Today’s Creative Spark…

• How to generate (actually good) designs with AI

• YouTube’s New AI-Powered Tools Will Let Creators Turn Photos Into Videos, Transform Dialogue Into Songs and More

• The Intersection of AI and Visual Representations in Art and Mass Media

• Stephen King Isn't Scared of AI but Warns Young Writers It Could Run Everything

• Gemini AI photo trend: Simple prompt to create lifelike portrait with any world leader

AI is turning design, video, music, and photography into a playground of limitless possibility—are we guiding it, or is it guiding us?

Read time: 9 minutes

Design

How to generate (actually good) designs with AI 🧑‍💻

Summary: Steve Sewell outlines practical ways to use AI to create interactive, brand-consistent designs directly in code. By starting from existing templates, adapting them with AI, and working inside real repositories, teams can streamline design workflows, reduce handoffs, and produce production-ready UI faster.

Five Essential Elements:

1. Start with inspiration: Use sources like ReactBits, 21st.dev, and CodePen to find interactive effects, then adapt them with AI instead of starting from scratch.

2. AI adaptation: Large language models can translate example code across frameworks and apply brand tokens, colors, and typography for consistency.

3. Work in your repo: Building inside your actual codebase avoids generic results and ensures that designs are usable in production.

4. System integration: Connecting AI to your design system, or indexing it if bespoke, keeps outputs aligned with existing components and accessibility standards.

5. No-handoff workflow: Designers, PMs, and engineers can collaborate in parallel with real code prototypes, reducing rework and accelerating iteration.

Published: September 17, 2025

Video

YouTube’s New AI-Powered Tools Will Let Creators Turn Photos Into Videos, Transform Dialogue Into Songs and More 🤩

Summary: At its 2025 Made on YouTube event, YouTube unveiled a wide range of AI-powered features for creators, integrating Google DeepMind’s Veo 3 model into Shorts and expanding tools across video, music, livestreaming, and analytics. The platform also highlighted that it paid over $100 billion to creators and media companies between 2021–2024.

Five Essential Elements:

1. Veo 3 in Shorts: Creators can now generate 480p videos with sound directly from text prompts, with upcoming features to add motion, stylize videos, and insert objects.

2. Speech-to-song remixing: Powered by Google DeepMind’s Lyria 2 model, this tool can turn spoken dialogue into songs with selectable styles such as chill or danceable.

3. AI editing assistant: A new tool will automatically arrange raw footage into a draft video complete with music, transitions, and narration.

4. Expanded Studio tools: Updates include collaboration features, Ask Studio (an AI-driven analytics assistant), title A/B testing, auto-dubbing, and enhanced inspiration tools.

5. Broader ecosystem updates: New livestreaming features, podcast-to-video tools, YouTube Music countdowns, and AI-powered YouTube Shopping integrations expand creator options across formats.

Published: September 16, 2025

Workflow by The Gen Creative

In each newsletter, the Gen Creative team puts together a practical creative workflow so you can get ideas of how to implement AI right away. Want to see more? Check them out here!

Art & Media

The Intersection of AI and Visual Representations in Art and Mass Media 🎨

Summary: David Blumenkrantz, professor of journalism at CSUN, explores the creative and ethical dimensions of AI-generated imagery in his eBook AI SANDBOX: The Technique, Aesthetics & Ethics of AI Image Generation. Rather than serving as a technical manual, the book critically examines how AI tools are redefining authorship, originality, and artistic collaboration, while also raising questions about misinformation and artistic authenticity.

Five Essential Elements:

1. Critical exploration: The book examines AI image generation as both an artistic opportunity and an ethical challenge, rather than a how-to guide.

2. Pressing questions: Blumenkrantz addresses debates around whether AI art qualifies as “real” art, how it changes the role of artists, and the risks of misinformation.

3. Personal perspective: Drawing from his background as a journalist, photographer, and educator, he reflects on AI’s ability to achieve photorealism and expand into new visual styles.

