Creativity Called. It Wants You To Go Touch Grass.
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Cold brains make for lifeless work. It’s just science. (Okay, it’s vibes, but very accurate vibes.) Before your team dives into another day of pixel-pushing, brand development decisions, and the eternal debate over whether that shade of blue is “navy” or “midnight,” you need a warm-up. And not the kind that involves a mandatory ice-breaker question about your spirit animal.
This one gets you outside, gets your creative instincts firing, and ends with a hands-on session using the NanaBanana AI Tool in Photoshop that, in our experience, genuinely shifts how you think about briefing, graphic design production, and what AI can actually do when you give it something worth working with.
Buckle up. It’s time to go touch some grass. Literally.
Step 1: Get Outside and Shoot (Yes, With Your Actual Camera)
Before anyone opens a single app, grab your phone (or camera, if you’re feeling fancy) and head outside. Your mission: take photos of things that inspire you. Full stop.
It could be the shadow of a fire escape making an unexpected grid. The peeling paint on a wall that accidentally looks like a color palette. A bird doing something absurd. A flower. A manhole cover. A person’s incredible coat.
This isn’t just a fun little outing. It’s foundational to everything that follows. And we’re going to need you to resist the urge to cheat. No stock photos, no screenshots, no pulling something you saved on Pinterest three years ago. The whole point is that these images come from you. O feel a connection between your brain and your hand. Visual identity starts with perspective, and you can’t fake that with a Getty watermark or just ask ChatGPT.
We recommend shooting at least 20 or 30 images. More is more here. You’re creating your own raw visual asset library.
Step 2: Edit Down to Your Favorite 5
Back inside. Phones down. Time to be discerning.
Review your photos and select your top 5. In our experience, the strongest selections tend to feel cohesive. Maybe they share a color story, a mood, a theme. Or maybe they feel totally chaotic, and you love the tension. Either way, you’re curating. You’re making decisions about what belongs together and what doesn’t, which, by the way, is very much what brand development looks like in practice. It’s all reinforcing the “why does this matter.”
Once you have your five, do two things:
Build a mood board featuring all five. This could be a quick layout in Photoshop, a Canva board, even a physical printout stuck to a wall (I know shocking). The point is to see them together, as a collection. Notice what they’re saying as a group.
Save copies of all given into a dedicated folder. You’ll need them clean and untouched for the next step.
Step 3: Meet NanaBanana AI, Your New Creative Co-Pilot
Now it’s time to open Photoshop and get acquainted with NanaBanana AI.
If you haven't used it yet, here’s the general idea: it’s an AI-powered plug-in that lets you make targeted edits using natural language prompts. Think color grading, object removal, adding painterly or graphic treatments, swapping out skies, applying textures, all through a brief you write yourself.
And here’s where, in our experience, the real skill-building happens.
Your job is to write very specific briefs to achieve results YOU ARE DRIVING with a concept YOU THOUGHT OF.
Not “make it look cool.” Not “add some blue.” We’re talking prompts like: “Shift the overall color temperature to a warm amber and desaturate the background by 40%, keeping the subject in full saturation.”
Or:
“Remove the green trash can in the lower right corner and replace it with a seamless continuation of the brick wall texture.”
See the difference? Specificity is what separates a frustrating AI editor from a genuinely productive one. This is very similar to how you’d write a design brief for a real project, and practicing here, with your own photos, in a low-stakes environment, is one of the best ways we’ve found to understand how to use AI as a tool for efficient editing to make your projects move faster for digital systems and production workflows rather than a pretend magic button that only works once in a while.
Step 4: Regroup, Reflect, and Roast Your Results
After you’ve put all five images through AI with different briefs, gather your team and compare notes. Don’t skip this part! It’s genuinely fun!
Ask yourselves:
Which prompt got you closest to your vision on the first try?
Where did AI take things in a direction you didn’t expect, and did you love it or hate it?
What would you brief differently next time?
Save any totally crazy outputs for a fun social post.
This debrief is where the real learning lives. You’re not just getting familiar with a tool. You’re building your ability to articulate a creative vision clearly, and we believe that skill quietly powers everything from website design to brand patterns to full website development projects. When a team can communicate what they want visually, things tend to move faster, land better, and require a lot fewer revision rounds. We’d argue AI just makes that skill more valuable than ever. It’s a tool. Use it with integrity and it can help your work.
Put It In Action
You don’t need to clear your entire calendar. Here’s how to get started:
Block 45 minutes on your team calendar this week and title it “Creative Work-Up: Outdoor Photoshoot.” Make it official. People show up to things on calendars.
Set a mood board template in Photoshop, Figma, or a Google Slide. Something your team can drop five photos into quickly without fussing over layout.
Start a “Brief Library.” Every time someone writes a particularly effective prompt, copy it into a shared doc.
Do it again next month with the same structure but different theme or location.
Share your mood board to your team Slack or internal channel after. Make it a ritual, not a one-off.
Credits
Editor: Jenn Hart (More About Me)
Associate Editor: Sarah Dawoud
Art: Sharon Bakas
Author: Hannah Heine
Hannah is a writer and digital marketer living in Northern California. For the past decade, she has partnered with brands across industries to help them show up online with authenticity and purpose. After living in Italy, Spain, and South Korea, she brings a global perspective to her storytelling. A Kentucky native at heart, Hannah enjoys traveling, hiking, and chasing her toddler with her newborn in tow.
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Everything we share here is meant to be helpful and inspiring. We’re speaking from experience and past proof of concept. We respect each other's works, cultures, and opinions. The trends, examples, and observations in this article are provided for educational and inspirational purposes only. Mentioned brands, businesses, and cultural references are not affiliated with or endorsing this content. Opinions on all subject matter, audience behavior, and strategies are general observations and may not apply to every audience or situation. Always consider your brand values, goals, and audience sensitivities before implementing changes or creating new visual content. Please consult a qualified professional when needed to help make decisions. You are responsible for how you choose to use this information, and we are not liable for any loss, damages, or issues that may arise. We can’t be responsible for how things play out, but we’re always rooting for your success!
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