How AI can teach us Design
The Future Creative # 55
Welcome to Future Creative—your weekly 5-minute read on industrial design, design thinking, and the role of AI in creativity and innovation. Each issue distills trends, insights, and practical tools that help designers and creators push their process, sharpen their skills, and stay ahead in the future of design.
Buy Me a Coffee!
Those who know me know how much I love coffee in the morning. Rather than use Substack to get people to pay for subscriptions, I am going try out “Buy Me A Coffee” donation platform.
If you have read my newsletter and found it to be interesting/amusing/helpful, let me know!
Impromptu - Looking for investors
What is Impromptu? Its a prompt based card game I have developed to bring more fun into concept development. Because the prompts are generally ridiculous, they make you think in ways you would not usually do. This has benefits in an office, educational, or even cafe setting. its scalable and easy to play. While I am working on how to get it to mass-production, I will provide a weekly prompt that I encourage everybody to participate in. Post your results on Instagram and tag @impromptu-tcg and I will select the best results! Make sure to give a brief explanation in your post.
AI Moodboard: Modernistic grays
Sketch of the Week
Newsworthy
Where does America get its goods from?
How Illustrators are dealing with AI
AI won’t replace designers but….
Software to keep an eye on
Other Useful Links
Below are a list of links that I think everybody should keep an eye on for Design/AI
More to come…
Inspiration Fuel
Ask The AI
AI Interview: As an Industrial Designer, why should I use you as my go to AI? What do you better than the competitors? Provide me ten reasons in the form of bullet points along with a link to verify this.
Chat GPT:
10 Reasons to Use Me as Your Go-To AI
Broad knowledge – I connect design, engineering, materials, and user needs.
Iterative partner – I adapt as you refine ideas and constraints.
Fast idea generation – I spark creative directions and variants quickly.
Text + visuals – I give feedback on words, sketches, and images.
Trade-off clarity – I map pros/cons for costs, materials, and choices.
Trend updates – I surface new tech, materials, and design movements.
Docs & presentations – I draft reports, specs, and decks efficiently.
Stronger storytelling – I help craft persuasive client narratives.
Custom fit – I adjust to your process, style, and project goals.
Efficiency boost – I cut grunt work so you focus on creativity.
What I Do Better Than Many Competitors
Broader scope – Covers more than writing: design, materials, manufacturing, trends.
Flexible style – You can customize prompts, tone, and approach.
Cross-domain agility – Move seamlessly from technical to creative to business.
Iterative workflow – Designed for back-and-forth, not just one-off answers.
Multimodal capability – Handle text + images (feedback, inspiration, analysis).
Claude:
Why Use Claude for Industrial Design:
Extended Context Window - Handle 200K+ tokens of design specs, technical docs, and references simultaneously without losing context
Interactive Artifact System - Create live 3D prototypes (Three.js), React mockups, technical documentation, and SVG diagrams for immediate testing and iteration
Advanced Visual Analysis - Analyze sketches, CAD screenshots, and competitor products with detailed feedback on form, ergonomics, and manufacturing
Real-Time Web Research - Search current manufacturing trends, materials innovations, patents, and competitor analysis during conversations
Multi-Format Output - Generate production-ready technical docs, process flowcharts, diagrams, and structured design rationales
Deep Manufacturing Knowledge - Expertise in injection molding, CNC, 3D printing, sheet metal fabrication, and material properties
Interdisciplinary Integration - Connect industrial design with mechanical engineering, UX/UI, supply chain, and business viability
Persistent Conversation History - Long-term project development without losing previous iterations or design decisions
Custom Design Tools - Create calculators, parametric design tools, cost estimators, and data visualizations specific to your projects
Transparent About Limitations - Honest about knowledge gaps, when to search for current info, and when human expertise is essential
Gemini:
Here are ten key reasons why I am the optimal AI for an experienced industrial designer, presented in quick, digestible bullets:
Native Multimodality: I seamlessly process and analyze text, sketches, and images to immediately critique and inform design decisions (e.g., upload a photo, ask for a material change).
Superior Technical Reasoning: I provide highly accurate solutions and fewer logical errors for complex industrial design problems like constraint analysis and manufacturability optimization.
Google Workspace Integration: My built-in access to Docs, Sheets, and Slides streamlines project workflow, enabling AI-powered drafting of spec sheets and project plans.
Real-time Market Synthesis: I connect directly to the web and Google’s knowledge base to deliver up-to-the-minute market trends and competitive analysis for informed design.
Massive Context Window: I can maintain the context of your entire project—briefs, research, and feedback—in one conversation for coherent and consistent design iteration.
Advanced Prototyping Code: I can generate and debug code (Python, JavaScript) to help you quickly build interactive design simulations and functional web-based prototypes.
Data-Driven Insight Generation: I excel at synthesizing large, diverse user research and cost data sets to uncover crucial, non-obvious design opportunities.
