Made with AI Is the New Made in China
Twenty years ago, “Made in China” meant cheap, disposable, unsustainable, and low quality. Today, China is actively changing that perception, but the label still lingers in people’s minds.
Made with AI design is the new “Made in China” — and we mean that as a warning, not a trend report. We’ve spent twenty years watching what happens when cost becomes the only design criteria. The results are always the same: disposable work, eroded brand identity, and a market that eventually has to pay twice.
The same thing could happen with AI.
A lack of knowledge about how to use it, and a lack of judgment about what is good or bad, will quickly turn “Made with AI” into a stigma as well.
AI produces mountains of garbage—but so do humans. And AI is, in many ways, learning from us.
Nobody asks whether a movie was edited with Premiere, whether a book was written in Word, or whether a logo was designed in Illustrator. The tool disappears. The work remains.
This says more about people than it does about the technology. Because AI doesn’t replace taste. It exposes the lack of it.
Eager to know—will the label stay?
What Made with AI Design Gets Wrong About Brand Identity
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Ai killed the lorem ipsum
AI killed lorem ipsum quietly, somewhere between the first GPT prompt and the moment clients started sending actual copy on day one. We noticed it not as a loss but as a correction — design built around real words is harder, more honest, and significantly better. That's the shift AI killed lorem ipsum protecting us from confronting for decades.
How Much Does Branding Cost?
Branding cost is the question every client asks first, and it's almost always the wrong place to start. We've worked through 128 projects since 2004, and the budget conversation only makes sense after we understand what the brand actually needs to do. Branding cost without that context is just a number with nothing holding it up.
How to Be a Real Designer
How to be a real designer isn't about software or style — it's about who holds the argument when the client wants something easier. We've been in that room for twenty years. Being a real designer means resisting the comfortable solution, even when no one asks you to.
Are we artists or designers?
Artists vs designers — it's a question we've been asked at every client meeting, award jury, and late-night studio argument since 2004. The honest answer is neither, or both, depending on what the brief demands. What we've learned after 81 logos and 80+ awarded projects is that the real distinction isn't about medium or ego — it's about intent and accountability.
What Does a Branding Agency Actually Do?
What does a branding agency do — and what separates the ones worth hiring from the ones who just make things look nice? We've been answering that question through work since 2004. What does a branding agency do at its best: it builds the strategic and visual foundation a business can actually stand on.
The Currency of Respect
Respect as currency is not a metaphor we use lightly — it is the actual unit of exchange in every client relationship we have built since 2004. We have watched projects collapse not over budget or concept, but over the slow withdrawal of basic professional respect. When respect as currency depreciates, no invoice or award recovers the loss.
Ethics
Design ethics and sustainability aren't a policy we wrote to hang on a wall — they're the criteria we use before we say yes to a project. We've been running this studio since 2004, and the framework hasn't changed: if the work can't be defended on ethical grounds, it doesn't leave the desk. Design ethics and sustainability, in practice, means turning things down as often as taking them on.
Good design is for good clients
Good design and good clients arrive together — one rarely exists without the other. After two decades and 128 projects in Ljubljana, we've stopped pretending otherwise. The work only reaches its potential when the relationship is built on honesty, mutual respect, and a shared willingness to sit with the hard decisions.