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Now that AI can generate anything, what's left for us? I built a whole brand to find out.
Séva — a premium cinnamon soap concept, every image made with Envato. The AI got me 80% of the way. The name, palette, fonts, the call to swap generic props for cinnamon, the box design, fixing what didn't work — that last 20% is where the brand actually got made. That's the human part.
Full process and every rejected version in the video.
Also on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Da_W47BSp8M/
#envatochallenge #humanbydesign #brandidentity #packagingdesign
The stone-step product shots with the cinnamon sticks scattered around make this feel like an actual luxury skincare line, not a challenge submission. What was the 20% you had to do manually after AI got you most of the way there?
Appreciate that. The 20% was basically every decision that made it a brand instead of four nice renders: naming it, locking the palette and fonts, and generating the logo separately with no text so the letterforms stayed clean. Then in the shots — swapping the AI's default...
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This submission was made with a little bit of pure, mindless vandalism against AI.
I wanted a killer website for my brand, Discern Like a Rebel. So I fed Claude with Envato assets (fonts, textures, illustrations, sound, templates, generations...) and asked it to build. It did. But it was all clean grids and neat boxes.
So, to make it more me, I let the drawings spill over the nav bar and loosened the grid up. Even than, the generator kept sliding back to safe, when it refused to animate a nude Greek statue (only once though). But rebels fight haha.
The big step was to bring it to life with looping animations, paper tears, and hand-drawn lines (all using Envato's library).
A pro designer would have moved the drawing in seconds. I spent my time changing AI's mind instead, since I am not one yet. Funny enough, that friction became the creative process. AI can follow a rule beautifully. It can't feel when breaking one makes something come alive.
I must say, very on par with my brand's philosophy.
P.S. This is a re-upload because the sound quality on the first attempt was awful. Enjoy much better audio this time around!
The idea of using AI while keeping a deliberately rebellious, imperfect brand voice is a fun tension. Which Envato asset pushed the Discern Like a Rebel site in the most unexpected direction?
For the Envato Human by Design Challenge, I created Common Ground, a fictional neighborhood dining brand built around one idea: there’s always room at the table.
The concept reimagines the kind of connection people once found naturally in their neighborhoods - borrowing ingredients, sharing homemade food, checking in on one another, and gathering around the same table - for a modern, inclusive community space.
Envato tools used for this project:
Ai Image Gen
Ai Video Gen
Fonts
Stock Videos
Stock Images
Music Library
My Human By Design moments included:
Rejecting the first brand direction. The original olive, brown, and cream concept looked polished, but it felt too generic. I completely reimagined the identity with terracotta red, warm ivory, retro typography, handwritten details, and a stronger neighborhood-supper-club personality.
Changing the idea from “retro restaurant” to “traditional connection for today.” Nostalgia alone wasn't enough. I shifted the concept toward a modern, inclusive community space that brings back the warmth of shared meals and knowing your neighbors.
Simplifying illustrations that competed with the brand. Some icons were too thick, detailed, or decorative. I removed unnecessary elements and reduced the visuals so they supported the typography instead of overpowering it.
Choosing the empty seat and shared table as emotional symbols.
Instead of focusing only on food, I emphasized making room, pulling up a chair, and turning strangers into neighbors.
Common Ground ultimately became more than a fictional restaurant. It became a visual story about restoring the small interactions that help people feel less alone: passing a dish, pulling out another chair, meeting someone new, and staying at the table a little longer.
Common Ground | Shared tables. Good food. Connection that fills you up.
@envato
Here are some extras close up from the envato challeng x common ground
Circlo Gets You Out — Envato "Human by Design" Challenge
For Envato's Human by Design challenge, I made a promo film for
Circle — a safety-first event discovery app I designed for young
professionals in Indian Tier-1 cities.
THE FILM
Circlo, Circle's mascot, is done watching you scroll. He drags
you off the couch, down a glowing purple street, and into a
rooftop full of real people. No dialogue. No UI walkthrough.
Just a character making his case.
THE TOOLKIT
Every shot ran through Envato's AI stack: VideoGen for every
Circlo scene (image-to-video, character-referenced throughout),
MusicGen for the score, SoundGen for footsteps and ambience,
GraphicsGen for the closing card, and Devices Mockup for the
in-app screens.
THE HUMAN BY DESIGN MOMENT
Twice, I asked AI to touch my actual product screens — once
through a mockup tool, once through video generation. Both times
it quietly rewrote the text. "Safe Tribe" became "Sefo Tribe."
A clean screen came back with duplicated, ghosted copy layered
over itself.
Neither time did I try to prompt my way out of it. I pulled my
real screens back out, composited them by hand, frame by frame,
and kept AI exactly where it belongs in this project: building
the world around the product, never rewriting the product itself.
That's the line the whole film is built on. AI made the street,
the light, the sound. I made the app. I made the character's
face match itself in every single shot — checking ears, eyes,
and color against the original reference every time the model
drifted.
Built in 2 day for Envato's Human by Design challenge.
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