AI image generation tools are rapidly becoming part of the visual culture that creative arts students engage with. One tool that has gained particular attention in design and creative education is Adobe Firefly. Because it sits within UAL’s Adobe ecosystem it offers opportunities for experimentation while connecting directly to tools many art and design students already use.
This post introduces how Firefly can support creative exploration, visual development, and critical discussion in the studio.
Why use Firefly?
Unlike many other AI image generators, Firefly has been designed with commercial creative workflows in mind and integrates with existing design tools. For creative arts students, this makes it a useful platform for experimenting with AI-generated visuals alongside more traditional digital techniques.
Also, Adobe Firefly’s database is different because it is trained primarily on licensed content, Adobe Stock images, and public‑domain material, whereas most other AI image generators are trained on broad, scraped internet datasets with less clear licensing. In other words, it’s not using artists’ copyrighted images.
Thirdly, when you log into Adobe Firefly with your UAL credentials (email and password), Adobe does not use your uploaded images, prompts, or outputs to train its AI models, and your content remains owned by you and confined to UAL’s enterprise environment.
How to log into Adobe Firefly:
1. Open a web browser (Chrome or Edge recommended).
2. Go to https://firefly.adobe.com
3. Select Sign in.
4. When prompted, enter your UAL email address.
A short practical exercise:
Exploring AI as a visual brainstorming tool
This short activity is designed to help tutors experience how Firefly might support the early stages of idea development in a studio project.
Step 1: Choose a simple creative brief
Select a theme you might normally give to students. For example:
- Designing a poster for a climate awareness campaign
- Imagining the future of urban public space
- Creating a visual identity for a fictional cultural festival
Step 2: Generate visual ideas using Firefly
Write a prompt in Firefly related to the brief, such as:
“A bold graphic poster about climate change using bright colours and collage-style illustration.”
Generate several variations and experiment with slightly different prompts. For example, you could:
- Change the visual style (photographic, illustration, collage)
- Change the tone (optimistic, dystopian, futuristic)
- Change the composition (minimalist, layered, abstract)
Step 3: Review the results critically
Look at the generated images and consider:
- Which images feel visually interesting or unexpected?
- Which feel generic or repetitive?
- What kinds of visual styles does the AI tend to produce?
Step 4: Consider how it might fit into teaching
Reflect on how this tool could be used in a teaching context. For example:
- Could it support early-stage visual brainstorming?
- Could students use it to test visual directions quickly?
- Could it prompt discussion about originality and authorship?
Key risks and limitations
While AI image tools offer exciting possibilities, there are several issues tutors should address with students. AI-generated images can often reflect dominant visual styles found in training data. This may lead to outputs that feel visually similar or predictable. AI tools can generate visually impressive results very quickly, but this does not necessarily mean the work has conceptual depth. Students still need to develop strong ideas and critical thinking.
Firefly should be understood as a tool for experimentation and prototyping, not as a replacement for creative skill or craft.
Final thoughts
Adobe Firefly offers a new way for students to explore visual ideas rapidly and experiment with aesthetic possibilities. When used critically, it can become part of a broader creative workflow that includes sketching, research, making, and reflection.
For tutors, the goal is not simply to introduce new technology, but to help students understand how AI tools shape visual culture and creative practice.
Explore this topic in more detail: Go to the Moodle course “Artificial Imagination: Integrating AI in Art Education” – Part 2. Using AI: Text“.
In the next post in this series, we will explore how to write better prompts for creative work.
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