Option 01
CREATIVE DIRECTION / GENERATIVE IMAGERY / LATIN AMERICA
Making the
Artificial
Feel Real.
AI Art Direction
Prompt Workflows
Approval Platform
AN IMAGE-MAKING CASE STUDY
01 / THE PROJECT
One photographic brief.
A connected creative system.
Art directing the images, the prompts and the review experience for culinary tourism across Latin America.
The brief brought together cooking classes, food tours, tastings and other food-related activities. The collection needed to feel cohesive while giving each experience its own people, surroundings and culinary context.
My role connected photographic direction, contextual prompt generation and a dedicated approval platform. The interface was a central part of the production system: the place where the client evaluated the images and the feedback that informed the next round was recorded.
- Role
- AI art direction, visual production, editing & review platform design
- Tools
- Nano Banana, Magnific, Adobe Photoshop
- Scope
- Culinary tourism / Latin America
02 / A BRIEF BUILT FROM REAL PLACES
Specific to the place.
Specific to the people.
Each image began with a country, a city and an actual culinary experience.
The production brief combined the experience’s menu, casting, activity and brand with photographs supplied by the client. Real kitchens and instructor environments, when available, anchored the architecture, surfaces, utensils and light.
The photographic reference had a different job: showing how people occupied a room, overlapped, cooked and photographed each other. A Brazilian reference could inform the casual camera language without importing its kitchen, flag or food into another country.
- 01 / The room
- Real kitchen references, spatial layout, materials, practical light and the everyday objects already belonging to the place.
- 02 / The menu
- The specific dishes, ingredients, drinks and preparation stage for that experience. The action had to make culinary sense.
- 03 / The casting
- The region and experience’s casting brief: local instructor, tourist or family group, adult age range, body types, clothes and distinct roles.
- 04 / The local details
- Relevant utensils, ingredients and discreet country cues. Location came through the activity and environment, rather than a collection of landmarks.
- 05 / The brand
- The correct apron reference: Cook in Rio in Brazil, Cook in Fiesta elsewhere. Fabric, cut, straps, pocket and embroidery remained part of the scene constraints.
- 06 / The camera
- Amateur cellphone photography. Readable backgrounds, incidental crops, unsynchronised expressions and ordinary light took precedence over a polished composition.
03 / THE PHOTOGRAPHIC DIRECTION
Authenticity doesn’t come from perfect images.
The brief called for amateur cellphone photographs: authentic, unstaged snapshots that feel like the real experience.
Beautiful composition and a professional photographic finish were not priorities. The images needed to feel like something a participant might casually take during a class, a food tour or a shared meal.
I directed the images toward the everyday language of smartphone photography: imperfect framing, incidental crops, ordinary surroundings and people absorbed in what they were doing. The aim was to convey the experience as lived, rather than arrange a scene for the camera.
VISUAL PRINCIPLES
Art directing imperfection.
- 01
Everyday light
Allow ordinary room light, uneven exposure or direct cellphone flash when it suits the scene. A professional lighting setup was not the goal.
- 02
Readable environments
Keep kitchens, markets and tables in focus. The setting carries part of the story.
- 03
Imperfect framing
Allow off-centre subjects, overlaps and incidental crops that feel captured in the moment.
- 04
Independent actions
People cook, taste, talk and observe. Their expressions and gestures do not need to match.
- 05
Natural texture
Keep variation in skin, ingredients, clothing and working surfaces. Avoid the overly finished image.
- 06
Context before spectacle
Direct food, preparation methods and surroundings around the experience being represented.
04 / FROM BRIEF TO PROMPT
A prompt with
a memory.
Every generation carried the scene’s requirements and the lessons from its reviews.
The workflow assembled the production-sheet data, visual references and feedback by image ID. An agent prepared individual prompts and batches; art direction set the criteria.
01 / INPUTS
Production briefCity · menu · casting · action
Visual referencesReal kitchen · camera language · apron
Review historyDecisions · corrections · preserve / avoid
02 / ASSEMBLY
One image ID.
All its context.
Agent-assisted compilation keeps the facts, references and accumulated feedback together.
03 / OUTPUT
A specific prompt.
- Scene & people
- Food & preparation
- Kitchen & local details
- Apron & brand reference
- Camera language
- Changes & elements to preserve
DESTINATION STUDIES
One system.
Different places.
CIR_FIN_COOK_001_CA / BRAZIL
Brazilian breakfast
- Menu
- Tropical fruit, smoothie, pão de queijo, broa and coffee.
- Casting & action
- Assigned tourist group, identifiable instructor and breakfast preparation. Distinct gestures and points of attention.
- Kitchen & local details
- Real Brazilian kitchen reference when supplied; blender, utensils and a used cloth consistent with breakfast preparation.
