We ran an experiment this week that sparked a few interesting conversations.
^{(side note: I am linking to instagram bc we’re starting to shift content there, hit follow).}

The experiment explored the impact of product visuals in packaging design.

I’m always one to bang on about the “rules” of packaging while being explicit that there are no rules and you can literally do whatever you want and it might still work. 

But food visuals in packaging design are like pizza at a party. Not necessary, but certainly makes it better.

Here’s where the chat about visuals gets interesting.

For the most part, product visuals are expensive to produce.

But now with AI, that gap is closing.

Let’s get into it.

This edition of supergoods is proudly brought to you by Stickybeak 

Be in to WIN a $10K Packaging Health Check

Download The Packaging Design Process Checklist and enter to win a Stickybeak Consumer Insights Package plus a Packaging Consulting Audit from Mind Control.

Together, you’ll get consumer research, expert analysis and a clear strategy to make your packaging more effective at shelf.

Open to brands in Australia and New Zealand.

The AI doom loop

A doom loop is a self-reinforcing cycle where one negative thing causes another, which then makes the original problem worse.

This is exactly what we’re seeing in the world of AI generated content

Brands use AI to make more content → the internet fills with generic content → AI trains on more generic content → its output becomes even more generic → brands publish even more of it.

And so the spiral continues.

In a world where everyone wants everything faster and cheaper, it’s easy to lose hope and think that this is just the path we’re headed down.

But I’m more optimistic. I think there’s a place for AI in branding. It’s the Toupee fallacy: “I’ve never seen a good toupee”. Of course not. The good ones are invisible. AI visuals are the same. Let me show you.

The bad wigs

We’ve all seen it before and we can spot it from a mile away. A poster at a cafe that looks completely like unhinged AI bullshit. An ad on Instagram that is offensively fake.

We’re all really good at spotting bad AI.

I’d like to say it’s only people with no clue that are using this stuff, but I’ve personally seen brands with budgets pushing this type of trash and it’s mildly horrifying.

The middle ground

I spotted this cereal in a bougie local grocer the other day.

I’ll admit that at a glance, it looked completely normal.

But something about the visuals felt off to me. The bowl proportions change with each SKU. The spoon is in weird and different positions. The milk splashes don’t make logical sense. But the giveaway for me was the odd texture of the product upon closer inspection.

I think this example is a strange middle ground. Most people probably wouldn’t examine it and pick apart the differences like I did. And it’s not as immediately obvious as the hot sauce. But it feels off and a little NQR.

The full-blown professional hair system

What really changed my mind on this recently was seeing a brand studio I respect win an award for “generative AI”. My initial response was ‘what the fuck’.

But then I checked out the work.

The team at Fluid recently shared that its Marble King Wagyu work won Gold at the 2026 BETTER FUTURE Melbourne Design Awards, including in the Generative AI category.

A project for a premium wagyu beef brand targeting luxury buyers. The branding is classy, but it’s the visuals that bring it home.

These aren’t traditional paintings. The painted scenes were created using generative AI.

And it is worlds apart from the bad wig and the middle ground.

It’s probably highly controversial to celebrate this

And I feel conflicted myself sharing it.

On one hand, the brand has a unique visual style that feels expressive and crafted, giving them flexibility and scale to replicate a system for the future.

But on the other hand, an artist may have missed out on a job and there’s also the environmental cost of the compute required to produce it

There’s a real tension here.

Is AI just another tool that is going to change what’s possible in design, just like Photoshop and computers did?

Or is it just feeding the evil technocratic overlords and robots who will eventually rule us all? Is there a moral dilemma, or is it just life?

I don’t have the answers.

But what do you think?

I read every reply, tell me your thoughts. Share with me your AI experiments. I’m keen to see more.