AI x CREATIVE #2

Welcome back.

Welcome back to the AI x CREATIVE newsletter! It’s been quite the week. The first newsletter was a success. The only issue was Substack deciding to add 37 different Pledge buttons to the email instead of the single Subscribe button I wanted. I felt like this:

The good news was that hiccup was overshadowed by the positive feedback I’ve gotten. I’ve had at least one meaningful conversation on AI every day since this email went out. It makes me feel good about this path we’re exploring.

So with that in mind, let’s get into it. Here’s what’s on tap for today:

1. Content worth taking a look at - Musical AI Twin, Footwear Design and Text-to-3D.

2. My crystal ball - Text-to-3D is coming and what can it mean?

3. AI design strategy and tips - Creativity before Prompts.

4. Midjourney prompt of the day.

5. Spreading the word

6. Community & Services

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01 / WORTH DIGGING INTO

1. An inspiring series on pushing the boundaries of craft and voice, culminating in this memorable performance with the artist and his “AI twin”. Worth listening to the full 6 part series. A lot of parallels to design world.

2. A look at footwear design and how designers “won’t outsource their design work to AI, but will use AI to help bring their vision to life whether that’s through experimentation, fabric composition, or even storytelling and marketing.”

3. Text-to-3D is coming. Understanding where we are on the timeline to deployment of that technology is critical to not be caught off guard. More on this below.

02 / CRYSTAL BALL

Text-to-Visual technology has seemingly come out of nowhere. It has surprised a lot of us even though it’s been in the making for a long time.

I like to think it’s for a good reason — we’re all busy doing what we’re good at, what we enjoy and what brings in the revenue.

Humans are good at pattern recognition though. People my age experienced the move to digital tools, the rise of the internet and now the formal introduction of AI into our work and lives. We now have a better idea of what’s coming next.

The reason I started this newsletter is to help us creatives keep an eye up the road.

One thing that is definitely up the road is Text-to-3D. The implications of this are far beyond design:

1. More ideas will become a reality than ever before.

2. Product development timelines will accelerate.

3. One-offs or extremely small runs will become financially feasible offerings.

4. Mass-personalization will become a reality.

5. Logistics/shipping will be transformed when coupled with new manufacturing methods.

There are many more but my takeaway is that each of these points is full of opportunity for creatives to tap into. More ideas becoming a reality means more potential for upstart brands to gain traction. More brands gaining traction means more need for professionals to help them scale.

03 / DESIGN STRATEGY

Creativity before prompts — that’s how I approach all my work with these tools. I recently outlined a typical approach I take with Midjourney (and other tools). It mimics an “information, imagination, implementation” process. I believe it illustrates how much human creativity plays into getting results.

Step 01 Choose Direction to Explore. (Human Creativity)

What is the emotion I’m trying to convey? What does the visual have to accomplish? What is open for interpretation and what is fixed? What defines a successful concept?

In Action: I’m looking to create a men’s care product line. I want it to feel premium with a technical feel. Confident, distinctly masculine, but refined. The visual has to show that there are multiple skus. Success looks unique from everything else currently on the shelf, from proportions to finishes to stance.

Step 02 Define the Direction. (Human Creativity).

What colors will help me convey the target vibe? What materials are appropriate for the end use? What design language does this have to take?

In Action: To accomplish the above, I’ll need automotive inspired colors and finishes. Confident colors with subtle fine texture. Refined matte and satin finishes. The look needs to be simple with controlled and purposeful surfacing. Automotive surface creases come to mind. A confident stance.

Step 03 Translate to AI’s Language (Human Creativity).

Translate the defined elements to the language AI understands. This means choosing the correct reference imagery and crafting the right words in order to effectively communicate step 02 to the AI tools.

In Action: I chose an image that I felt accomplished most of what I needed. You can see it in the Prompt of the Day below. It included subdued colors, geometric shapes, strong and confident features. I weighted it heavily in the prompt. I supported it with prompts about a matte finish and textured surface, but overall, the image was doing most of the talking for me.

Step 04: Let AI Explore (AI).

Run some prompts to see if we’re talking the same language. Reroll it 3-6 times. If it’s accomplishing a portion of the above, you can move on to the next step. If not, refine step 03.

In Action: I found my reference image and prompts captured the vibe I was going for and moved on to the next step.

Step 05: Design Decisions at Speed. (Human Creativity + AI).

Choose directions that are working. Try different variations. Try different parameter inputs. Let AI run fast and wide. Make design decisions and curate results.

In Action: Here I left most of the basic prompt the same. I changed the Image Weight, Chaos and Stylize parameters and ran it in different configurations. I rerolled and v-rolled as I saw fit. I actually arrived at this solution fairly quickly, at about 15 steps in. Some times I’ll go over a hundred without finding what I want. That usually means my first few steps weren’t as targeted as I thought.

Takeaways:

• Note that there is a lot of Human Creativity in these 5 steps.

• Results come from nailing Steps 1 through 3.

• Step 5 is where you become a design curator, which in and of itself is a high level human skill. A topic for another day.

• Again, it’s way more than just simple prompts and pretty pictures. It takes skill to do this. Skill that can be taught and learned.

04 / PROMPT OF THE DAY

The prompt for today is the one I used for the design strategy example above:

<image> as inspiration for a mens line of three products including a mixture of shampoo bottles and jars on a wet surface, matte finish, fine textured surface, realistic detail, octane render, soft-focused realism, --iw 1.5 --c 50 --s 750

Note how it completely ignored the jars part. I decided I didn’t need that jar as I was going through the rolling, so I didn’t start a new thread with weighting around it.

This is the reference image:

05 / SPREADING THE WORD

Last email I mentioned how I want to be fully transparent with what I’m doing here. This email went out to 54 people last Thursday. Today it went out to 99 of you. My goal is 300 by the end of the month so please share :)

06 / COMMUNITY & SERVICES

As with any exploring of uncharted territories, it helps to have a crew. A group of like-minded people that are all headed the same way. One of my goals here is to build a community of creatives that figures out how to stay ahead together.

Over the last few weeks I have been talking to a lot of individuals and organizations about how I do what I do and how they can integrate AI into their business.

The recurring themes I hear:

1. We’re toying around with AI but we’re too busy with client work.

2. Our team is concerned with what this means for their jobs.

3. We don’t want to get sued.

4. It’s not something we’re good at.

5. It’s just something to make the concept phase easier, we don’t really need it.

I’ll be formalizing this in the coming weeks, but effectively, I’m developing a monthly service that helps individuals and teams solve these hurdles, or in the case of #5, illustrate how that might be a narrow point of view.

If your organization wants to explore how I can help, I’m looking for another 3-5 teams to build this program out with. I’m thinking of offering a discounted rate during this early phase in exchange for an understanding that I’m still working out the details and it’s going to evolve as we go. Shoot me a message if interested.

Normal me would wait until I had the offering perfectly figured out before talking about it. But these are not normal times and the speed of AI progress makes it so that moving slow feels like moving backwards, so I’m walking the walk. Or more like running the run!

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PS: I’m a professional industrial designer and brand builder with over 20 years of experience working in hard goods, soft goods, bicycles & micro-mobility, structural packaging and proactive innovation.

I consult with brands and help them bring products to market (with and without the support of AI). If you’re interested in talking about projects you need support with, shoot me a message.

-Hector