Objective

Create a teaser that introduces the Parker Converse line of handcrafted rocking chairs to interior designers — the discerning curators of luxury furniture. The aim was to not only show the craftsmanship, but to embed the product in a world of elegance, comfort, and artistic expression.

Creative Challenge

Design a narrative and visual world from scratch — every element: identity, motion, sound — that evokes both timeless craftsmanship and forward-looking aesthetic. The environments for the chairs needed to feel aspirational, believable, and emotionally resonant, without leaning on existing footage or stock lifestyle shots.

My Role & Approach

I carried this project from conceptual strategy through to final output, doing everything myself:

• Concept & Strategy: Defined positioning, mood, and voice — what does “luxury handcrafted rocking chair” feel like?

• Identity & Title Design: Created a visual signature that reflects artisan craft with subtle elegance — logos, type treatments, titles.

• Motion Graphics & Animation: Brought stills to life with cinematic flow: reveals, lighting, camera moves, transitions.

• Sound & Music: Chose instrumentation, tone, rhythm, and sound design that would elevate the visuals, giving them weight, texture, atmosphere.

• AI-Driven Environments: Using platforms like Leonardo.AI, Veo3, Kling, Runway — transformed photography of the chairs into immersive interior and landscape scenes; lighting, reflections, textures, depth built around each piece.

Tools & Processes

Tool / Platform

Use Case / Purpose

Photoshop

Retouching, compositing high-res images of chairs; prepping assets.

After Effects

Animations: camera moves, transitions, motion of environment; integrating titles and identity.

Leonardo.AI / Veo3 / Kling / Runway

Generative AI for environments, lighting, depth, reflections; blending real with AI-rendered scenery to create high-end aspirational settings.

Outcome & Impact

• The final teaser visualizes the Parker Converse chairs not just as furniture pieces but as focal points within crafted worlds — interiors with light, texture, shadows; landscapes with atmosphere and subtle mood.

• The level of polish — in detailing, movement, lighting — is high, and achieved with speed and flexibility that 12 months ago would have demanded much larger teams and longer timelines.

• More than a visual proof, this project reaffirmed for me the potential of merging traditional design / craft sensibilities with emergent AI tools. It’s given me momentum to bring forward a longer-term project I’ve been imagining for years, now feasible because of how fast these tools and workflows have matured.

Key Learnings & Takeaways

• Even when using AI heavily for environments, anchor the design in real texture, lighting, and craft. The realism and believability come from balancing generative work with meticulous attention to detail.

• Sound / music choices can make or break the mood — investing time there yielded emotional layers that helped elevate everything else.

• Rapid iteration is possible now in ways previously unimaginable — but mastery comes from knowing when to refine versus when to stop.

In early 2023, I began experimenting with Leonardo AI to generate striking 9x16 visuals that merged cultural icons with Parker Converse Rocking Chairs. The concept was simple yet disruptive:

• Classic Rockers – juxtaposing legendary musicians with the chairs, reframing them as symbols of rebellion, coolness, and timeless style.

• Timeless American Craftsmanship – juxtaposing celebrated writers and thinkers with the chairs, highlighting their enduring connection to tradition, thought, and artistry.

The creative hook was the tension between heritage furniture and unexpected cultural figures, producing an immediate double-take effect.

From a rights perspective, using these likenesses commercially would require estate licensing. However, in the context of social media, they can function as fair-use editorial commentary—a way to grab attention, spark engagement, and invite audiences into the brand world without directly naming the figures.

This strategy demonstrates how Parker Converse Rocking Chairs can connect heritage craftsmanship to modern cultural storytelling, turning rocking chairs into canvases for conversation, irony, and surprise.

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.

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.