I find it kinda funny that even "smartest", most capable models often have a very hard time going beyond surface-level, top-of-mind associations, when faced with creative tasks.

Of course, a "Japanese Minimal Poster" has a sakura and a stylized flag of Japan, duh

A human designer would probably think that "Japan -> sakura" and "Japan -> Japanese flag" are way too obvious, too banal, too stereotypical, and, most importantly too boring. And then they would probably sit for a while and try to think of something fresher and less clichéd.

But AI has absolutely no problem with going with the cheesiest, most overused trope.

Author here.

Well of course Spring + Japan = Sakura. In a way the model would be faulty if it didn't reach for that cliché. That's what it's meant to do.

If you want originality, you need to supply it. AI fills the vacuum with the obvious thing.

And in a way that's a feature. If I was creating a poster myself I'd think "nah, can't use sakura it's too obvious". AI gets you past that hurdle. "Yeah, we used the cliché, it looks nice, let's move on".

This is if it's for a school fayre, village fête, etc. - brilliant originality isn't the goal. But it's nice when your poster doesn't look the same as three other posters on the same noticeboard (I have seen this).

If brilliant originality is needed, a human has to bring it. Although an LLM with the temperature turned up can offer some nice seeds.

That's a prompt problem.

If you named a Japanese artist or style rather than giving an adjective derived from a country, you might get something that wasn't national wank.

Yes, a human might do this step for you. A mediocre one might not.

Isn’t the most overused trope the most statistically weighted to be chosen from a group of options? It makes technical sense but as you say leads to boring outcomes

> But AI has absolutely no problem with going with the cheesiest, most overused trope.

Considering your prompt fits exactly that description I think the AI delivered perfectly. Try using some actual design language and see how well it does.

The masses love clichés and stereotypes, which is why these "artiste" designers frequently miss their target audience.

If you understand how curve fitting works, then it is a very predictable outcome.

I remember seeing a poster for Chinese New Year years ago, and someone had included the kanji for Japan on it (日本). Obviously they just wanted generic looking characters without bothering to see what they meant. I couldn't resist writing a comment on the poster about it.

It showed whoever did it had no clue about East Asia or Chinese script...

for the price you pay ai you would 100% get a cherry blossom tree from an inexperienced designer