Welcome back.

Last week belonged to ChatGPT 4o and the ripples it sent through the design community:

Wild creations from Ghibli-inspired media to logo attempts to app UI
Sam Altman reported "melting GPUs" as usage skyrocketed
More "AI will replace us" vs. "just another tool" debates
Even I created a Solo Leveling-style clip from our podcast (tutorial here)

My head is still spinning, not just from that, but from an intense week-long brand sprint I wrapped up with Nick Pattison for the upcoming UX Tools redesign.

It made me realize how much I've ignored the superpowers that good brand design can bring to my product design work.

I find myself breaking more and more rules of conventional UX design these days in the name of brand, differentiation, and opinion. 15 years in, and it feels like I'm just now starting chapter 2.

So I talked to today's best brand designers to find out how the pros are working today and what's making it possible for more product designers to deliver good brand experiences.

- Tommy (@designertom)

The Wireframe

The evolving relationship between brand + product design
How today's top brand designers actually work
AI's role in modern brand development
Toolkits of S-rank brand designers

The Great Convergence: When Brand Meets Product

For too long, brand and product design have existed in separate kingdoms with occasional diplomatic exchanges.

Brand designers crafted visual identities and guidelines, tossed them over the wall, and product designers did their best to apply those principles in functional interfaces with mixed results.

But that wall is crumbling fast.

Phi Hoang, the brand experience designer who helped craft Perplexity's distinctive visual identity, told me that at Perplexity, brand and product build in alignment. This tight integration is part of what has made Perplexity stand out in a sea of indistinguishable AI products.

"The most important skill is awareness—reading tone, understanding narrative structure, and thinking beyond function to meaning," Phi explains. "Writing matters. So does motion. Timing, contrast, and silence are design tools, too."

This holistic approach reflects a broader industry shift: as digital products become more commoditized functionally, brand experience becomes a critical differentiator.

Mike Smith, co-founder of Smith & Diction, emphasizes that design should make people feel something: "We always try to tune into some kind of real emotional benefit that this product can provide to people—then figure out what design elements can help convey that emotion."

Nick Pattison, who brings over 20 years of experience from his time at design icons like Pentagram and Milton Glaser Inc., echoes this sentiment.

He's refined his approach to focused one-week brand sprints that deliver exceptional results. "In a world flooded with startups and products that can all look the same, brand becomes even more essential," Nick explains. "We aim to create identities that permeate the entire product experience—brands that are not just different for the sake of being different, but memorable, functional, and built to last."

This emotional connection is what separates memorable products from merely functional ones, and I'm taking notes.

The Foundation: Start With Words, Not Visuals

A surprising theme emerged from my conversations with the best: they're all word people.

"The why is everything," Mike Smith told me. "When Chara and I sit together to develop concepts around branding, we try to get to the bottom of why this company should exist and why people should care."

This focus on purpose before pixels is echoed by Brett Jackson of Sukoya Design, who considers storytelling the foundation of good brand work: "I think when it comes to branding, a good question to ask yourself or a client is 'What story are we trying to tell?'"

Brett Jackson's exploration of brand + interface

For product designers looking to strengthen their brand thinking, this language-first approach offers an accessible entry point. Before opening Figma, spend time articulating:

What emotional benefit does your product deliver?
What concepts or metaphors capture your product's essence?
What story are you telling through your interface?

Mike Smith explains their process: "We talk through what this company does that's different, what they do that's NOT different, what concepts are obvious, what visuals would be trite or overdone, what feels real, what emotions matter to the audience—all of it."

Anterior brand design by Smith & Diction

Only after this conceptual foundation is established do they move to visual exploration.

Branding in Seasons, Not Stone

Another concept challenging traditional brand thinking comes from Phi Hoang's work at Perplexity: treating brands as seasonal rather than static.

"We treat the Perplexity brand like a living system," Phi explains. "Thinking in seasons gives us room to evolve without reinventing. One cycle might feel more expressive and open. Another might be more focused and minimal."

Perplexity brand design by Phi Hoang and Smith & Diction

This cyclical approach maintains core identity elements while allowing brands to stay fresh and responsive to changing contexts.

"This approach keeps us in rhythm with the product," Phi continues. "As it evolves, the brand shifts with it—not through full redesigns, but through tone, motion, and energy."

Product teams can adopt the same mindset, tuning the experience to match the moment without complete overhauls.

Nick's experience working with design legends has taught him the value of timelessness.

"The biggest lesson from both Milton and Paula is the importance of creating timeless work," he notes. "Design that doesn't chase trends, but instead carves out a completely new lane. You can recognize a Milton Glaser or Paula Scher piece the instant you see it—that's the kind of distinctiveness I strive for in every project."

This fluid approach to brand identity requires stronger conceptual foundations - when visual elements can shift seasonally, the underlying story and principles must be rock-solid.

Together with RECRAFT

Speaking of top-tier brand design, I’ve been watching designers like Tatiyana Tsiguleva and Mike Smith create some truly inspiring work with image generation tools.

From Perplexity’s retro wonder aesthetic to Outerbase’s sci-fi illustrations, the best brand designers I’m talking to are combining human craft with AI tools.

Recraft is one of those tools.

What sets Recraft apart is how it’s built specifically for designers. Their V3 model handles text flawlessly (rare in AI tools), exports actual vectors (not just rasters), and maintains style consistency across assets – three critical needs for serious brand work.

Try their free plan or use code UXT2025 for $12 off any paid tier.

