One thing I’ve been noticing while doom-scrolling through social apps is how every ad looks perfectly put together. Clean structure, balanced layouts, polished to the point of perfection.
At first glance, that sounds like a good thing. But here’s the catch – when everything looks perfect, everything also starts looking the same. There’s barely any recall, and even less emotional connection, just another scroll.
There was a time when design felt like a personality test for perfectionists and a way to demonstrate creative control. But over the last couple of years, perfection has gotten too easy. Machines can now take one prompt and generate ten polished designs before you’ve even had your first sip of coffee. Perfection isn’t impressive anymore, it’s expected. The scalability commoditised perfection like never before.
Gen AI is a brilliant design companion, but it has also taken some of the magic out of perfection. What used to take hours of tweaking and polishing can now happen in seconds. And while the results look clean, sharp, perfectly put together, when everyone can produce that instantly, it does not feel premium. Scroll past enough of it, it all starts to blur together. Perfection isn’t bad, it just doesn’t hit the same anymore when there’s no personality, no quirks, no human touch.
The outcome – Imperfection became the new cool.
Suddenly, imperfect design started topping the trends. Brand visual languages are more fluid, motion graphics jittery, typography a little weird (in a good way), and textures embraced more than ever. Design finally feels like it can breathe.
Intentional imperfection feels honest, warmer, more human. Of course, there’s a fine line. Imperfection isn’t an excuse to be messy or unclear. Structure, hierarchy, and intent still matter. The magic is in controlling the chaos.
Also, to be clear here, Gen AI isn’t the villain. The real issue is creative laziness. Authenticity and taste require time and patience, so it’s tempting to let AI do the heavy lifting. When someone like Sam Altman believes that while AI can generate content efficiently, the core of storytelling and creation requires a human touch – you know that we can’t afford to outsource creativity to machines.
Personally, between the choice of ‘someone made this’ and ‘this came out of a machine at 3x speed’, I know what I would prefer to consume and remember. As a designer, the best ingredient you can add to your design is a piece of your individuality. Because at the end of the day, it isn’t really about aesthetics, it’s about what we value.
The Creative Lens 