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
Back to feedPost
Fractured Signals is an ongoing editorial print project exploring underground music culture, analogue media and independent publishing.
For this challenge, I used Envato AI as a creative collaborator throughout my design process.
I began by researching visual references and building mood boards before using AI to explore textures, imagery, and composition. Rather than generating a finished design, I used these outputs as raw creative material, selecting, refining and combining them into a final poster in Photoshop using assets from the Envato library, including typography.
To test whether the design worked beyond the screen, I developed a series of physical print applications, including fly-posted street posters, a zine cover and record shop flyers. Seeing the work placed into realistic environments helped me evaluate the design as an editorial print system rather than a single digital artwork.
This project explores how AI can accelerate creative exploration, while human judgement, editing and creative direction shape the outcome.
Ultimately, I wanted to answer a simple question: Could an AI-assisted design exist as a genuine piece of print culture?
For me, the final stage wasn't generating an image. It was testing whether the work could exist in the physical world. By developing a street campaign of posters, publications and flyers, I explored how AI-assisted design becomes tangible through human editorial decisions, print thinking and real-world context.
🎥 Watch the full creative process here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VFHQtZ5ZU
Thank you to Envato and Contra for creating a brief that encouraged experimentation, exploration, and creative dialogue.
This is a really strong take on the brief. I like that you didn’t treat AI as the final designer, but as part of the exploration process, and then tested the work through real print applications. That shift from screen-based experimentation to physical editorial context makes...
I really appreciate your thoughtful feedback. I’m so pleased that came across. My goal was to use AI as a creative collaborator for research and exploration, but also to create original textures and imagery that I could then build on through my own design process. That’s where...
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
Trending
Claude
Claude has entered the design space. How are you using it?
Contra University
Learn from expert creatives how to earn more using next-gen AI tools.
Brand Design
The best brand designers are on Contra. Scroll to see what's trending in brand design. What are you building?
creativeaiflow
Creative AI workflows are evolving. What tools do you use, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
freelancerlife
Freelancer life is wins, pivots, and everything in between. What’s yours right now?
Related posts
For the Contra x Envato Challenge, 'Human by Design', we built a brand identity and animated a promo video for 'Olo', an accessible crypto-trading platform.
To us, the core of this challenge wasn't about creating more content with AI, but about maintaining one clear creative direction. When drawing from a massive library of separate AI generations, stock footage, fonts, and music, a project can easily turn into a disjointed visual mess. Envato served as our entire toolkit - from AI-generated audio and assets to stock templates and typography.
But every asset still had to answer one crucial question: 'Does this truly feel like Olo'? Guided by the brand promise of making crypto trading accessible for everyone, everywhere, human instinct drove the entire creative process:
1. Curating over generating: Rejecting raw AI outputs that felt flat or out of context and ruthlessly filtering for what actually worked.
2. Building a visual identity: Applying custom effects to transform generic stock footage into a unified aesthetic.
3. Directing the flow: Motion design, precise typography, and timing every single movement to the rhythm of the music in After Effects. Envato Stock and AI tools dramatically accelerate the build process, but it’s the human creator who infuses the soul. It provides the ingredients, but art direction, taste, and instinct define the quality of the final result.
Toolkit: Envato (Envato AI, Stock, Fonts, Audio) + After Effects & Adobe Illustrator.
Brand DesignCreative Design Motion DesignAdobe After EffectsEnvatoenvatochallengeaftereffectsbranding
Nice🔥
Earlier this year, I redesigned my portfolio site into my own personal digital home! The idea was to infuse personal elements into my professional world, and create something beautiful, functional, and easy to navigate.
I've moved my portfolio site around to different platforms over the years, but this time around I landed on Squarespace. I used their new block transform and block animation features to create some movement and interest, particularly on the home page of the site.
Finish Layer, along with other Squarespace design features, helped me create a site that I'm super proud of and a site that earns me business, all with minimal code.
Click around the full site here: https://www.bytaylorgrosse.com/
Passionate Std. | Branding & Web Design
Passionate Studio is an independent streetwear label born from a decision: to stop creating out of necessity and start creating with purpose. The brand speaks to a generation that sees clothing as identity — not just product.
💯
The shift from creating out of necessity to creating with purpose is a strong brand premise. Which visual element best expresses that change for Passionate Studio?