🎮 The Next Input — Issue #062

In partnership with

⚡ The Briefing — 60 sec

• Google launches Mixboard, an AI-powered mood board app. Canva, Pinterest, Miro—your move.

• Queensland audit to review AI speed-camera image tech for privacy. AI, fines, and phone checks—privacy on the line.

• Microsoft adds Anthropic’s AI into Copilot. Claude joins the Copilot ecosystem. The duopoly deepens.

🛠️ The Playbook — AI Design Ops Factory

Mission Automate the creation, organization, and sharing of visual assets—turning product notes or campaign briefs into mood boards, style guides, and ready-to-use creatives.
Difficulty Advanced | Build time 2–3 hours (pilot)
ROI Design and marketing teams save ≈ 12–18 h/week, cut agency costs, and iterate creative cycles twice as fast.

0) Why This Matters

With Google Mixboard blending AI with visual ideation, design workflows are shifting from manual curation → automated generation + assembly. The orgs who master this now will move faster than traditional creative cycles.

1) Architecture

2) Workflow

1. Trigger

   • Upload new campaign brief to Notion → webhook fires.

2. Theme Extraction

   • LLM parses for {keywords, colors, moods, sample phrases}.

3. Asset Generation

   • Pass keywords → Mixboard / DALL·E to generate 10–15 themed images.

4. Assembly

   • Figma API arranges into board layout with labels: Colors, Imagery, Typography, Icons.

5. Human Review

   • Slack DM → “Mood board ready. Approve or Request edits.”

6. Distribution

   • Approved boards → Notion database tagged by campaign.

7. Fail-safes

   • If image confidence <0.8 → fallback to stock image API.

3) Prompts

Theme Extractor Prompt

SYSTEM: You are a creative director.
INPUT: {campaign_brief}
TASK: Output JSON:
{
 "keywords": [..],
 "color_palette": [..],
 "mood": "playful | premium | futuristic | minimal",
 "sample_phrases": ["..",".."]
}

Image Generator Prompt

Generate 15 AI images for a mood board.
Style: {mood}. Palette: {colors}. 
Include variety: product shots, textures, typography, iconography.

4) Guardrails

• Style Consistency: Enforce brand palette via injected hex codes.

• Licensing: Keep logs of generated vs stock images.

• Privacy: Strip names/logos in competitor screenshots before board assembly.

5) Pilot Rollout — 2 Hours

1. Pick one campaign brief (5 pages max).

2. Extract → generate → assemble one board.

3. Deliver to Slack/Notion for approval.

4. Compare iteration time vs manual (target 50% faster).

6) Metrics

• Avg hours to first concept (baseline vs AI).

• % assets reused in final campaign.

• Approval rate after 1st draft.

• Cost savings vs agency mood boards.

🎯 The Arsenal — Tools & Prompts

Summarise this board: mood, top 3 design elements, 
keywords, how it maps to campaign goals.

💡 Free Office Hours

Want a design ops factory for your team?
Book a free 15-minute Office Hours slot—no sales pitch, just workflows solved.

→ Grab a slot: https://calendly.com/aaron-cylentis/the-next-input-office-hours

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🕹️ Game Over

Auto-generate one mood board today—tomorrow your campaign ideation doubles in speed.
Share your win; you could headline Issue #063.

— Aaron
Automating the boring. Amplifying the brilliant.

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