Overview

A short R&D exploration focused on generating high-realism food imagery using AI. The goal was to test how far current tools can reliably produce “commercial-grade” visuals, and what direction + constraints are needed to reach consistent results.

Challenge

Food is one of the hardest categories to generate convincingly. Small errors in texture, lighting, and ingredient structure instantly break realism. I wanted to explore how to control those variables while keeping outputs usable for brand and marketing contexts.

Approach

I treated the process like a creative direction exercise: defining a consistent visual style, testing prompts and iteration methods, and refining outputs against a realism checklist (lighting, depth, surface texture, ingredient logic, and photographic believability).

Outcome

A small set of food visuals that feel close to professional photography, demonstrating how creative direction and design judgement shape AI outputs into something usable for brand and marketing contexts.