Prompts and perseverance A client called in June asking for help in creating an original illustration for a magazine cover. I’ve done this countless times in my career, but — for this project — talent sourcing and art direction was much different. The “talent” was AI.  For the Summer issue of the NSAA Journal, editor Heather Fried dipped her toe into the wild west of AI imaging software. Her challenge: to create a cover image to represent the issue’s editorial content. When she first shared her idea, I thought “brave,” but was quietly hoping not to get involved. I could see a warren of rabbit holes larger than Watership Down on the horizon.  Heather’s first attempts involved placing the desired items into the image with the prompt mountain biker in the summer accessing the lift through RFID gates with their phone, but the results were way off the mark. They were also comical in how anatomically incorrect they came out. “I had to throw in the towel on my original concept completely and go with something a lot more basic to get to an acceptable cover,” Heather explained. “This was a surprise realization because, before using AI, I really thought