Images and video · 2026-10-29

AI can do almost anything, but human taste still decides the result

At Figma Config India, designers explained why AI helps their work but does not replace their judgment, attention to detail, and personal style.

✨ Details make or break the work

Ashish Kashyap creates small-scale work, including the detailed NFTs TinyRooms and Pikaicons, a large library of hand-drawn icons for Figma and React. He explained that on a 24 by 24 pixel icon, shifting a corner or line by half a pixel can make a shape clearer or change its meaning. One of his trash can icons was once read as a man in a hat, because the lid looked like a hat and the details looked like eyes.

Kashyap sometimes asks AI for a first version of an icon, but he still reworks every result by hand. He wants his work to look like a Pikaicon, not like something generated by a machine.

📌 Ideas still need to come from people

Designer Soren Iverson, founder of the studio IVERSON, is known for satirical projects: a version of Spotify with an age limit for trendy music, a dating profile with augmented reality, and a multiplayer alarm app that wakes up all your friends at once. Now AI prototyping tools help him turn ideas into working products, such as the step-tracking game Stompers.

He says ideas should come from people. He advises not being afraid of bad ideas and working with colleagues to turn them into good ones.

🔹 A strong brand has a recognizable style

Fashion designer Masaba Gupta built the brand House of Masaba around bold prints that blend traditional fabrics with a modern approach. Every piece in her collection must match the brand's recognizable style. She explains that AI makes it easier to copy the look of an established brand, so it is even more important to protect your own aesthetic.

Gupta's taste comes from personal experience, including her childhood. For example, she prefers pink to yellow, and she links this to her own life experience.

🔸 AI does not always know the answer

Daisuke Sakai, co-founder of the art collective teamLab, says AI is a powerful tool as long as you know exactly what you want to make. But for the installation The Infinite Crystal Universe, the team could not simply write a prompt like "show a room filled with LED lights." They had to decide how the light should reflect depth, how it should move, and what visitors should feel. According to him, these decisions are what bring art to life.

Sources: 🔗 Figma Blog