Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Before the mid-20th century, the world of visual branding was a chaotic landscape. A brand's signature blue could appear as a vibrant royal shade on a printed ad, a muted navy on a delivery truck, and a completely different hue on a product package.
In 1963, a man named Lawrence Herbert, an employee of a small printing company called Pantone, introduced a system that would forever change the language of color and bring order to the chaos. This seemingly simple innovation had a profound impact on the branding world.
Today, the world of Generative AI finds itself in a similar, though far more complex, state of consistency chaos. AI generation is powerful, fast, and intelligent, yet it remains significantly inconsistent—in its cost, its quality of output, its carbon footprint, and most importantly, its creative alignment.
Early Gen AI models have focused on a mission of "tools for human imagination," championing a world of boundless creativity. While this is an exciting frontier, true commercial adoption and enterprise value are being held back. As an entrepreneur, I believe the most significant opportunity isn't just in creating more, but in creating in a more consistent, brand-alligned, cost-efficient manner. I believe the pace of AI adoption in business will be defined by the platforms that can efficiently bring in this simplicity and consistency.
The technical foundation for this transformation is surprisingly straightforward, rooted in recognizing what's already working well. While image generation remains frustratingly inconsistent, text generation has reached a remarkably reliable level of quality. The solution lies in taking a strategic step back—leveraging LLMs for automated text creation and traditional design systems for proven template structures, while introducing targeted micro-elements of image generation only within carefully controlled contexts. This hybrid approach allows companies to automate their existing content production pipelines without the burden of additional resources or the prohibitive costs of full-scale image generation.
'Bread Jam' is a rough pitch deck of an imaginary service that does exactly this. Efficiently.
