Creative Work in the Age of Generic AI-Generated Design
Most of my day-to-day work is in graphic design. I create landing pages, presentations, campaigns, and different kinds of visual assets for startups. But originally, I studied art and drawing, especially pencil on paper has stayed a big part of how I express myself.
A Different Pace
Design work keeps getting faster. There is always an expectation to produce more, move quickly, respond, adjust, and deliver. Drawing gives me something completely different. It gives me a place to slow down and not fully know where I am going. I can start something without a clear idea of what it should become. I can make something just to explore, without needing it to be useful, polished, or even good. Sometimes it can be strange, awkward, or ugly. It can stay inside my notebook, where no client is waiting to see it and no one needs to approve it.
I think I need that space.
When life is quieter, I naturally find more room for art. During busy periods, it becomes much smaller, sometimes almost disappearing. But it is always there in some form.
I keep thinking about the relationship between these two processes: the slow, physical, and sometimes chaotic process of making art, and the design world, which is becoming faster and more efficient all the time.
At first, they can seem like opposites. But I am not sure they really are. Maybe they can support each other.
When Everything Starts to Look the Same
There is currently so much visual content around us, and a lot of it is starting to look very similar. AI tools make it possible to create images and designs extremely quickly, which can be exciting and useful. I use them too. But they can also create a kind of production line of polished, generic work.
When everyone has access to the same tools and models, it becomes much harder for a brand to feel different.
The Return of the Handmade
I find it interesting that, at the same time, there seems to be a growing return to things that feel handmade. We are seeing more physical textures, printmaking effects, unusual illustration, imperfect typography, and visual details that feel less controlled.
Of course, some of these effects are still created digitally. But the desire behind them feels clear: people are looking for signs of a human hand.
Maybe we want to see that someone actually made something. That a choice was made, that a mistake was left in, or that the outcome could not have been generated in exactly the same way again.
What Hermès Does Differently
One brand that takes this approach quite far is Hermès.
Hermès constantly emphasizes craft, quality, and the value of things made with care. Their marketing reflects that too. They often collaborate with designers, artists, illustrators, and animators whose work has a very visible handmade quality.
What I especially like is that some of these artists are not necessarily widely known. Hermès gives them a huge platform and allows their individual style to remain visible.
As a result, their Instagram account does not feel like one strict, perfectly controlled visual system. It feels much more alive — full of different textures, materials, techniques, and voices. They are not trying to make every post look the same. In fact, the variety is part of what makes it feel consistent. The consistency comes from the idea behind the work, not from repeating the same visual formula.
Making Space for Something Human
For me, the message behind this approach is not only about luxury or craftsmanship.
It is also about believing that human creativity still has value. That something slow, personal, strange, or imperfect can still hold attention. Maybe even more than something perfectly polished.
I do not think the answer is to reject AI or speed. They are already part of the way we work, and they can open up many new possibilities.
But I do think we need to protect the parts of the process that are slower and less predictable. The parts where we do not immediately know the answer.
For me, drawing is one of those places.
It reminds me that not everything has to become a deliverable. Not everything has to be efficient. And sometimes, taking the time to make something with no clear purpose is exactly what helps new ideas appear.
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