𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗔𝗜 𝗨𝗫 𝗚𝗔𝗣

Yesterday, one of the most talented and mentally flexible creatives I've worked with in years told me:

"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙣𝙤𝙙𝙚-𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝘼𝙄 𝙩𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙨, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙜𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙤-𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙞𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙡𝙚𝙢 𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜.”

This person thrives on learning new tools. They're proactive, adaptable, and genuinely excited about AI.

𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.

The creative AI industry is overwhelmingly building Build Layer tools (developer-focused, node-based, parameter-heavy - ignoring 20+ years of creative UI and workflows). Don’t get me wrong, this is still a huge improvement on text-only prompting. 

But the Craft and Deploy UI/pipeline layers are almost entirely missing:

𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 (Professional Creatives): Creative control without engineering - barely exists

𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 (Marketing/Sales Operators): Deploying assets at scale with guardrails - maybe 2-3 platforms out of hundreds

We're asking designers to become prompt engineers. We're giving marketing managers no way to deploy creative at scale. We're solving the wrong problems.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗮 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘂𝗿𝗲.

I implore AI platform developers: reach out to your target community, understand how THEY work and how THEY think, build your UI/UX around that. If not, you're building for a very small proportion of the community - this is a bad business model. The goal is to be financially viable, right?

Exception to the rule: ComfyUI was built open source by developers for creative developers/builders, and it succeeds in that niche. But if you're building for professional creatives or end users, reach out to your target audience. Shadow a studio or in-house creative team. Understand their ENTIRE pipeline before building your interface.

Adobe '𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵 + 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘀𝘂𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝟭. Their limited beta doesn't open until Q1 2026 (I have already registered) Don't fall behind - get out ahead of them.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝘁.

More on the BCD (Build, Craft, Deploy) Layer System: https://lnkd.in/eyYvYqFU

Recraft FLORA Weavy AI Runway Canva Luvian krea.ai - curious about your thoughts on this 🤔 I want to help!

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