Hi! There’s not a lot of depth to this post but I’m glad you’ve found your way, anyway 😄

I knew I wanted to create something fresh to replace my outdated digital presence but I didn’t know where to start. No clear direction, no colors, no theme – just that vague itch that something new should exist.

It was while “itching” my leg (literally) that I remembered: I had a tattoo there. A sugar skull. So I opened Google Photos, found an old photo, and decided to use ChatGPT to help make something fun out of it.

I uploaded the image and asked it to make a logo out of it. The first version came back clean and vector-like.

Next, I asked it to use some traditional colors – “What if it had colors like sand, orange, red, and green?” These kinds of warm, earthy tones often show up in Día de los Muertos artwork and Mexican folk design, which felt like a good visual starting point given the tattoo’s origin.
A minute later, there it was – bold reds, leafy greens, warm highlights.

I’ve always had a thing for orange and purple together, so since I was just goofing around anyway, I asked it to generate a couple more versions.

At this point I felt like I had enough direction to get started. I wasn’t looking for a finished product, just a bit of momentum – and the prompts gave me enough to react to and shape into something of my own.

The result is what you’re looking at right now: a simple aesthetic (the black-and-white vector) that echoes my actual tattoo, with a touch of the colors I explored along the way.

That small moment of progress reminded me why fast, imperfect, prototypes are so valuable – even outside of the realm of code that I normally traverse.

Why This Kind of Experiment Works

It wasn’t about replacing design work; although that would have been great considering it’s not a muscle I use very often 😄
Back in day, I used to rely on searching the internet for inspiration and creating a mood board to get a sense of what color palette I want – followed by napkin sketches to get an idea of what layout I need. This time, I typed some ideas into a box and got instant inspiration (I’m a prompt-master, btw).

Prototyping like this isn’t about polish. It’s about movement. Getting unstuck from the blank canvas and seeing what resonates. If I had opened a design tool first, I probably would’ve spent an hour nudging a grid before picking a single color. Instead, I started with something personal – a tattoo – and let AI help me play with direction and mood until something resonated.

I’ll be honest with you (it’s almost taboo for developers) but I haven’t coded this myself. Because I had an idea in mind already, I was able to browse WordPress themes and find something that would work. It’s not entirely what I had in mind, but the momentum I got from the GPT interaction made me curious about what else I could achieve in a short amount of time and create a minimal lovable product.
If I can stick with writing, then I can always tinker more in the future.

If you’ve tried something similar – or want to – I’d love to hear how others are using this kind of prototyping to come up with ideas. Feel free to reach out to me on X/Twitter – but fair warning, it’s about as active as a parked domain.