4. Educational roots: What began as a short classroom presentation grew into a deeper exploration of the aesthetics and implications of AI images.

5. Future work: Blumenkrantz is currently developing a follow-up book, AI Images for Cool Cats, continuing his inquiry into AI and creativity.

Published: September 15, 2025

Writing

Stephen King Isn't Scared of AI but Warns Young Writers It Could Run Everything ✍️

Summary: Stephen King says he is not concerned about AI replacing writers yet, noting that human prose still surpasses machine-generated text. However, he cautions that if AI learns to write a truly good novel, the landscape for authors will shift dramatically. He advises young writers to protect their unique voice, use AI as a supportive tool rather than a substitute, and stay consistent in publishing their work.

Five Essential Elements:

1. Current stance: King believes humans still write better prose than AI and does not currently see AI as a direct threat.

2. Future warning: He notes a tipping point could come if AI produces high-quality novels, changing the dynamics of the industry.

3. Cultural concern: Drawing on H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, he warns against overreliance on AI, which could control cultural systems.

4. Advice for writers: King urges writers to lean into lived experience, develop a distinct voice, and use AI only for support tasks like editing and outlining.

5. Work discipline: He emphasizes consistent publishing, contractual clarity on AI use, and building a recognizable style to remain competitive.

Published: September 12, 2025

Photography

Gemini AI photo trend: Simple prompt to create lifelike portrait with any world leader 📸

Summary: Google Gemini’s new Nano Banana feature has sparked a viral trend on social media, where users create hyper-realistic portraits of themselves sitting with world leaders. The simple prompt-based tool has flooded platforms like Instagram and X with lifelike AI images, blurring the line between digital art and photography.

Five Essential Elements:

1. Viral phenomenon: Social platforms are filled with users sharing portraits of themselves with figures like Vladimir Putin or Donald Trump, created using Gemini’s Nano Banana.

2. Easy access: Anyone can participate by downloading the Gemini app, uploading a photo, and entering a short text prompt.

3. Prompt creativity: Popular prompts ask Gemini to generate cinematic or documentary-style images, which can be adapted with any world leader’s name.

4. Nano Banana tech: The feature specializes in ultra-realistic 4D-style portraits, transforming everyday selfies into cinematic visuals.

5. App impact: The trend has boosted Gemini to the top of app store charts, surpassing ChatGPT as the most downloaded free app.

Published: September 18, 2025

Remote Creative Jobs

5 Remote Startup Creative Jobs

1. UI Artist: Digital Extremes seeks a UI Artist for Soulframe with 5+ years UI/UX experience, strong Adobe/UX skills, and a portfolio of game-ready assets (Canada only).

2. Image & Video Tutor: xAI is hiring an AI Tutor (Image & Video) to train Grok in visual content using cinematography and videography expertise, requiring a strong portfolio, and paying $45–$100/hr.

3. Game Designer II: Uken is hiring a Game Designer II to create and balance mobile F2P game systems, levels, and mechanics while collaborating with the team and using data to guide design decisions.

4. Senior UI Game Artist: SOFTGAMES seeks a Senior UI Game Artist to lead the art vision for casual and prototype games, create UI/game assets and animations, mentor junior artists, and ensure quality and technical excellence.

5. Production Designer: Kiddom is hiring a Production Designer to create, prep, and QC print and digital assets, ensuring high-quality, production-ready designs.

See you next time!

Creativity lives in both the big picture and the small steps. 🧑‍💻🎨 AI handles some of the small steps—framing images, tuning audio, refining text. 🖼️🎚️✍️ A reliable tool, making space for the bigger ideas. 📸🎙️📑

How did you like it?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on today’s Creative Spark! ✨ Your feedback helps us improve and tailor future newsletters to your interests. 📝 Please take a moment to share your thoughts and let us know what you enjoyed or what we can do better. 💬 Thank you for being a valued reader! 🌟

Keep Reading