My first experience with MidJourney left me cold. It felt cumbersome, overly technical, and not particularly inspiring. But in early 2023, when I began experimenting with Leonardo.ai, something shifted. For the first time, I saw how AI could become a true collaborator in the creative process—more like a conversation than a tool. Prompts, surprises, happy accidents, and the careful curation of results became a back-and-forth that felt alive. Like any new tech you take it for a spin and try to push it to the edge.

I loved how seamlessly it fit into my life. One moment I’d be journaling over morning coffee, the next I’d be running a simulation. I might pause a workout just to chase an idea. Each experiment delivered the same little shot of adrenaline you get from social media—when something unexpected grabs your attention. Sometimes the output was absurd: an extra finger, or the model wildly misinterpreting my instructions because if a misspelled prompt. But I quickly realized  that those “mistakes” could be as interesting, even more successful, than my original intentions.

One of my favorite accidents was a so-called hallucination: a “painting” of a woman in the water. Her left hand is distorted, the 3D space collapses in on itself, and nothing aligns. Yet the result feels like a surreal hybrid of perspectives, not unlike a cubist painting. It’s the kind of image I imagine Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, or Max Ernst would have delighted in. My art history background and lifelong love of contemporary art helped me see these imperfections not as failures, but as unexpected breakthroughs.

The technology itself is moving at a staggering pace. Legally, the federal government has shown little interest in throttling development. But recent class action lawsuits around copyright infringement are opening the floodgates. Either AI companies will be forced to license the intellectual property they train on, or they’ll need to create closed, legitimate datasets. Eventually, I believe these models will soon be powerful enough to train themselves—simply by “watching” the world around them.

For me, that’s the exciting part: the blend of control and chaos, skill and accident. It’s a reminder that creativity often lives in the space between intention and surprise—and AI, for all its flaws, is a remarkable new canvas for creating breakthrough creative.

• I combined various AI imaging and video tools with classic photoshop, animation and compositing techniques to create a compelling video that gets interior designers excited about these gorgeous museum quality handcrafted rocking chairs.

These poster concepts below helped me visualize two ideas I had about how to promote the rocking chairs in unexpected ways. 

NETFLIX IDENTITY SKETCHES

ANIMATED TITLE CARDS AND CONNECTIVE TISSUE

The Netflix Stack stands out as my favorite streaming identity, a masterclass in motion graphics. Its unique and dynamic motion graphics abstractly capture the endless depth and ever-changing nature of the service's content library.

My creative exploration delves into how the Stack's vertical lines could evolve into more fluid, emotive environments. Moving beyond the current linear representation, I envisioned a metaphorical "ocean" of content—a boundless flow of stories. This led me to visualize the lines as a powerful waterfall or a cresting wave, emphasizing a raw, dynamic power and overwhelming volume. This project isn't a polished client piece but a conceptual springboard—a visual prompt for fellow creatives to build upon.

CLAY WOMAN STANDING TALL

During a quiet moment on vacation with my 93-year-old mother, I took a portrait-mode photo of a small, six-inch clay figurine. Later, inspired by Leonardo AI’s new Motion 2.0, I used a simple prompt to make the figurine "stand up."

The result was more than just a creative exercise; it was a powerful demonstration of what's possible with AI video. Instead of traditional techniques like claymation, I could transform an inanimate object with a simple idea and a few minutes of processing time. This compressed workflow—from thought to execution—is a game-changer. It frees creators to visualize ideas almost as fast as they can think.

The way I see it, Design 1.0 was about still images, and Design 2.0 brought them to life. We are now rapidly entering Design 3.0, where new tools like AI enable us to craft beautiful executions with unprecedented speed. This is a new era of creative freedom, where an idea born in a quiet moment can be brought to life anywhere, without an expensive workstation.