Perfect is becoming rather predictable

There's something suspicious about how perfect everything is starting to look.

Photographs with flawless lighting. Interiors without a misplaced object. People with symmetrical faces.

I appreciate good execution as much as anyone. But I'm finding it difficult to distinguish work that's been carefully considered from work that's simply been polished to within an inch of its life.

AI has accelerated this. We can create images in minutes, try different versions and make changes that once took much more time and money.

It's an extraordinary capability. It also means looking impressive is becoming less impressive.

And now we're seeing a renewed enthusiasm for imperfection. Grain, rough edges, analogue textures, deliberately awkward typography. Give it enough time and we'll have a fairly consistent formula for looking imperfect.

Then we're back where we started, just with more texture.

The answer isn't to make things messy or reject technology. A beautifully executed idea is still a beautifully executed idea.

But there's a difference between refining something and removing everything that makes it distinctive.

An unexpected image might communicate more than the technically superior alternative. An unusual composition might be more memorable than the balanced one. Some details are worth keeping precisely because they don't fit the expected formula.

The same applies to brand identities. An identity can be consistently polished and still offer very little to distinguish it from anything else.

We've become good at making things look right. That doesn't always make them worth looking at.

Perfection has its place. It's just not much of a personality.