The Cession and Reconstruction of Visual Designers’ Color Decision-making Power in Human-AI Co-creation
Abstract
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has brought a paradigm shift to visual communication design and restructured the epistemology and workflows of color‑decision‑making. Computational color tools can rapidly generate large‑scale optimized color palettes yet trigger concerns over technological deskilling and alienated creative authorship. This paper is based on a four month qualitative study combining participatory observation and narrative inquiry. Covering brand identity, user interface/user experience (UI/UX), e commerce visual merchandising and transnational marketing, it investigates the redistribution of color decision making power between human designers and generative algorithms. Empirical results indicate that algorithms seize low‑level formal execution authority, which may flatten embodied synesthesia and homogenize local cultural metaphors. Nevertheless, experienced designers do not passively surrender creative agency. They elevate their work to higher‑order semantic framing and hermeneutic governance, subverting algorithmic optima through counter‑prompt engineering, cross‑media material translation and negative aesthetic adjudication. Human‑AI co‑creation constitutes a dialectical negotiation of agency. This paper resolves the superficial conflict between algorithmic deskilling and creative empowerment and provides theoretical frameworks and pedagogical implications for design education in the intelligent age.
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