- Preserve the brand
- @avental / Cook in Rio. Preserve fabric, cut, straps, pocket and embroidery.
Read the assembled prompt
CONDENSED EDITORIAL EXAMPLE
Generate a casual participant’s cellphone photograph of a Brazilian breakfast class in Rio de Janeiro. Use the real kitchen reference when supplied. Show breakfast preparation with tropical fruit, smoothie ingredients, pão de queijo, broa and coffee. Keep the assigned casting and a recognisable instructor, with independent actions and natural overlaps. Preserve the Cook in Rio apron from @avental. Keep the room readable, the framing incidental and the light ordinary.
FEEDBACK → REGENERATION
Change the issue.
Carry the brief forward.
Automation helped prepare the next generation request. The original scene constraints stayed attached; new images returned to human review.
- 01 / REVIEWImage + feedback
Decision and specific notes linked to the ID.
- 02 / COLLECTRecover context
Brief, references and accumulated review history.
- 03 / UPDATERevise the prompt
Change the issue; state what must be preserved.
- 04 / GENERATENew candidate
Generate with the menu, scene and brand criteria intact.
- 05 / DECIDEHuman evaluation
Keep, set aside or request another direction.
New feedback returns to the next prompt.
PRESERVED BETWEEN ROUNDS
- Destination
- Menu
- Casting
- Kitchen reference
- Apron design
- Photographic criteria
05 / THE APPROVAL PLATFORM
The interface that
held the process together.
A custom review experience connected the client’s choices to the next round of production.
The platform made the collection navigable through an approval sequence: establish the visual templates, compare candidates within each experience, record the choices and move into final imagery. The project checklist made completed, current and locked stages visible.
This was a core deliverable. The client could inspect an image, compare alternatives, select a preferred direction and leave feedback against the relevant photo. Image IDs and review history connected those decisions back to the production brief and prompt workflow.
UI ELEMENTS RECONSTRUCTED FROM THE PRODUCTION PLATFORMLOCAL INTERACTIVE STUDY
ILLUSTRATIVE STAGE
Cooking Classes,
compare before
you choose.
0 selected2 remaining in this stage
PROJECT CHECKLISTApproval by stagesTemplates → final imagery ⌄
TEMPLATES
CookUnder review
Food CrawlLocked
Tasting SessionLocked
Fruit TastingLocked
BBQLocked
Drinks ClassLocked
Seafood BBQLocked
FINAL IMAGERY
CookLocked
Food CrawlLocked
Tasting SessionLocked
Fruit TastingLocked
BBQLocked
Drinks ClassLocked
Seafood BBQLocked
MarketLocked
Option 02
Option 03
Adapted interface excerpt. Images and selection states illustrate the flow; choices stay in this page and do not change the production platform.
01 / A SHARED SEQUENCE
Templates establish the direction before the definitive-image stages. Locked states make the next dependency visible.
02 / COMPARE, THEN SELECT
Alternatives stay next to each other. A green outline and selected state make the client’s choice explicit; the progress indicator tracks the remaining selections.
03 / FEEDBACK BELONGS TO AN IMAGE
A comment becomes
a production instruction.
The image card keeps the destination, experience and image ID alongside the actions to comment and evaluate. That identity carries through the review history and into the next prompt.
CONDENSED FEEDBACK EXAMPLE
Keep the kitchen readable. Give each participant a distinct action. Preserve the correct apron reference.
For the next round, those notes are combined with the original menu, casting, location and brand constraints. The workflow preserves the brief while addressing the specific problem.
06 / CURATION & SELECTION
Choosing what
belongs.
Approved and rejected images reveal the photographic criteria behind the selection. These are independent scenes, not successive versions of the same photograph.
Too polished for the brief.
The coordinated smiles, orderly setting and ideal light pushed this direction toward conventional advertising. The brief prioritised the feel of a real participant’s cellphone snapshot over compositional beauty or professional polish.
Participation over performance.
The selected direction centres on the activity: participants learning to prepare food around a working kitchen counter.
07 / SELECTED IMAGERY
Consistency
without repetition.
Shared photographic rules. Different moments, environments and ways of experiencing food. All imagery in this selection was produced with generative AI and directed through review and refinement.
08 / OUTCOME & LEARNING
AI generates.
Art direction decides.
A repeatable approach to producing a coherent visual library across different culinary experiences.
The work connected real-location references, menus and casting to prompt generation, image production and a shared approval interface. Feedback could inform a new generation without losing the destination, the brand references or the photographic brief.
Authenticity required intentional choices, including the choice to make an image feel less polished.
Generative AI made the images possible.
Creative direction made them believable.