Iterative Design with “Deep Think”: My advanced reasoning mode allows for multi-step, structured problem-solving, perfect for complex, gradual design optimization.
Custom Design Agents (Gems): You can build specialized “Gems” for repeatable industrial design tasks, such as generating CMF palettes or specific tooling diagrams.
Business & Functional Focus: I prioritize accuracy and utility for professional, business-critical tasks, making me a more reliable tool for your product development lifecycle.
Verification Link: The core capabilities of multimodality, advanced reasoning, and developer tools are detailed on Google’s AI channels. The video below showcases the application of my advanced reasoning and coding, which underpins the technical and iterative design benefits listed above.
Gemini 2.5 Pro - Google DeepMind
Copilot:
Integrated with Microsoft 365 – Works seamlessly within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook.
Context-aware – Understands your files, emails, and meetings to provide relevant suggestions.
Design-specific templates – Offers prompts tailored to industrial design workflows.
Visual generation – Creates presentations and concept visuals using AI tools like DALL·E.
Data analysis – Helps evaluate materials, costs, and performance metrics in Excel.
Collaborative tools – Supports real-time brainstorming and documentation with Copilot Pages.
Enterprise-grade security – Built on Microsoft’s trusted cloud with compliance standards.
Multimodal capabilities – Combines text, visuals, and data in your workflow.
Custom AI agents – Build your own Copilot agents for specific design tasks.
Priority access to top models – Includes GPT-4 Turbo and Claude with Copilot Pro.
🔗 Full comparison and feature breakdown
Grok:
Superior intelligence for complex design challenges: Grok 4 excels in reasoning for ergonomics and sustainable materials. Verify: https://x.ai/news/grok-4
Real-time web search: Instant access to latest trends, patents, and innovations. Verify: https://x.ai/news/grok-4
Advanced code execution: Run simulations and algorithms with STEM libraries for prototyping. Verify: https://x.ai/news/grok-code-fast-1
Creative brainstorming with personality: Witty responses to inspire innovative concepts. Verify: https://learn.g2.com/grok-vs-chatgpt
Built-in image generation: Create concept art and mood boards quickly. Verify: https://pippit.capcut.com/resource/grok-ai-image-generator
X integration for user insights: Analyze real-time social feedback for UX refinement. Verify: https://www.quinnmarketing.com.au/blog/marketing/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-vs-grok-vs-claude-ai-a-comparative-analysis/
Lightning-fast responses: Speed up iterative workflows. Verify: https://miamicloud.com/comparing-grok-ai-vs-chatgpt-vs-bard-vs-claude-a-detailed-comparison/
Multimodal processing: Handle text, images, and data for prototype reviews. Verify: https://digitaldefynd.com/IQ/grok-ai-pros-cons/
Adaptive learning: Personalizes to your design style over time. Verify: https://digitaldefynd.com/IQ/grok-ai-pros-cons/
Efficient deep research: 10x faster searches for competitor and supply chain analysis. Verify: https://research.aimultiple.com/ai-deep-research/
Perplexity:
Accelerates generative design, providing many viable concepts in minutes (source).
Automates tedious tasks, freeing up time for creativity (source).
Optimizes designs for performance, cost, and production ease (source).
Predicts market trends using data from customers and competitors (source).
Supports rapid prototyping and fast iteration (source).
Enables customized solutions from deep data analysis (source).
Reduces human error by checking models and suggesting improvements (source).
Speeds up decision making with instant design comparisons (source).
Shortens time-to-market with AI-enhanced workflows (source).
Integrates with major CAD/modeling applications (source).
Parting thoughts
AI as a tutor
AI has the ability to teach us many things, as long as we treat it with care. Not just treating it “nice”, but also being careful about what we ask for, and how we verify what it generates to be true.
At this point, most should know that AI can help you formulate an email that you were unsure of sending. The tone didn’t feel right, or, maybe the message was wrong. Put it through Chat GPT and see what it does.
Chat GPT is more than happy to churn out a new better version of the email in practically every flavor of mood that you can imagine.
I follow several newsletters that include well written prompts that create the ground rules for you learning, or upskilling on anything you want. Want to understand how people recycle in Denmark? Interested in learning the difference between different drive systems in a car? Chat GPT, as well as many other LLM’s these days can create the specs, and then simplify it for you if you have a hard time with the terminology.
Nothing new, but our ability to ethically handle all this is what will make a difference in the future. Its easy to take it all at face value, as fact.
Truth is, we need to look at AI it like how we build a house. The foundation is the most important part, and if we are using AI to build that, we should make sure the foundation is built right? The rest of it, we need to build ourselves. The frame, the walls, the plumbing etc. Sure we can use AI, but it needs to remain an assistive role.
In my recent workshop at IDC, I emphasized the importance of us being active agents in this role. We are the deciders.
If AI are deciders, then why are we here?
Have a great week!
(and don’t forget to have fun!)