I’ve been sitting with this for a while now — not because I have some grand theory, but because every time I open a new project I notice the ground shifting a little more under my feet. Here’s what I keep coming back to.
AI stopped being the scary thing and started being the annoying coworker who’s actually pretty useful.
A year or two ago the conversation was all doom — is this going to replace us. Now it just… sits there in my process. I sketch, I let it generate ten dumb variations, I throw away nine of them. What I’m noticing is that the actual skill I bring to the table isn’t execution anymore, it’s taste. Knowing which one of those ten isn’t garbage. That’s a strange thing to sit with.
I’m craving mess again, and I don’t think I’m alone.
Everything AI touches comes out a little too smooth, a little too “right.” And honestly? I’m bored of it. I’ve caught myself adding a wobble to a line that didn’t need one, leaving a rough edge in instead of cleaning it up. It’s not nostalgia exactly — it’s more like I want proof a person was in the room. I think a lot of us are quietly rebelling against the polish by hand.
Static feels dead to me lately.
I used to be fine handing off a logo and a PDF of brand guidelines and calling it done. Now that feels incomplete, like delivering half a thing. Everything lives on a screen that moves, so why wouldn’t the identity move too? Even something small — a letterform that breathes, a mark that reacts — makes a static system feel like it’s from another decade.
The past keeps sneaking back in, but wearing new clothes.
I can’t fully explain why early-internet, lo-fi, scrapbook-y stuff keeps showing up in my own sketches lately. Maybe it’s comfort. Maybe after staring at AI-smooth output all day, my brain wants something that looks handled, collected, a little imperfect and human — even while I’m using the newest tools to make it.
I don’t trust a brand that can’t bend anymore.
The rigid rulebook approach — here’s your logo, here’s your three colors, never deviate — feels increasingly out of step with how fast everything moves online. What I respect now is systems built to flex: same DNA, different costume depending on where it shows up. It’s harder to design that way. It’s also more honest about how brands actually live now.
