On Our Radar: Rich Sutton's Picks
Rich shares three topics currently on his radar: how Copenhagen-based Frame is turning to AI for product films, Flora’s approach to sharing AI workflows, and how stock licensing companies are creating original work.
Video Transcript
Laila: What's currently on our Stylus radar? Let's call one of our experts to find out.
Hey Rich,
Rich: Hello.
Laila: So what's been on your radar recently?
Rich: Three things this month, all about how designers are actually using AI rather than what it can do on its own. So first thing on my radar, Frame in Copenhagen have made high-end CG product films for eighteen years, and their latest for the Verpan Wire Frame portable lamp is made entirely with AI. It's a veneer Pantone design from nineteen seventy-two, so every proportion has to be exact, and in the finished film they are. A studio with that level of CG experience choosing AI for a job this precise tells you exactly how far the quality has come.
Second thing on my radar, Flora is an AI design platform where studios have started publishing their workflows, with Base Design and Pentagram both currently having tools on there. You get the full step-by-step process behind a finished piece, including one that builds an entire typeface from a single letter form. This means a small in-house team can essentially work from the same workflow as a much larger studio, and the workflow itself becomes the thing that's shared rather than the finished piece.
And finally, Artlist has moved from licensing stock clips to producing its own work with The Ark, their first AI-made original series. It runs across multiple episodes, so a real commitment rather than a one-off showreel piece. Hyper and Arqé are both doing something similar with imagery, selling art-directed AI stock built for designers. For in-house teams, that removes the dullest part of the process, which is hours lost scrolling through generic libraries.