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I am not a graphic designer but still I create thumbnails like this. Its because I am learning AI Engineering.
We are living in a time where your job title no longer limits your output. You don't need 10,000 hours in Photoshop to produce professional visuals. You need 10,000 hours of curiosity about how to wield AI as a creative multiplier. AI doesn't replace your taste—it amplifies your intent.
I spend 30 minutes every single day creating something ugly on purpose. A bad thumbnail. A weird layout. A color clash.
Why?
Because repetition builds intuition faster than theory. The person who ships 100 mediocre designs learns more than the person who waits for one "perfect" idea.
Consistency compounds.
New models drop weekly. Yesterday's best tool is today's baseline.
I dedicate 20 minutes each morning to test one new AI feature—whether it's a new LoRA, a prompt technique, or a video-to-image pipeline.
If you're not exploring, you're fossilizing.
The network for creativity
Join 1.25M professional creatives like you
Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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I CREATED A PRODUCT WITH A MORE HUMAN DESIGN USING @Envato #envatochallenge
Instead of relying only on AI, I stepped outside to find inspiration in the real world.
I explored different places, captured my own photographs, studied colors, textures, shapes, and details, then combined those real-life elements into a single product design.
AI can generate images, but it can't replace the experience of discovering inspiration with your own eyes.
Every photo I took became a piece of the final creation, making the product feel authentic, personal, and impossible to recreate through prompts alone.
Envato Tools i used for creating this product:
🔥 Gen Ai
- ImageGen and Styles
- ImageEdit
- VideoGen and Preset
- MusicGen
- Mockup Gen
🔥 Stock
- Photo
- Videos
- Video templates
- Luts
- Music
- Sound Effects
- Fonts
#HumanByDesign #CreativeProcess #Design #AI
One day I want to open a bagel shop. For now, I got to prototype the whole brand instead, logo, packaging, poster, video using Envato's gen AI tools. It's a surprisingly solid all-in-one kit for image and video generation.
My Workflow
- Sketched the logo on paper first, pulling inspiration from Envato's geometric patterns, I go for a monochromatic, warm, geometric logo.
- Built the final logo in Illustrator, then handed it to AI with clear sketches and direction.
- Used AI to rapid-generate mockups across t-shirts, packaging, and posters.
- Iterated through a brand animation, testing multiple storyboard approaches before landing on the final version.
- Generate music via Envato AI then edit in After Effects.
My Human by Design Moment
My first animation storyboard for the logo was low-fidelity, so the AI output felt random. I assumed the fix was more detail, so I redid it with the final logo and tighter instructions. AI overcorrected. It added motion and elements I never asked for, and the result was more confusing, not less.
I made a different call. Instead of adding more, I stripped the storyboard down to just two frames: a start and an end. No extra instruction for AI to misread, no room for it to improvise.
Designers has design in mind, our goal is to visualise that vision. AI helps along the way, but only when I gave it clarity. Simpler instruction with examples what finally got a clean, consistent animation out of it, one I could adapt across other bagel without starting over.
Curious on how other make the AI works?
Youtube: https://youtu.be/-HQX598KRK0
AI VIsual DesignerAnimationBrand DesignAdobe After EffectsAdobe IllustratorEnvatoenvatochallengeaivisualdesigner
I love the color palette and grading of the photos too! They look so good!
Was going back and forth around different ideas and decided the most important client right now is me wanting to use the tools to create social media reels (based on a short series campaign) about the thoughts I have been sharing.
The them for these videos are about undiscovered/unknown species of animals not wanting to be discovered by human because really there is alot that comes with finally being "discovered".
I had to redo prompts and/or go back to original/earlier generations to push things in the direction that mostly aligned with what I was trying to convey. Like most times I was crunched on time and had to accept some generation as close enough after some attempts.
Used AI generation for images and video, and animal sounds from Envato stock assists. Brought together in Canva.
Hopefully will share some of my other ideas I worked on soon.
The wide pans are so discovery channel coded. This is so amazing!!