Pixelz Newsletter

Notes from the (Unofficial) Creative Director Cool

I’ve been completely wrapped up in the world of Digital Twins lately. If you missed it, we officially launched our new Digital Twins product last week, complete with a Lookbook.

I’m going to go ahead and crown myself Creative Director of said Lookbook. Will this title stick? TBD. I’ll consider it an internal test to see if any of my colleagues are actually reading this newsletter.

Now listen, I’m far from a real creative director. But at Pixelz, we’re a scrappy team. We do what needs to be done. And sometimes, I get lucky and land creative tasks — like planning a photoshoot in IRL and one in the matrix (AI sphere / digital realm / the ether? I’m still workshopping the terminology).

It turns out creating AI imagery has a lot more in common with traditional production than you’d think, and also a whole new set of quirks. It’s its own beast, but the creative process still matters.

Without further ado, here is the real stuff that made this come together:

1. Collaboration is Key

This was a team effort. There had to be a vision and flawless execution. There was styling, retouching, image review, revisions, model approvals — the works. Sure, it didn’t require flights and physical locations, but it still took five people to bring this Lookbook to life. In an ideal world, there would’ve been way more of us working together to get this project across the finish line.

2. Creativity is Limitless, Time is not

A moodboard I loved was immediately nixed. I wanted a maximalist color explosion; it was like Candyland in the city. But we had a tight timeline in the middle of vacation season. Just like some photo shoots require extra logistics, to make the Candyland vision come to life would have required the extra people power and time we just didn’t have at the moment.

3. AI is Going to AI

Expect weirdness. Just like a real shoot, a huge chunk of images gets tossed—sometimes for familiar reasons, but sometimes for... new ones, like a model wearing half a shoe, or no teeth, or six toes. It does make for a far more hilarious select process.

I don’t see traditional photoshoots going away anytime soon, but I do see Digital Twins becoming another powerful tool in our content toolkit. This was FUN! And it still relied massively on our human creativity and collaboration.

All that said, I’m really proud of what we created. You can check out the Lookbook here. And if you’ve got thoughts, questions, or want to talk weird AI glitches, my inbox is open.

Pixelz Pulse

Beyond Digital Twins, a few other things are going on at Pixelz:

  • Talk Digital Twins with us during our webinar. We’ll take a look at the workflow we use at Pixelz and explain our proprietary AI. If you’ve got questions, sign up to join the live webinar on September 3rd.
  • Get the lowdown on why we decided to collaborate with a model agency to develop Digital Twins in our full press release.
  • Are you in the Manchester area? We’re holding our first FLOW: Local in Manchester on September 18th. Join us for a night of networking and lively discussions.

Hot Links

We’re deep into summer time, which means it’s quiet out there in the news cycle, but there were still a few stories that stood out:

  • The news of Ty Haney taking back her role at Outdoor Voices really sent me down memory lane. The days of Girlbossing with my Glossier balm dot com. As they lead with her return to the brand, one would assume she will be a part of the refreshed brand story and vision. I’m genuinely curious to see how this plays out. We were once obsessed with founder-led brands, but with the explosion of influencer brands, will it work once again?
  • I’m still here talking about Daydream because I think this could be really exciting, but I don’t think Daydream is there yet. My full review is coming, but until then, here are some other reflections on the AI shopping experience from Pixelz’s own Katrine and from New Consumer on Substack (paid).