Being an entrepreneur has its ups and downs.
Just when I think I’ve finally figured out how to do something in my business, something changes. A new platform comes along. A new technology disrupts an industry. Customer expectations shift. And suddenly, the thing I thought I had figured out needs to be rethought.
That’s entrepreneurship.
You adapt. You learn. You shift. And, hopefully, you find an even better way forward.
When AI entered the picture, I thought my business was over.
When AI first started becoming really good at generating images, writing copy, creating concepts, and helping businesses with branding, I had a very real thought:
Well, that’s it.
I figured that in about three years, AI would be good enough to do what we do at Crème de Mint.
Why would a company hire a branding and packaging design agency when they could simply type a prompt into an AI tool and get a logo, a mood board, packaging concepts, and marketing copy in seconds?
It was a legitimate question.
And honestly, I think a lot of people in the creative industry had the same thought.
But here we are.
We’re still here.
And something interesting has happened.
AI hasn’t replaced our work. It has changed who understands the value of our work.
We’re still working with clients who want strategic, thoughtful branding and packaging design.
In fact, some of the clients who find us today have used AI to help them find us.
They understand something that I think is becoming increasingly important:
AI can help you create something. But creating something that actually connects with your customer is a different challenge.
AI can give you an average design direction.
It can give you options.
It can help you brainstorm.
It can help you move faster.
But your customer isn’t AI.
Your customer is a person.
And your job as a brand is to reach that person.
Branding is ultimately about humans connecting with humans.
This is the part I keep coming back to.
We are still humans trying to connect with other humans.
When we develop a brand, we’re thinking about how someone will feel when they see it on a shelf.
Will they notice it?
Will they understand what it is?
Will they trust it?
Will it make them curious?
Will they want to pick it up?
And ultimately:
Will they want it?
That requires more than generating a pretty image.
It requires understanding people.
It requires strategy, observation, creativity, cultural awareness, storytelling, and a deep understanding of the customer you’re trying to reach.
And those things are at the heart of what we do at Crème de Mint.
Packaging still needs to make someone stop.
Especially in food, beauty, and supplements, packaging has a very specific job.
It has to communicate quickly.
It has to differentiate a product from everything around it.
It has to create desire.
And, ideally, it needs to make someone think:
I want that.
That’s where creative direction matters.
That’s where experience matters.
That’s where the design process matters.
And that’s where I still believe human creativity has an enormous advantage.
Creating a truly original design or illustration isn’t simply about telling a computer what you want it to make. It’s about knowing what to ask for in the first place.
It’s knowing when an idea is interesting but wrong for the brand.
It’s knowing when something is technically beautiful but completely forgettable.
It’s knowing when to push an idea further.
And it’s knowing what will resonate with the people on the other side of the package.
Maybe someday we’ll all be prompt designers.
Maybe.
I’m not going to pretend I know exactly where this is going.
AI will continue to improve. The tools will become more sophisticated. Things that seem difficult today may become incredibly easy tomorrow.
And that’s okay.
Because I don’t think our job as designers is to protect a particular tool or process.
Our job is to solve problems creatively.
If the tools change, we change with them.
Maybe someday part of my job will be prompt design. Maybe we’ll use AI to develop ideas we couldn’t have explored before. Maybe the creative process will look completely different five years from now.
I’m open to that.
What I don’t think will change is the need for brands to understand people.
The future isn’t human vs. AI.
I think the more interesting question is:
How can we use AI without losing the human part of what makes great brands great?
At Crème de Mint, we’re already using AI as another tool in our toolbox.
But it hasn’t replaced our process.
It hasn’t replaced strategy.
It hasn’t replaced our experience.
And it certainly hasn’t replaced our desire to create packaging that makes someone stop, look twice, and want to pick it up.
If anything, AI has made me more aware of the value of those things.
Because when everyone has access to tools that can generate something quickly, the ability to create something meaningful becomes even more important.
The technology will keep changing.
So will we.
But we’re still here—humans creating brands for humans.
And for now, I’m pretty excited about that.
