Joshua DurhamLet's work together

Independent campaign-planning product · 2026

AI Creative
Director

Coaching a rough idea into an effective campaign, then holding the final brief until the strategy is sound.

Product designUX strategyAI workflow designFrontend engineering
Wide view of the current AI Creative Director Copy stage comparing a rough visual hook and working copy with the Creative Director's edits, critique and suggested rewrite
The Copy stage keeps the rough draft, critique and proposed rewrite visible together.
Role
Product design, UX strategy, AI workflow design, prototyping and frontend engineering
Product
Private-repo app that people run with their own OpenRouter connection
Current flow
Brand → Idea → Message → Copy → Bundle → Designer Brief
V1 boundary
Campaign decisions and a professional PDF, not generated production artwork

The problem

Most AI tools rush to generate. This one knows when to stop.

AI Creative Director moves a user from a rough promotional idea or prepared content toward one campaign focus, one call to action, concise copy, a specific visual hook and a coordinated deliverable set. The product advances only when strategy and execution direction are complete, visible and explicitly approved.

Six gates turn source material into an approved designer brief.

Each stage has a distinct decision. Progress is earned through visible approval, not a persuasive response.

  1. Brand

    Voice, color, type and supplied logo files

  2. Idea

    An early concept or prepared content

  3. Message

    One focus, one promise and one call to action

  4. Copy

    A visual hook and concise hierarchical copy

  5. Bundle

    Exact deliverables, sizes and production roles

  6. Designer Brief

    Approved direction in a portable PDF

Current Brand stage showing the campaign workflow navigation, brand voice fields, color fields and optional typography
The working navigation keeps the full campaign path visible while each gate holds its own approved state.

Before campaign work, the model must prove it can do the job.

A user connects OpenRouter, chooses a model and completes live capability qualification before the planning workflow unlocks. Credentials remain user-owned and are not packaged with a campaign.

Current initial AI Creative Director screen requiring an OpenRouter connection before campaign work begins
ConnectThe workspace stays locked until OpenRouter is connected.
Current AI Creative Director model qualification panel with a selected model and the Verify capability button clearly visible
QualifyA live focus-and-CTA task verifies the selected model.

Coaching, gates and approval

The model suggests. The application governs. The person decides.

A user tries to put a fall menu, a loyalty-app launch and a weekend discount into one flyer. The persistent Creative Director identifies three competing jobs, prioritizes the urgent offer and refuses to advance until one focus and one call to action are approved.

Current production UI with demonstration campaign content. The closed gate is application-owned.

Current persistent Creative Director chat separating three competing campaign messages and refusing to advance until one focus is approved
Not yet. Coaching can recommend a direction, but it cannot silently approve it.
AI suggests
Qualifies, carries context, critiques and proposes focused direction.
The application governs
Owns gates, approval state, specifications, persistence and export.
The person decides
Supplies source material, edits the work and approves the evidence.

Current evidence includes live model qualification, application-owned gates, persisted approvals and the generated six-page brief. Structured usability sessions are the next validation step and are not represented as completed research.

Start with what is known. Approve what changes.

Propose beside.
Never overwrite.

AI can organize, critique and suggest. The user owns the campaign.
Current prepared-content intake with optional message, call to action and existing content fields
Source materialAn early idea or prepared content enters the same approval flow.
Current Message stage comparing the user's campaign focus and call to action with a suggested revision and explicit approval controls
Explicit approvalKeep, edit or approve. Editing reopens the decision.

The Frisco ISD material shown here is demonstration content used to exercise the workflow. It is not presented as a client engagement or endorsement of this product.

Every deliverable has an exact size and a specific job.

Recommended presets and custom deliverables can be combined, renamed, resized, selected and persisted. The final brief records production specifications instead of offering a vague channel list.

Current Bundle stage showing recommended deliverables with exact pixel and print dimensions
Selections carry exact dimensions into the same approved campaign package.

Stop where AI stops being professionally useful.

Image-generation testing exposed a review loop that could identify problems without making the work production-ready. V1 removed the prompt handoff and generated-image review. The approved visual hook now becomes direction for a human designer.

  1. V0

    Generate the whole campaign

    The first concept extended into model-specific image prompts and generated-artwork review.

  2. Test

    Find the professional boundary

    Image generation remained inconsistent, while review could identify problems without resolving them.

  3. V1

    Stop at an approved brief

    The product now ends with decisions, specifications and a portable human-designer handoff.

Archived earlier AI Creative Director version showing the discontinued image-model prompt handoff and Review stage
Removed from V1The earlier workflow handed model-specific prompts into a generated-image Review stage.

The culmination

A Designer Brief that can leave the app.

The workflow ends with approved campaign direction, exact production requirements and a recoverable six-page PDF for a human designer.

Current Designer Brief stage confirming approved focus, copy, visual hook and deliverables before the PDF is downloaded
The app saves the campaign snapshot and keeps the approved brief available for re-download.
Cover page of the generated Fable and Oak Designer Brief PDF
Approved cover
Creative direction page showing approved campaign focus, call to action and visual hook
Creative direction
Designer Brief deliverables page with exact sizes for an Instagram post, Story and A5 flyer
Exact deliverables
Designer Brief production requirements page with QR placement and preflight checks
Production checks

Less AI theater. More effective work.

Persistent coaching sharpens the campaign, enforced gates preserve authorship, and the final artifact gives a human designer approved direction instead of overpromising production-ready AI art.