Beauty, brains, and bots: designing in the age of AI with Lébéa

Now? It’s AI prompts, editorial-grade visuals, and product photography that could headline a Zara campaign.

The game has changed.

For today’s designers, especially those at the intersection of visual design and AI, the tools don’t just help you execute—they help you dream. And few creatives are riding this wave with more elegance than Lébéa, an AI designer and contributor at Lummi who’s making images that are part fashion editorial, part digital poetry.

Her path into AI wasn’t some overnight epiphany. It was quiet, gradual. The kind of shift that happens when curiosity bumps into need.

While working on e-commerce sites and digital brand assets, she constantly found herself in the same place: searching for high-quality, beautiful images that didn’t exist. Eventually, she stopped looking—and started making them.

It began with a conversation. A colleague who already worked in AI design gave her a crash course, and from there, she dove in headfirst. Experimenting. Prompting. Tweaking. Practicing. And slowly, something shifted—not just in her process, but in her perspective.

“Working with high-quality visuals in design is an incredible pleasure,” she says. That word—pleasure—is key. Because for all the talk of productivity and scale, AI design is also deeply personal. Emotional. Sometimes even therapeutic.

This is Lébéa’s story, and a deeper look at her connection with the modern reality of AI and design.

Design’s next frontier: editorial and engineered by AI

Lébéa’s images aren’t what most people picture when they hear “AI art.” There are no glitchy faces, no sci-fi dreamscapes. Instead, her work looks like it stepped out of a beauty campaign. Soft lighting. Crisp details. Faces you’ve never seen before but somehow feel familiar. Her aesthetic feels like a high-end fashion magazine found its way into a digital dream generator—and decided to stay.

It’s a testament to how far the tools have come. “Now, it’s possible to create truly lifelike images that don’t even look AI-generated,” she says.

And that realism isn’t just a technical achievement—it’s a branding superpower. Think about it: unique, stunning visuals that are completely original, produced without a photographer, stylist, or studio. For small businesses, startups, or even large brands testing a new look, that’s not just cool—it’s transformational.

“You can have your own faces, your own style, your own identity,” she says. That means no more stock models holding coffee mugs and pretending to laugh. It means full creative control.

Moodboards, mango, and the machines

One of the most compelling things about Lebea’s process is how tactile it feels. AI might be the tool, but the inspiration is rooted in old-school design instincts: visual research, reference gathering, immersion in mood and aesthetic.

Pinterest is one of her go-tos. So are sites like Zara and Mango, where clean, elegant product photography gives her a visual language to pull from. Even the occasional deep-dive into a photographer’s personal site can spark a whole new series of images in her mind.

She talks about finding a single photo and instantly knowing she wants to create an entire set inspired by it. That’s not automation—that’s intuition. AI, in her hands, becomes an extension of taste.

The UX of AI design

We’re used to talking about UX in terms of user journeys and button states. But what happens when AI becomes part of the design team? The experience shifts. Not just for the user—but for the designer.

Lébéa is working on a Behance project that mixes web design with AI-generated imagery, including posters that merge visuals with strong typography. She’s treating AI like a collaborator, not just a helper—co-creating mood, tone, and story through visuals that set the stage for how users feel when they land on a site.

AI becomes the spark. The aesthetic foundation. The way you bring emotional texture into an interface.

And while the tools themselves are improving, it’s the human at the keyboard who’s really making the decisions. “It’s not as difficult as it seems,” she says, referring to her process. But it’s also not effortless. It takes time, practice, and vision to guide the AI toward something that doesn’t just look good—but feels right.

A new kind of designer

If you zoom out, a bigger shift is happening. The definition of a “designer” is stretching. No longer just someone who lays out pages or fine-tunes usability, today’s designers are part art director, part technologist, part brand strategist. They’re generating visuals, setting tones, imagining personalities for brands that don’t even exist yet.

They’re crafting not just screens—but entire worlds.

This is especially true for designers who care deeply about visual storytelling. For Lebea, AI is less about replacing photographers and more about accessing an aesthetic that didn’t exist before. It’s about freedom. No budget constraints, no waiting on retouching. Just an idea and the drive to create something new.

“It truly inspires me and lifts my mood,” she says. “Ever since I picked up this hobby, my life has become so much more vibrant.”

Don’t be scared—be curious

Of course, not everyone’s on board. There’s hesitation. Doubt. Designers who feel like this new medium is too complex, too robotic, or too far from what they learned in school.

But Lébéa’s advice to them is simple: try it.

You don’t have to abandon your current practice. You don’t have to become a prompt engineer overnight. But you do have to be open. Because AI isn’t just a trend—it’s a tectonic shift. And being scared of it won’t stop it from happening.

“If you have a passion for something but feel afraid — don’t hesitate, just go for it,” she says. “Even if everyone around you doubts it.”

The future of design isn’t just faster…

It’s more beautiful, more personal, and more open than ever. So go ahead. Follow that weird idea. Build that world. Push that dream into existence.

Because the next great creative movement? It won’t just be coded. Or sketched. Or shipped.

It’ll be imagined—by people like Lébéa. With tools like Lummi.

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