Some creative professionals adopt new tools. Others interrogate them. The.Sycomore has spent the last three years doing the latter, building one of the most methodical and culturally grounded AI art practices in the field.

A French Art Director with over fifteen years in branding and advertising, The.Sycomore discovered generative AI in 2022. It was a reconnection with the part of himself that had existed long before creative work became a profession.

His practice is worth examining for a specific reason. Where most AI artists build workflows around prompting, he builds workflows around directing and curating. Where most lock into a signature style because algorithms reward consistency, he deliberately cultivated range. His account grew precisely when he stopped trying to fit a mold.

His perspective on the profession itself is one of the sharpest we have encountered. The distinction he draws between a photographer hired for a unique style and an AI designer hired for a broader visual language is not a semantic detail. It is a fundamental reframing of what this practice is and where it is headed.

This interview covers his background, his methods, his influences, and his advice. It is honest, specific, and at times uncomfortable. The.Sycomore has clearly done the work of thinking things through. More importantly, he is generous enough to share where that thinking has led him.

Read on. It is worth your time.

Could you introduce yourself? What is your profession, nationality, and artistic background?

I am a French Art Director. I have been working in branding and advertising for over 15 years. As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to make a living from creating things. My mother was a painter and my father was really into photography. I grew up surrounded by thousands of books, vinyl records, art books… My environment and my education played a huge role in my career choice.

At first, I wanted to design skateboard graphics (laughs). Then, when I started studying art and design, I had to make what felt like the most difficult decision of my life: becoming an artist or becoming a designer. I never really understood why those two disciplines were treated as completely separate, at least in France. But because I felt that contemporary art, as it was taught in art school, had reached something of an intellectual and conceptual dead end, I chose visual design instead.

How long have you been using generative AI? Do you use it professionally?

I started in 2022 with Midjourney V3. Discovering Midjourney was honestly a turning point in my life. After several years working in the creative industry, I think my spark had faded a little. It was not that I no longer enjoyed creating, but passion had gradually turned into “a job.”

Using AI brought back a very strange feeling, a kind of urgency to create and express myself. It goes beyond simply rediscovering a passion. I think Midjourney reconnected me with my inner child and my ability to feel wonder. Since then, I have been working very hard to turn my mastery of AI into a recognized specialization. I would say that AI-related work now represents around 75% of my income, so things are definitely heading in the right direction.

Which AI tools do you use the most? Do you have a particular method? Any settings, workflows, or habits others might not expect?

I mainly use Midjourney for the content I post on X and Instagram, but I use a much broader range of models for professional projects, such as Nano Banana, GPT-Image-2, Seedance, and others.

And yes, I use a huge number of different workflows. It would honestly be very difficult to summarize all of them here. But if I had to highlight one specific aspect of my approach, I would say that most of my workflows are built around directing and optimizing stylistic curation.

I quickly realized that having to express visually complex ideas through text is extremely unnatural for the way a designer’s brain works. So most of my workflows are designed to reduce the amount of prompting I need to do myself and allow me to “direct” the curation and creation process instead. For example, I use a lot of weighting systems and permutations: prompt permutations, stylistic SREF permutations, profile permutations, and so on. Even with autoregressive models such as Nano Banana or GPT, I build workflows that push them as much as possible towards a curation-based logic.

Another important part of my practice is archiving. I believe that a good AI designer is someone who collects and archives a huge variety of aesthetics. The more resources you have available, the more AI models stop behaving like slot machines and start becoming precise creative tools.

This matters even more because I strongly believe that a good AI designer is not only recognized for their personal style, but also for their stylistic range. A photographer or illustrator is often hired for a unique style. An AI designer is hired for a broader visual language, which can include a much larger variety of styles.

Where do you draw your inspiration from? Artists, art movements, images, emotions? What feeds your visual universe?

Researching and understanding artistic movements, artists, aesthetics, and visual references plays a central role in the way I work. I read a lot of books about art and design.

But the two things that influence my work the most are editorial fashion and album covers, because they anchor an aesthetic in a particular cultural moment and visual grammar. What I find interesting about album covers is that they need to catch your attention immediately while condensing an artist’s entire universe into a single image.

When I create something, I often ask myself: “Would this make a strong album artwork?” If the answer is no, the visual probably lacks power, so I get rid of it.

How do you organize your visual research? Do you use websites, portfolios, or specific tools as reference sources or discovery platforms?

I mainly use Notion, Pinterest, and a physical library. Even though I use digital platforms, I genuinely believe that maintaining a physical library is important. Real objects tend to embed themselves more deeply in your mind and have a stronger impact on the way you internalize artistic references.

Are there any artists who do not use AI who influence your work?

Yes. I am much more influenced by traditional artists than by AI artists. But that is mainly because AI art is still a young discipline and remains relatively immature in terms of its place within culture.

A few artists who have influenced my work are Hajime Sorayama, So Me, Eadweard Muybridge, Neil Krug, and Robert Beatty, to name just a few.

Do you have an anecdote about an idea that came from an unexpected source?

One evening, while working with a group of AI artist friends, one of us accidentally generated an image where the character had an absolutely terrible mullet. It made us laugh so much that we spent the rest of the evening trying to create the most legendary mullet possible.

We all posted the results at the same time, almost like a small performance piece dedicated to the glory of the mullet. It completely flopped in terms of engagement, but we had to do it. AI art definitely came out stronger for it (laughs).

What advice would you give to someone starting today?

Work a lot. Recognition comes from a mixture of work and luck, and work is the only part you can control.

Also, do not listen too much to designers who constantly go on about “taste.” Taste, on its own, does not really mean anything. The emergence of this artistic movement deserves a much more interesting conversation than that.

If you had to start again from the beginning, what would be the first thing you would do differently?

I would embrace my inner chaos from the start.

At first, I saw a lot of people locking themselves into one successful style. By imitation, I assumed that I needed to “find” my style and exploit it as much as possible in order to succeed on social platforms. It was a stupid idea and it did not suit me at all. I am far too eclectic, and forcing myself into a single style makes me deeply unhappy. My X account actually started growing when I began posting a much wider variety of work.

Are there any mistakes you would be willing to share?

Do not post work you are not proud of, even if it is successful.

I once created four Superman visuals in a very blurry style. They received over 2 million views and 100,000 likes, which pushed me to create a few more series in the same style. Those posts performed extremely well, but I hated the feeling of riding the success of work that I did not like and that did not represent me.

To remove the temptation of reusing that style out of convenience, I shared all of the prompts publicly in a post on X so that anyone who liked them could use them. Pinterest is now filled with artworks created using those prompts. You are welcome (laughs).

Do you have any unexpected advice about tools, methods, or your daily practice?

Experiment with a wide variety of styles and subjects. Posting a different style every day is a very good way to improve your skills with these tools.

Do you have any advice for developing a presence on social media?

I would be careful about giving advice on audience growth, because algorithms have made things very complicated, and what worked for me might not work for someone else.

But the best advice I can give is to connect with artists whose work you admire and actually talk to them. That is where I have gained the most skills and opportunities. The support some artists have given me has been invaluable.

What advice do you wish you had received earlier?

None. Every little stupid thing I have done has taught me something.

Folow him on Instagram @the.sycomore
On X @sycomore

All images © the.sycomore 2026