Hi! I’m Doug Peters. I also use the pen name, Peter Douglass, as an alias for the books I sell on Amazon under my Symbiotic Design brand name.
I’ve been operating Symbiotic Design since May 15th of 1997 as an independent logo & graphic design, and website development studio, as well as a marketing, search optimization, online cloud hosting services, and technology consulting agency. I do still support my customers and clients. However, now that I’ve retired and the US government does not allow me to work near as much time as I had previously invested in my business, I am concentrating on my art & designs, some of which will be showcased here on this (the SymbioticDesign.com) shop domain.
Even though I am pretty much a one-man agency, I refer to Symbiotic Design as “us” because my little home headquartered design company would not have been possible without the assistance of some very talented partnerships or the tolerance of my very patient and forgiving family.
We have been located in the same place since I registered Symbiotic Design as a business in 1997 after I had already worked a year as a website designer for a few clients.
Address:
Symbiotic Design
2108 S Duluth Ave
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 57105
Phone:
605-301-0001 (voice) or 605-277-8787 (voice or text VOIP)
Although I use what is being touted as ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) to assist in the creation of my original creations, I would like to clarify that I don’t view AI as anything more than a tool to assist in the completion of my own vision, as AI is still yet to prove to most of us that there is any actual intelligence involved at all.
Of course, this does not mean that I rely on AI, I have released a great deal of my own works without any assistance from any synthetically established set of generating programs and editors long before AI came on the scene. But I do find it intriguing and hope it improves. In the meantime, I mainly use AI to show my original, uniquely created designs by generating mockup T-shirt models that I later add my design to.
I also might include my own photo, illustration, or graphic artwork(s) as a part of a prompt for any generative AI experiments I try, but I don’t release everything I make simply because it just isn’t ready. Most of it requires way too much work, and is just plain silly. I don’t publish a lot, though you can find a lot of my stuff uploaded to Image Morgue.
Creatively speaking, AI is pretty dumb and only simulates a concept under the direction of instruction from a set of learned data which usually lacks any kind of creativity or intelligence and hence requires a further creative push by the artist with a great deal of correction and enhancement in order to realize some level completion. Almost without exception, any AI-generated work requires further intelligently directed creative advancement via human corrective interaction. And the level to which any so-called artificial intelligence generates accurate results, although improving, is still highly inferior to the vision the artist wants to realize.
Almost without exception, any AI-generated work requires further intelligently directed creative advancement via human corrective interaction.
Furthermore, I do not use generative text prompts that call on a work to be generated in an artist’s style. For instance, if I want a Dali-style painting look in the resulting generated image, I won’t use “by Salvadore Dali” in my prompt; instead, I would call for a surreal art painting with smooth paint gradients and melted inanimate objects as components to the piece.
In my view, artificial intelligence has a very long way to go to realize any sort of creativity beyond a studied observance of how past works incorporated design elements, art styles, juxtaposition, and composition.
There are simply too many missing elements to call AI-generated imagery anything other than it is, a fairly undisciplined simulated conceptual tool to enhance image detail or clarity depending upon how well-educated, well-disciplined, reflective and understanding the simulated model set upon which it trained.
AI may well prove useful, but as an artist I find myself spending way too much time correcting it, enhancing the given imagery, and expanding the work through simple hit-or-miss AI-enabled editing.
However, I am happy to reveal that AI is good at copying certain concepts, such as faces and photography. This is why I have incorporated AI models to show off my designs throughout this website, allowing me to cut costs and generate fantastic models to show off my showcased attire. However, please note that because the models are imaginary, there may be differences in the apparel cut or fit for any AI-modeled design shown.
However, the actual mockup from the print supplier is always shown in the shopping cart.
I do use several different suppliers because one is better at printing T-shirts while another offers embroidery and yet another offers a nice fashion cut I want to make available. A guy has to do what he has to do, as I am the artist/designer, not the fashion or merchandise manufacturer. I have always worked in partnership with others, and always will. But I will try to answer for any issues with any order so that you might encounter via support (once the site is active).
Feel free to contact me, though please do not expect a quick reply, as I am no longer attached to a computer 20 hours a day anymore, because the government won’t have it when I’m retired. So now I just concentrate on my art.
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