Ancora: What Persists. What Returns.

Every object carries two lives. The one it had, and the one it's becoming. Ancora holds both in a single form.

The core concept is the tension between old and new, not blended, not transitioned. A sharp angular fracture where two eras coexist in one object. One side: 1970s Italian craft, aged leather, oxidized brass, raw texture. The other: contemporary minimalism, polished hardware, clean geometry. Two worlds forced together through a deliberate architectural break.The sharp split between old and new is exactly where fashion is right now.

The entire brand identity, product line, and visual world was built from scratch on Melius, first time using the platform. I used the agent throughout to brief directions, iterate on outputs, and refine prompts across multiple node types, from image generation to style references to video.

The process started with research. I searched for references that hit, luxury campaigns, editorial product shots, brand identities that carried real weight. Then I pulled in concept images, product presentations, textures, and mood references that matched the direction I wanted for Ancora. From there I fed everything into Melius, using those references as anchors so the AI could pull the best elements from each, the lighting from one, the texture language from another, the composition from a third. It wasn't about copying any single reference. It was about curating the strongest parts and letting the AI craft them into one cohesive brand identity. Every generation was guided by something real.

The biggest strength was being able to see the full creative process laid out spatially. Each node is a decision, each branch is an iteration. The canvas becomes the proof of the thinking, not just the output. Being able to feed in references and examples, then link them directly to generation nodes meant every product was born from something real. Nothing was random. Every output was inspired, guided, and intentional.

project link:https://app.melius.com/projects/596b09cc-f672-44ca-95cf-c7d8e4a583af/canvas/d71faf89-cabd-479b-9469-76eb8bae0049

instagram post link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYaDLkKAhhH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Here’s my entry for the Contra × Melius challenge ✨

“DragonDash” — a fun animated short about a cute dragon delivery rider in a fantasy medieval world.

Built using AI storytelling, storyboarding, and cinematic visual development.

One thing I really enjoyed while using Melius was how visual and iterative the workflow felt. Being able to build and refine shots step-by-step made it much easier to shape the story, mood, and cinematic direction of the short.

Project link: https://app.melius.com/projects/9fbcdc7d-7645-482f-95f7-01bf57b7640a/canvas/82feec2b-7560-4bb9-abdd-0085b2028da8