Author
Thierry Fondu
Founder of Creative Hero, a design and web studio in Antwerp. Writing about the line between genuine and generic creative work in the AI age.
AI & Craft
How a Small Studio Actually Uses AI
Here's an honest map of where AI speeds up the work at a small studio, and where a human keeps the final say, no exceptions.
AI & Craft
AI Images vs. Real Photography
AI imagery is genuinely useful for mood and concept work, and genuinely dangerous the moment it stands in for a real person, product or result.
AI & Craft
The Editing Pass AI Cannot Do
An AI draft gets you 80% of the way there. The other 20% is taste, cuts and one specific true detail, and it's the only part that actually matters.
AI & Craft
Prompt for Arguments, Not Options
Stop asking AI to hand you three safe options. Ask it to argue both sides of a hard call, then make the decision yourself.
Verdicts
"We Used AI" Is Not a Marketing Campaign. It's an Admission You Have Nothing Else.
When the entire campaign idea is "look, we used AI," we ask what's actually being sold, and what the audience actually hears.
Verdicts
"Innovative Solutions For A Connected World" Means Nothing. That's the Point.
A tagline built entirely from words that survived a committee: we run the buzzword tagline through The Genuine Test and find out what it's actually hiding.
Verdicts
Nobody Works In That Office. The Photo Proves It.
Smiling strangers around a laptop, a bright open-plan office nobody has actually rented: we put the stock-photo About page through The Genuine Test.
Verdicts
You Rebranded Into a Font Everyone Else Already Has
Geometric sans-serif wordmark, flattened icon, a palette of black, white and one safe accent: the template rebrand puts craft on trial.
Verdicts
The Purple Gradient Homepage Is Not a Brand. It's a Confession.
Three rounded cards, one purple-to-blue gradient, and a promise to "empower teams to unlock their potential": we run the AI-default SaaS homepage through The Genuine Test.
Manifesto
Boring Is the Only Unforgivable Brand Mistake
Bad taste can be fixed. Being forgettable cannot. This is the one test that decides whether your brand gets remembered or ignored.
AI workflow
The Curation Loop: A Human-in-the-Loop Framework for Using AI in Design Without Shipping Slop
AI adoption in design hit 91% in 2026, but human content still ranks 8x higher on Google. Here's the 6-stage workflow that uses AI without shipping slop.
website conversion
What Actually Makes a Website Convert: The Field Guide for Brands That Refuse to Look Generic
What actually makes a website convert, backed by real 2025-2026 data on speed, trust and design. A screenshot-ready checklist for brands that refuse generic.