Main Content

AI Use Cases: Design/Creative

The following use cases apply primarily to university employees with official graphic design responsibilities. Other employees should not use AI to design public-facing assets. 

Public-facing refers to any content, asset or communication that is accessible to or intended for audiences beyond the TCU campus without requiring password authentication. This does not typically include classroom materials.

AI may be used through approved tools to support ideation, experimentation and routine production tasks within established communications and marketing workflows. Public-facing marketing and communications must be developed under the direction of qualified communications and marketing professionals. AI supports—but does not replace—professional creative expertise or established review and approval processes.

Use AI to:

  • Brainstorm creative concepts, campaign themes, visual metaphors and design approaches.
  • Develop creative briefs, mood-boards, content hierarchies and presentation outlines.
  • Generate thumbnails, wireframes and rough layout variations for internal exploration.
  • Create conceptual illustrations, imagery or storyboards for internal planning.
  • Produce icons, textures, patterns or other supplemental visual elements.
  • Explore color palettes, typographic treatments and visual hierarchies within established TCU brand standards.
  • Remove backgrounds, create masks, trace simple vector shapes or perform other routine production tasks.
  • Clean up minor imperfections, alter elements that are temporary in nature (e.g., sky, temporary signs, litter) sharpen images or enhance color when the changes do not alter the subject, meaning or context of the original asset.
  • Extend or simplify backgrounds to fit layouts when doing so does not misrepresent a real location, event or experience.
  • Batch edit (resize, crop, reformat or version) approved assets for various media before final human review.
  • Draft alt text, accessibility descriptions and run color-contrast assessments.
  • Review designs for inconsistencies, missing elements, typographical errors or production issues before final human review.
  • Organize, tag, summarize or name project files and creative assets.
  • Document significant AI-generated or AI-altered elements in project files to support transparency and future editing (e.g., removing construction equipment, increasing or decreasing groups or crowds, compositing multiple images).
  • Use AI as a sounding board to critique concepts, identify potential gaps, explore alternative approaches and support iterative feedback and refinement.
  • Summarize and organize feedback, meeting notes, project discussions, research or creative decisions to support collaboration, documentation and next steps.
  • Ensure that any AI-assisted marketing assets meet the same digital accessibility standards as traditionally produced communications, including alternative text, sufficient color contrast, readable typography, keyboard navigation where applicable and compatibility with assistive technologies.
  • Create marketing assets only if the final deliverables are in formats that university personnel can maintain. Don’t use AI-generated deliverables as final production assets if they cannot be reasonably edited or updated.

Don’t Use AI to:

  • Use AI as the primary creator of public-facing marketing or communications materials. Final creative direction, design, messaging and production must be performed by university communications and marketing professionals in accordance with university brand standards.
  • Create synthetic imagery or footage that could reasonably be interpreted as depicting real TCU people, events, facilities, locations, research, achievements or experiences.
  • Add, remove or alter people, permanent objects, buildings or events in a way that changes the authentic meaning of a source image or design.
  • Generate new, modify, reproduce or expand upon TCU brand elements or intellectual property, including but not limited to logos, wordmarks, combination marks, seals, mascot designs, vintage marks, illustrations, athletics marks, patterns, color palettes, fonts or any other element of TCU’s brand identity.
  • Create logos, wordmarks or identity marks for the university. University visual identity must be developed through established Marketing & Communication design processes and approved by TCU MarComms.
  • Create fabricated testimonials, quotations, signatures, credentials, endorsements, student work, faculty work or research results.
  • Create or modify the likeness of a student, employee, alumnus, donor or other individual without appropriate permission.
  • Use synthetic people or scenes to imply that individuals attended, endorsed or participated in a real TCU program, event or experience.
  • Replace authentic photography or footage when a project is intended to represent actual TCU people, campus life, culture, research or history.
  • Upload confidential, proprietary, unpublished or personally identifiable information or assets into unapproved AI tools.
  • Use AI to violate intellectual property, such as to intentionally imitate a living artist or designer or to reproduce recognizable copyrighted or trademarked work without appropriate rights.
  • Assume AI-generated content is original, accurate, accessible, unbiased or legally available for use without independent verification.
  • Use AI-generated representations that reinforce stereotypes, inaccurately portray communities or create a misleading impression of diversity or inclusion.
  • Use AI in place of professional communications or design judgment regarding brand compliance, accessibility, cultural sensitivity, ethics, factual accuracy or intellectual-property rights.
  • Publish designs containing fabricated text, distorted symbols, visual artifacts, incorrect data or other AI-generated errors.
  • Present AI-generated work as entirely human-created when disclosure is required or would be necessary to prevent misunderstanding.
  • Publish or submit for approval AI-generated creative work that was not developed under the direction of qualified communications and marketing professionals and reviewed through established approval processes.
  • Rely solely on AI-generated summaries of stakeholder or creative feedback when nuance, disagreement or context could materially affect a decision.

Related Resources