Free courses / AI for Creatives / Lesson 1
Directions, not drafts
Three ways in, then a decision that is yours.
Describe your project without sharing a client brief. Ask: “Suggest three distinct directions. For each, describe the audience, the mood and the trade-off. Do not imitate a named artist.”
You are not looking for the answer. You are looking for the direction you disagree with, because the disagreement tells you what you actually want. Choose, then close the tool and make the thing.
Generated work tends towards the average of everything it learned from. Your taste is the part that is not average.
- Ask for directions and trade-offs.
- Disagreement reveals what you want.
- Choose, then make it yourself.
ORBIT / THE NAVIGATOR
Ask for three ways in rather than one finished thing. A finished thing invites you to accept it; three directions make you choose, and choosing is the job.
Try it
Try it on something you are stuck on. Write one sentence on which direction you turned down and why. That sentence, it turns out, is your brief.
I am stuck on [describe it]. Give me five different directions I could take it, one line each. Do not write the thing itself, and do not tell me which is best.
Then paste it into whichever assistant you use — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot. Not sure which? Meet them all.
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