AI Imperfection is Gold
Good Copywriting from AI Mistake
For my upcoming POD store, I wanted to create designs that can sell well as stickers and t-shirts. I want to include a few kawaii creatures. However, there are a few problems that need to be addressed first:
- How can it fit the Wulirocks brand?
- How to sell with a style that is oversaturated already?
In previous story, I designed a spaceship that will be the main background for the Wulirocks upcoming web series. Inspired by real word submarine and aircraft carrier “it includes areas such as markets, vending machines, and even a Starbucks to recreate a home-like feel, which can boost the crew’s morale”.
Full story here.
So I adapted the concept and decided to add a McDonald’s in the vessel. McDonald’s often sells toys licensed from various intellectual properties like Disney, Pixar, and Nintendo, or whatever is trending in the entertainment industry at the moment.
This is where I could fit a generic kawaii design into a more specific context. These kawaii creatures would be fictional toys in the Wulirocks series.
Leonardo.AI
I played a bit with Leonardo and got exactly what I wanted: about 50 meaningless generic kawaii designs. It was time to give them some meaning and purpose.
I first started by fixing minor execution errors manually.
As I was fixing the hands of the cat holding the burger, it reminded me of the character Edward Scissorhands from Tim Burton.
Because of his scissor hands, Edward cannot touch, hold, or express his love to his close ones.
In the case of the cat, its cartoonish, impractical anatomy makes it impossible to properly hold the burger it loves and craves.
This serves as a metaphor for our clumsiness that sometimes pushes away the ones we love.
A friendly cartoon in disguise as a human tragedy.
Although a child who sees the design may not be able to grasp the deeper meaning, they might intuitively sense the drama of these clumsy hands unable to hold a burger properly, which could result in psychological trauma. So watch out whom you are showing this to!
Children are not as foolish as we tend to perceive them.
Based on the naïve, high-pitched tone most adults use when communicating with children, supposedly to be nice, but in reality treating them differently than adults as if they belong to a different class of people, less experienced… a bit foolish.
Whereas, in my opinion, it is all the way around: children are the most illuminated ones, and a majority of adults, as they grow up, conform more and more to rules and social conventions, narrowing their minds year after year, progressively dimming the brightness of their souls long before they reach their physical death.
Children are closer to the origin of life, unstained by the mechanisms of the physical or practical world.
This is why they have the best ideas and sometimes ask the best questions, a testament to their open-mindedness that can rarely be equaled by any adult unless that adult has maintained their ‘child mind’ over the years, which is essentially their open-mindedness or creativity.
The famous quote from Steve Jobs, ‘stay foolish,’ is another way to put it: simply encouraging people to ask ‘why?’, ‘why do we do it this way?’
The equivalent in Japanese culture, known as ‘Shoshin’ (初心), which translates to ‘beginner’s mind’ is meant to balance the inevitable drawbacks of preconceptions that arise as one becomes more expert in a specific task or field.
It mitigates the dangers of over-specialization.
Below is a human in sheer frustration, expressing life’s regret. You don’t want to be that guy.
This t-shirt will be a reminder that maybe someone, somewhere is waiting for you to forgive yourself for the clumsiness of the past. It is never too late to make things right.
When you buy this t-shirt, proudly wearing the design on your chest, and your relatives ask you, “What is this about?” tell them just that.
You will be heightened in their esteem as they discover how philosophical you are about life — like an alchemist, turning rocks into gold, the meaningless into the meaningful.
And after saying such beautiful things, gently wipe the tears off your interlocutor, overfilled with emotion, and explain to them you simply had… an “AI inspiration.”
A very poetic way to say: AI messed up, but it meant something to me.
Whereas in reality, you have repeated what you read in a Medium story. But be sure this will stay between us. And to pierce the veil of your secret, they will need a Medium subscription, which in turn will benefit you.
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If you found this article insightful, why not explore more thought-provoking ideas? Eating or destroying — what’s the difference?
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