“For me, it’s fascinating where things are going, the speed of change, and where technology is taking us,” says Andrew Holben, director of marketing and sales for Thompson Traders, which specializes in luxury products for the kitchen, bath and home.

Designers can use AI to create images of truly custom products for their clients, but getting a manufacturer to produce those designs can be a challenge.

“You can’t create a product from AI out of thin air,” says Thompson’s director of communications, William Cook. “You can’t go to any manufacturer for a one-off, but our artisans can do it.”

The company’s Tailor-Made Custom Design Program allows and encourages unique designs, and their artisan metalsmiths have the flexibility to mold designs into existence using hand tools over an open fire.
Thompson’s leadership decided to approach Leslie Carothers—interior designer, digital marketing innovator and principal of Savour Partnership—with an experiment to test how this age-old tradition could adapt to changing conditions using an AI-designed sink as the example. The result is a fascinating contrast of the newest technology being paired with some of the oldest artistry in the world.

“Juxtaposition is the right word to use in this case,” William says.

“Given that robots and machinery can make just about anything these days, Thompson understands the subtle nuances that artisanal makers can add to any product, making it truly unique and one of a kind,” Leslie says. “They are willing to explore new ways of showcasing how designers can offer consumers bespoke creations that can be sold via a designer’s own website.”

Leslie spent three hours with Midjourney’s artificial intelligence bot, exploring text prompts and the visuals each prompt produced.

“Creating a text prompt is very easy—it’s your brain, your imagination, and an image appears out of that,” she describes.

Her main text prompt? Shell. And even for fun: mermaid. “I was curious what that one would be like!” says Leslie, who lives near the coast and wanted to create a biophilic design.

Ultimately, she delivered four concepts to Thompson. Reviewing the images, Thompson determined that three of them would not be producible, as they would require casting, and the fourth—which happened to be Leslie’s favorite—would be brought into existence.