I have worked with designers for many years, and they have always been right about one thing: the first draft is never the right one. That still holds now that AI makes the draft.
Here is a trick that works surprisingly well in Claude Code and Codex: always ask for 5 versions of your design at once. Five different directions, instead of 1 draft you can tweak.
One of them is usually very good. Then you point at it and say: give me five variants of that one. And it gets better again.
It is the same mechanism that has always produced good design: iteration.
The mistake I see most often is product people asking AI for one design and then fixing the commas in it. That is like hiring a designer and only letting her draw one sketch.
Five versions of Knud for Mac
Version 1: warm classic
Version 2: dark gallery
Version 3: bento command centre
Version 4: editorial brutalist
Version 5: the bulletin board
Try it on the next page, component or landing page you need: five versions, pick one, five variants, pick again. It takes ten minutes, and you will see the difference.
Best, Martin