Try Recraft v3 Model →

AI's Role: Direction, Not Destination

What can't be avoided any longer: AI's growing presence in brand design.

The past week saw explosive growth in ChatGPT 4o's image capabilities, with designers experimenting wildly across social media:

Studio Ghibli cheap fakes reignited debates about image gen ethics
"AI is replacing designers" went viral (again) after 4o designed websites
Tutorials for recreating Perplexity's brand aesthetic
Provocative takes: "The only people confident that AI won't take their jobs are brand identity designers"

But the creatives producing notable work take a more nuanced view.

"I think the strongest outcomes still come from people who know what they're trying to say," Phi Hoang notes. At Perplexity, AI tools are part of everyday process, but they "always set the direction. AI helps us move quickly, but it doesn't define what's good."

Phi's team collaborates with creative ambassadors to explore styles and push brand expression, using tools like Midjourney, Krea, and Visual Electric. They share prompts across the team, finding that "even with the same inputs, people will generate different results. That variability helps surface new directions and sharpens our collective eye."

Mike Smith takes a more cautious approach to AI: "AI is not part of our normal workflow...yet. We haven't been able to really harness its power in a meaningful way."

But he recognizes its potential: "The reason we used Visual Electric for Alma is because it paid off a concept. It would have been completely out of our reach to pull off something like that without the help of AI."

Brett Jackson describes a more straightforward AI process: "Image Moodboard (Pinterest or MyMind) > Midjourney > Figma." He recommends uploading reference images: "Once I get what I'm looking for in terms of style, I'll re-upload that image in Midjourney and continue iterating to get that similar style with different images."

The consensus: AI excels at exploration and iteration (Fons Mans describes his workflow here), but the critical work of concept development, direction setting, and quality assessment remains firmly human.

The Modern Brand Design Toolkit

What tools are actually powering today's brand design work?

I asked each designer about their daily drivers:

Phi Hoang (Perplexity):

Perplexity for research, drafting, creative strategy, frameworks, and podcast scripting
Figma for brand and product design, and prototypes
Notion for documentation, planning, and internal wikis
Midjourney, Visual Electric, Flora, and Krea for visual R&D, direction-setting, and experimentation
Jitter Video for simple text animations and prototyping inside video content
Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects for editing and motion work
Eleven Labs for voice overs, sounds across marketing content and their daily podcast
Slack and Linear for team coordination and project management

Mike Smith (Smith & Diction):

Figma
Illustrator
Photoshop
Slack for team chatting
Granola for staying on top of your life when you're back-to-back in meetings all day
Perplexity for constantly looking up how to clip hair from a background in Photoshop

Brett Jackson (Sukoya Design):

Notion for daily planner/writing
Perplexity for search and research
Chat GPT for bouncing ideas off and getting different avenues of thought
Midjourney for image creation
Figma for general design
Framer for websites
Mymind for saving inspiration

Nick Pattison (Primary):

Nick's tool list includes an interesting mention: "The most interesting one here is Lovable. I built it myself in a weekend—it's kind of like if QuickBooks, Notion, and Asana had a baby, but I stripped out all the unnecessary stuff. It runs the whole business."

What's striking is how unified these toolkits are, with Figma at the center for design work and a mix of AI tools (Midjourney appearing in every list) for exploration.

Phi Hoang puts it well: "I think the most important tool is still intent. Everything else builds on that."

Product + Brand: Bridging the Gap

So where does this leave product designers looking to strengthen their brand thinking?

Start with words, not visuals
Articulate your product's emotional benefits and the story you're telling before opening design tools. As Brett Jackson suggests, "Being able to tell a story with your design is so powerful."
Think in concepts, not just components
Mike Smith recommends using moodboards to translate concepts into design (he's shared this process in a Figma file before): "If I want to convey a sense of momentum, what kind of typefaces do I use? If I want to make something that feels personal and hand-done, what would an illustration style look like?"
Embrace seasonality
Like Phi Hoang at Perplexity, consider your product design in "seasons" rather than static systems. Allow for evolution while maintaining core identity elements.
Leverage AI for exploration, not decision-making
Use AI tools to expand your creative horizons, but maintain control over direction and quality. As Phi notes, "If you're using AI in a creative role, treat it like a tool that opens possibilities, not one that delivers finished work."
Consider regional perspective
Brett Jackson suggests looking beyond digital influences: "There's so many cool things happening beyond our screens - go out there and experience whatever your city has to offer. Some of the best designers and creatives that I know don't have a huge social presence - they just make good shit."
Balance quality and efficiency
Nick Pattison has refined his brand sprint approach over years of experience. His top rule: "Be quality obsessed. No compromises, ever." But he doesn't sacrifice speed. "We've found a way to do in two weeks what used to take us two months," he explains. "That's largely due to reps—like weightlifting, you build strength through repetition."

Nick's advice for communicating value to clients: "Pitching clients about outcomes they understand." He often tells founders: "You can't build a great website without a solid brand foundation. The whole system needs to work in harmony."

The Bottom Line

The lines between brand and product design are blurring in the most exciting ways, and I've never been more invested in adding this to my skillset.

As AI tools democratize certain aspects of visual creation, the premium on conceptual thinking, storytelling, and emotional resonance only increases.

For product designers, this convergence presents an opportunity to expand your impact by thinking beyond functionality to feeling. The most memorable digital experiences of 2025 won't just work well - they'll tell compelling stories through every interaction.

What story is your product telling? Hit reply and let me know.

See you next week,

Tommy

Enjoying this newsletter? Let me know here.

UX Tools

Brand as product's secret weapon