The use of artificial intelligence has become increasingly normalized, even within the creative industry. Whether you’re scrolling through social media or glancing at posters, there’s a good chance that artificial intelligence played a role in creating what you see.
Although technology may have taken over our daily lives, Freddie Öst, founder of the Stockholm-based creative agency Snask, took the Graphika Manila 2026 stage to deliver a blunt provocation: the future of branding is not found in an AI prompt, but in the messy reality of the human hand. Freddie argues that while the world relies on shortcuts by using AI, true emotional impact remains a physical craft.
The ‘complex wine’ theory
During his keynote, Freddie explained that grapes grown in perfectly controlled, modern conditions can never become “complex wine,” as they lack the depth that comes from surviving harsh conditions such as frost and wind. The design parallel is clear: branding that is “optimized” by algorithms to please everyone often ends up pleasing no one.
Freddie, taking the analogy further, said, “Just like us humans. If you’ve had trauma or a hard life, you become a fine, complex wine.”
Authenticity as a power move
Many agencies rely on 3D rendering or AI to save time, but at Snask, physical production remains a power move. Whether the goal is to build a massive man-cave or a professional puddle-jumping set, the creative agency makes it a point to create a tactile, visual world that feels seamless because it is grounded in reality. One of the examples he presented was Snask’s work for Klarna, in which AI and 3D were avoided altogether. Instead, every set and every element in the set were created by hand.
“Nothing is made with AI. Nothing is made with 3D. Everything is built by hand,” Freddie revealed. He even recounted the logistical nightmare of bringing a real horse on stage, arguing that such challenges led to “crazy visions” that digital tools cannot mimic.
Authenticity still thrives
Freddie concluded the session with a challenge for creatives to stop being “hungry” for corporate approval and start being “thirsty” for authentic expression. He used an analogy to drive the point home: “If marketing is asking someone out on a date, branding is the reason they say yes.”
He warned that if your brand identity is a Machu Picchu Photoshop — a fake digital construct built by AI prompts rather than real soul — it will eventually fail the reality test.
As he approached the end of his talk, Freddie gave simple yet sound advice: “Being in touch with your emotions is more important than you think.” For him, staying human is key to surviving digital overload.
In a world full of automated perfection, the most valuable currency is human friction. By choosing the long road of hand-built production and emotional vulnerability over the results of AI, Freddie has proven that design is not about satisfying a data set, but about creating a vision that resonates with the soul. In an era where everyone is trying to optimize their output, perhaps the boldest thing a creative can do is to stay real and remain thirsty for authentic connections that only a human heart and a human hand can create.
adobo Magazine is an official media partner of Graphika Manila 2026.
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