by By: Terra McGowan
For the past five months I have had the privilege of being an intern at RIP-IT Sports. RIP-IT is a sportswear company that prioritizes the needs of female athletes. Everything we produce at RIP-IT is by women and for women. Our mission statement reads, “Since day one, we’ve been here for our players, with our players, and because of our players. At RIP-IT we match looks with performance to deliver unrivaled gear that protects and inspires. We’ll always innovate to do what’s best. On the diamond. On the field. On the court.” (Ripit.com).
RIP-IT is currently producing products for volleyball, soccer, and softball. Softball just so happens to be my expertise. At RIP-IT my responsibilities lie in our Face of Brand softball athletes. These athletes are RIP-IT’s version of influencers. Our roster is currently made up of 7 elite, college softball players, including myself. As the softball season comes to a close, so does our time with our current FOB athletes. With fresh faces making a name for themselves in college softball we have been on the lookout four our next Face of Brand influencers.
With our next cycle of athletes in the works I wanted to think of a new and fun way to release who are next FOB athletes will be. Instead of looking for action shots or roster pictures I turned to artificial intelligence.
Instead of a traditional partnership reveal on socials, I would love to use AI as a way to create hype around our new athletes. Above and below I have some examples of what these images would look like.
Creating these images was a surprisingly easy task. Once you get the hang of Midjourney you can create whatever you want via AI. When I started this task I knew two things; that RIP-IT’s primary color is purple and that I wanted the identity of the softball player in the photo to be hidden in a way. Through this I decided on my first prompt, “Softball player, with jersey on, with her back turned, purple, white, and black colors, graphic art style”- and thus the first picture was generated. I was surprised to see how flawless the outcome was on my first try. After creating the first image I knew that I wanted to challenge the AI, so I added to the prompt. In addition to the original prompt I also asked Midjourney to have the softball player holding a bat. The first set of images we quite wonky. Some had no bats, some had two bats, and one even had a bat going through the athletes arm. However, after re-generating the prompt Midjourney spit out the second image.
Overall, learning how to use AI as a creative has been a blast. I have used it for school projects, work tasks, and even just for fun. In the ever-evolving landscape of technology learning skills such as AI will be a huge advantage for potential jobs/projects.
Hello Terra!
I think this is so smart! I love that you used what Kelli has taught us in class. Midjourney was very difficult for me to use when we had to create AI images for an assignment. It is commendable that you could get it to work and prompt it to make these great pictures. I really love the first picture because I feel like it is definitely something that would be used in a professional industry. Keep up the great work!
Hi Terra!
This is amazing. After the AI assignment, I figured no one would use it for a while. However, I loved what you did it with and used it in a real life scenario. The pictures you created were thoughtful for your client and I appreciate that. I also admire how easy you made it look. Unlike me who struggled with Midjourney, the way you described it made me want to try again. Loved your take on sports and AI!
This is amazing work Terra! You created some great photos and seemed to have a great time working with Midjourney! I used Canva to create my AI for the assignments and it truly shows that some of these programs can create amazing works because these look way better than mine. These photos felt really professional and I think you did a great job at making them fit perfectly for your brand!!