AI-assisted design processes contributed to the development of visual identity solutions. Data were collected through structured observation, interviews, and evaluations conducted by experts and organizational representatives. Both teams worked from the same design brief and followed comparable design stages, including research, concept development, visual exploration, validation, and brand manual production. Findings indicate that AI facilitated rapid ideation, visual experimentation, and mockup generation, whereas designer-led processes demonstrated greater conceptual depth, symbolic coherence, technical functionality, and adaptability across applications. The project culminated in a hybrid proposal integrating contributions from both approaches. The results suggest that AI functions as a complementary design tool that expands creative possibilities but requires critical judgment and professional mediation to produce strategic, functional, and culturally relevant visual identity solutions.