A Playful Illustration: From AI Experiments to Final Artwork

Design work can be a lot of things—strategic, detail-oriented, technical. But every now and then, a project comes along that’s just random and fun.

A while back, I was asked to create an illustration for the 426th Aero Squadron. The main direction from the client? Make it “goofy.” They also happen to love dogs, which immediately sparked an idea in my head: a dog flying an airplane.

Letting AI Kickstart the Ideas

Sometimes in design, the challenge is narrowing ideas down. This time, the challenge was seeing how far I could push a silly concept and still make it work.

To get the ball rolling, I experimented with AI tools like Adobe Firefly to generate a handful of concept variations. If you’ve ever used AI image tools, you know they can produce some… interesting results. In some versions the dog had a few extra paws, and in others the airplane looked like it might fall apart mid-flight. Not exactly ready for print, but honestly, pretty entertaining.

Even with the mixed results, AI is incredibly useful at the early concept stage. It’s a fast way to explore visual directions, collect inspiration, and start building a loose mood board before jumping into straight into anchor points and Bézier handles.

From Idea to Illustration

Once I had a direction I liked, I moved into Adobe Illustrator to create the final illustration from scratch. That’s where the details really came together: bold colors, oversized aviator sunglasses, and a tongue flapping happily in the wind as our pilot cruises through the sky.

The Random (and Awesome) Side of Design

Projects like this are one of my favorite parts of being a designer. In the middle of detail-oriented work, branding guidelines, and layouts, there are occasional opportunities to make something totally unexpected—like a dog flying an airplane.

And honestly, those are the challenges that remind me how much fun design can be. 🐶✈️