In a bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, I stumbled upon a coffee table book that pulled me deep into the kind of world I often find myself chasing in movies and art—Futuria: Art of the Sci-fi Age. It’s a curated collection of illustrated universes imagined by digital artists using tools like Photoshop, Procreate, and Blender. The book is structured around three “portals,” or visual genres: the neon-drenched chaos of Cyberpunk, the weathered desolation of the Post-apocalyptic, and a more clinical, utopian Artificial future. For me, the first two hit hardest.

In an age where attention is fleeting and audiences are increasingly immune to traditional advertising, the most effective brand stories are the ones that don’t feel like marketing at all. They feel like cinema. And not just any cinema—but the kind that stays with you, that dares to be gritty, intentional, and emotionally resonant. The kind of storytelling A24 has mastered.

In today’s saturated digital landscape, brands are constantly looking for ways to stay top of mind without overwhelming their audiences. One of the most enduring and strategic principles for managing content comes from Ogilvy & Mather: the idea of stock and flow. While it’s often attributed to the world of digital publishing, Ogilvy & Mather applied this concept masterfully to advertising content long before it became a buzzword in content marketing.

As they say, sometimes it just makes sense… even when it doesn’t. That, in a nutshell, is the magic of 'girl math.' If you’ve spent even a few minutes on TikTok or Instagram lately, you’ve likely stumbled across this playful phenomenon—where buying something on sale is technically saving money and returning an item feels like earning it back. On the surface, 'girl math' is lighthearted fun, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll find a fascinating intersection of psychology and consumer behavior.

Until now, people have been incredibly accurate when distinguishing AI-generated faces from human faces.  However, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) is making it possible to create synthetic human faces that are closer and closer to being true to life (photorealistic), so much so that it's incredibly hard to spot the difference.

In an age defined by instant gratification and endless choices, the story behind a product is quickly becoming as important as the product itself. More than ever, consumers are asking questions that go beyond price tags and brand names. How was it made? Who made it? What materials were used, and what impact does its creation have on the world around us?