A Gift For You

Our AI x Creative Accelerator Cohort starts on 3rd June. And as a subscriber to this email list, we offer you a $150 discount to join it by using this link.

In this 3-week hands-on course, you get everything you need to:

1. Generate 10X awesome content using AI.
2. Create campaigns that get stakeholder buy-in faster.
3. Gain a competitive advantage, deliver value, and scale your team or venture.

... and much more.

Check out the course (with the discount) here.

“Will AI make me obsolete?”

This is the question on the minds of many visual and creative designers.

Let me tell you right now—it won’t. No matter how many doomsayers claim it will. (How will they get attention if they say otherwise?)

AI won’t take away the jobs of creative designers. Au contraire, it will increase demand for the profession. Activities like branding, designing, and launching campaigns will become easier. And when something becomes easier, we do it more. This, in turn, increases demand.

At the same time, customer expectations will increase. They won’t be satisfied with mere designs; they will expect vibe marketing: leveraging AI to create quick and efficient campaigns that reflect the brand’s emotional connect or vibe.

To become a better vibe marketer, one important element to master is psychology. Because in the end, design and marketing are all about engaging humans.

By understanding psychology frameworks, you will be able to:

• Direct AI tools with strategic purpose rather than just technical skill.
• Create more persuasive designs that achieve business objectives naturally.
• Become an invaluable connector between AI capabilities and human experience.

Here are 10 ethical psychological frameworks you should know as a creative designer:

1. Jobs-To-Be-Done

Every tool or service is “hired” by a user for a job they want done—fundamental tasks they want to achieve.

For instance, instead of targeting a demographic (like millennials) for a meal subscription service, a marketing agency could target a specific time when cooking becomes challenging (less time, exhaustion, skill gaps, and so on). This connects emotionally with users across demographics.

In many cases, serving functional and emotional needs are far more effective in that they can help you reach out to more people.

2. Self-Determination Theory

This theory highlights autonomy, competence, and relatedness as core human psychological needs.

If, as a branding agency, you choose to redesign a fitness app, you can do so by supporting personalized workout options (autonomy), skill-relevant challenges with clear feedback (competence), and community features (relatedness).

Such designs retain and engage users more since they offer meaningful choices, clear feedback, and opportunities to connect.

3. Cognitive Load Theory

Our brains have limited processing power, and Cognitive Load Theory helps you respect these limitations.

For instance, think of an e-commerce portal where checkout abandonment is a problem. A designer could reduce this drastically if she simplifies the form from 7 fields to 2 essential ones. She hides optional fields, chunks information with visual progress indicators, and reduces mental effort.

When you simplify complex processes, you remove friction and increase conversions.

4. Progressive Disclosure

You wouldn't dump all your life stories on someone during a first date, right? Progressive Disclosure works the same way: reveal information gradually at just the right moment.

A product manager, for instance, could create a three-layered analytics dashboard: essential metrics visible immediately, additional metrics visible through drop-downs, and advanced configurations that can be accessed through the settings menu.

Such an approach helps users feel confident while handling complex systems.

5. Goal-Gradient Effect

This effect highlights how people increase their effort as they approach a goal.

Email or platform marketers can leverage this to show users how close they are to the next level, and the rewards they will unlock upon getting there. This could encourage users to engage more, especially in the final stages of earning a reward.

Showing progress, breaking journeys into simpler steps, and highlighting the distance to the next goalpost are effective ways to set this framework in motion.

6. Fogg Behavior Model

Created by renowned behavioral scientist Dr. B. J. Fogg, it demonstrates how motivation, ability, and triggers must work in tandem to influence behavior change.

Imagine a mobile-app designer has to increase engagement for a meditation app, which will need a change in user habits. He could combine attractive animation (motivation), simple 1-minute starter sessions (ability), and periodic reminders during downtime (triggers).

This enables designers to create experiences that make desired actions easier and more compelling for users.

7. Peak-End Rule

People don’t rate their experiences by considering their overall interactions, but largely on the basis of their most intense points and the end.

A hotel website designer can leverage this and create more than a generic “thank you” page after a booking confirmation. He can personalize it with animation and helpful pre-arrival information. This will create a memorable peak moment for the user before they even step into the hotel.

By enhancing critical moments, designers can enhance the overall experience of users.

8. Social-Proof Principles

In uncertain situations, people look to others’ behavior for guidance. While making buying decisions, they are more likely to trust other buyers rather than what brands claim.

Thus, if a content strategist chooses specific customer stories and case studies over generic testimonials, prospects will identify themselves in the story of the customer. That will help them connect at an emotional and functional level better with the brand.

A thoughtful integration of community elements and user stories can build trust and confidence.

9. Construal Level Theory

Psychological distance affects thinking. For long-term decisions, abstract concepts work better while concrete ones work better for short-term ones.

Thus, a marketing designer would be better off creating a climate initiative campaign with both elements: long-term vision statements with inspiring visuals (strategic commitment) and concrete visuals along with immediate action steps (quick implementation).

10. Game Theory

This is the psychology of strategic interaction. It helps you understand how people make decisions when their choices affect—and are affected by—others.

Social platforms are the perfect example. They attract users by creating environments where giving feedback in the form of likes earns rewards. This reinforces a positive loop where everyone benefits from participation. The drawback is that we also end up competing for attention.

Game Theory helps you build genuinely mutual value exchanges that keep users coming back.

These frameworks are practical tools that help you design with human psychology in mind. You can be responsible, genuinely helpful, and engage users and eventually help your clients achieve their goals.

Master these, and you'll be indispensable in the age of AI.

Weekly Workflow: Making Animations In Under 10 Minutes

Here’s the workflow:
​

1. Consistent Character AI→ Generate a consistent character with minimal prompting.
2. Outfit Edit [beta] → Instantly change outfits just by describing the look. No prompt engineering needed.
3. Flora + ChatGPT4o → Place your character into vivid scenes. The new 4o model understands visual references, making staging intuitive.
4. Hailou Minimax → Add animation with a drag-and-drop motion node.
5. CapCut → Final polish, sound, and export.

​

Done.

No bouncing between 8 different apps. No redoing characters from scratch. No fiddling with prompt variations.

This is more than a faster process. It’s a new operating system for storytelling.

→ Idea
→ Visual
→ Animation
→ All inside one creative loop.

It’s intuitive enough for creators, precise enough for pros, and fast enough for deadlines.

Level up your storytelling using these tools... I promise it has never been so smooth.

​

Talk soon,

Sachin and Diana

​