AGE OF UNCERTAINTY

Flaws as Features

Design is meant to communicate who you are without words. To make people feel something. And what people value, now more than ever—is authenticity. 

But authenticity, in the age of AI, doesn’t look like polish. It looks like presence. 

After years of flat vectors and pixel-perfect mockups we want something real. Something with texture, with friction, with humanity. Evidence that something was touched, handled, shaped by a human. Smudges. Scratches. Flawed lines. Imperfect kerning. These aren’t errors, they’re signs. Signs that a choice was made, a risk was taken, a trace was left.

This is a reframing of what we value: not polish, but presence. 

This is why Gen Z is flocking to 'chaotic’ custom sneakers and hand bags, messy girl aesthetic is in, and candid photography is celebrated. It’s also why designers are increasingly embracing tactile visual cues like grainy textures, uneven lines, and fingerprint-like etches. And brands like Instagram, Oatly, Uoga Uoga are embracing human gestures. Typography that feels scribbled. Imperfect little dents that show intention. And swipes and swishes that show humanity through motion. 

IMPERFECTION IS THE NEW DISTINCTION 

This is what we’ve coined ‘imperfectly perfect’. Design that chooses character over polish. Work that shows evidence of a human behind it. These imperfections aren’t flaws to hide, they’re signs of authenticity. 

And this was the philosophy behind the redesign of Altos Tequila. Altos is a brand steeped in craft and tradition. A brand rooted in such rich heritage didn’t need pixel perfect visual expression. What it needed was a celebration of its Mexican heritage and the people behind it. The bartenders, the crafters, and the makers. So we doubled down on the human hand.

We collaborated with Alina Kiliwa, a Mexican rotulista, to hand-paint authentic signage and influencer kits. We also brought in photographer Anna Lorenzana to capture brand photography rooted in real daily life in Mexico City, not a Midjourney-concocted fantasy. Even the label’s texture references papel amate, bark paper used in traditional Mexican folk art. 

What we ended up with is a rebrand that captures the artistry of Mexico’s local makers with vibrant rótulo-inspired visuals, a hammered-glass bottle, and a design system that pulses with cultural realness.

Every detail communicates one thing: this was made, not manufactured. A story of connection in a world of ‘perfect’ design. 

DESIGNING WITH MEANING TODAY

So, what does intentional imperfection look like? It’s about making choices that leave a human trace. Cues that don’t just add texture, but create moments of connection that feel real.

Embrace Wabi-Sabi. The Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-Sabi celebrates imperfection. Seeing the beauty in asymmetry, the chipped bowl, and uneven texture. Embrace Visual cues like smudges, grain, imperfect borders. Organic typography, hand-rendered shapes, uneven kerning. 
Design for touch. Irregular surfaces, raw materials and irregular physicality makes people feel something in their hands. Makes them linger a little longer to the feeling of something different to the sea of uniform packs on shelves. 

Show your seams. Allow people a chance to play, remix, and reinterpret the design of your product. When you invite participation. It becomes something people want to play with, not just passively consume.

Design for moments of delight. AI is built on predictability. Real life isn’t. Introducing moments of surprise and human spontaneity creates emotional punch. Use unexpected compositions, irregular textures, or improvised elements to break the algorithmic rhythm.

LEAVE TRACES, NOT TEMPLATES

The danger isn’t AI itself. It’s the way brands are using it. Too many see it as a shortcut to pixel perfection. But the result is polish without presence, output without origin. The irony is almost comic: in an age where machines can do anything perfectly, it’s imperfection that feels, well, new. Imperfection is evidence of care. A mark of effort that now feels premium. 

Now is the time for brands to take risks, leave traces, and design work that feels like someone made it.

Because someone did.