Taiwan Power Company's LOGO AI designer chaos brings "The Devil Wears Prada" to life in Taiwan.

Taiwan Power Company’s logo has sparked the emergence of AI designers, making the iconic scenes from “The Devil Wears Prada” come true in Taiwan. This “AI Designer” phenomenon not only highlights the public’s misunderstanding of professional design thresholds such as cross-media applications but also reflects the spread of the Dunning-Kruger effect within communities.

In the movie “The Devil Wears Prada,” there is a classic scene where the rookie protagonist, Andy, follows editor Miranda to select outfits. When everyone is troubled over two seemingly identical blue belts, Andy jokes that she is still learning fashion and thinks the two belts are almost identical.

Miranda then uses Andy’s knitted sweater as an example, explaining that the color originates from the work of renowned designer Oscar de la Renta, permeating from high-end fashion to affordable clothing, involving industry values worth tens of millions of dollars, and bluntly states: “You think you chose this outfit yourself, but in reality, it’s the professionals in the room choosing for you.”

This scene cleverly echoes the recent controversy over Taiwan Power Company’s logo and the “AI Designer” phenomenon. The widespread use of AI has inadvertently amplified the Dunning-Kruger effect, causing some members of the public lacking professional backgrounds to mistakenly believe they can easily replace professionals.

Understanding the Taiwan Power Logo Incident at a Glance

The controversy over the Taiwan Power logo stems from the Taiwan Power Company’s corporate identity system (CIS) redesign project, which was finalized in 2025. Recently, some netizens on Threads questioned the reasonableness of spending 960k NT dollars to change the logo amid ongoing losses, and some mistook the new logo’s font for “SimSun” or “Microsoft JhengHei,” joking that anyone could be a designer just by typing a few words in Word.

Image source: Nie Yongzhen’s Threads post, Taiwan Power Company Brand Identity System (CIS) design project

Taiwan Power’s official response clarified that although the old logo was based on calligraphy by master Yu Youren, the version used as the logo was a traced copy by an employee; Nie Yongzhen, who led the design, explained that the main goal of the CIS redesign was to address the huge gap between early drafting and contemporary applications, which often caused adjustments for cast iron covers, transformer boxes, or tiny printed materials, leading to inconsistent recognition over the years.

Nie Yongzhen pointed out that to produce more accurate digital files for smooth use across various media and to adapt to changes in public communication methods, Taiwan Power needed to better meet public needs. The design team, based on existing knowledge, used lighter, clearer line language to ensure the logo’s recognition aligns with current contexts.

Taiwan Power Logo AI Design Competition: Dunning-Kruger as a Pandemic

Unfortunately, Taiwan Power and Nie Yongzhen’s responses did not directly address the public’s concern about “why change branding during losses.” At this point, online keyboard designers evolved into “AI Designers,” organizing the “Taiwan Power Logo AI Design Contest,” which further fueled conflicts between the broader art community and AI users.

If you’ve scrolled through social media recently, you’ve probably seen numerous AI-generated Taiwan Power logos flooding your feed, with many netizens mocking, “I don’t need to pay 960k NT for this.”

Image source: Screenshot from Threads, netizens’ shared AI-designed Taiwan Power logos

However, true corporate identity system design or optimization is not that simple. Many AI users overlook the fact that a logo does not equal a brand; the generated logos often ignore printing considerations and different media presentations. This behavior of “laypeople criticizing professionals” undoubtedly deepens the collective helplessness felt by the art community.

Renowned Taiwanese artist “Xianjie Da Shi” believes that the Taiwan Power logo AI designer phenomenon highlights many Taiwanese people’s complete lack of understanding and respect for design and art. Recently, many printing factories and peripheral manufacturers have been troubled by AI-generated images with incorrect formats, low resolution, or color deviations.

He pointed out that although generative AI is a singularity in human software tools, the cultural level of the people still seems to lag behind. Over time, this could become a playground for experts to mock. When AI tools are implemented, enabling the public to easily accomplish tasks previously difficult, the Dunning-Kruger effect will spread like a pandemic.

The Dunning-Kruger Effect refers to people in specific fields overestimating their knowledge or ability. This often results from a lack of metacognition, preventing objective self-assessment, making the least capable individuals most prone to overestimating themselves. From the learning process of “not knowing what you don’t know” to “knowing what you don’t know,” there are obvious peaks and valleys.

Image source: The Resilience Shield

Designer Chen Guan-Ying, who helps refine fonts, offers a more positive perspective, expressing that she is moved by the public’s interest in font design, which has long been a marginalized field in Taiwan:

“If this discussion sparks more curiosity about why a character looks the way it does, perhaps this is the best outcome of this controversy for the font industry.”

You Think Font Design Isn’t Important

You might think font design isn’t important, but what you don’t realize is that the “Jin Xuan Family” fonts by Taiwan font foundry Justfont quietly appear in your everyday political propaganda, posts by politicians, YouTube videos, and weather alerts. These fonts, like the fashion Miranda talks about in “The Devil Wears Prada,” are deeply embedded in daily life, yet the devil hides in the details.

Image source: Crypt City screenshot layout

Interestingly, Justfont recently mimicked Miranda’s humorous response, delivering the perfect comeback to those “laypeople criticizing professionals”:

“You think all this has nothing to do with you. You just pick a boring font from your font list because you want to show the world how much you value efficiency, not caring what font you use.”

“But you have no idea that it’s not actually SimSun. It’s not Microsoft JhengHei or KaiTi. It’s Source Han Serif. A style created by Japanese typographers back in the 1980s, clean, bright, modern, which over 30 years has become the font every Chinese character user uses daily.”

“It’s absurd that you look down on these designers’ choices, but in fact, every font you use has been meticulously crafted and adjusted by designers in offices like this one, including the font you mentioned, SimSun.”