It could be argued that imperfection is more important than ever – a notion that Hudson wholeheartedly agrees with. Despite being a perfectionist himself, he explains, “the whole reason I’m full-time at Clay is because I bring imperfection to the brand,” or, at least, an organic, natural imperfection. “As the initial shock of AI image generation has settled down,” Hudson continues, “I think that the idiosyncrasies of real artists will continue to be a major hurdle for LLMs,” suggesting that the errors in AI-generated imagery often instead manifest as “uncanny horror”. Antithetically, the rough edges of human work feel relatable – warm, even. “So as the human-artist-in-residence,” he says, “I’ve been learning to let things be less perfect and wear imperfection a bit more confidently.”
The evolution of Clay’s visual output, as illustrated on its website, is clearly emblematic of the brand’s approach to its identity, with a human touch sitting at its centre. “Without constant human collaboration and feedback within our team, we would never have the quality that you see today,” Sara says. “It’s the same whimsical nature as our relationships at work,” spanning the full spectrum of experiences at Clay. “It spans from the top, with our head of brand and experiences like Puneet,” she adds, “who gives us autonomy to explore our own creative dimension,” at every level of the brand. “Something as simple as one of our designers saying ‘I really think we should go all in on a massive ball pit as the footer,’ or something silly like that,” she recalls, “can quite possibly end up being an instrumental piece of our work, materialised visually in our brand.” Whilst the brand’s positioning may have changed across its existence, this whimsy remains well-rooted, and Hudson’s latest editions are no different. “With every website launch, we pushed for new ways of design and storytelling,” Sara ends, “and we are having so much fun together doing it!”