Free guide · the taste layer

The Build With AI Playbook — make AI build things that don't look AI

You can spot AI-built work instantly. So can everyone else. Here's the method that stops you getting the average: direction + references + correction + taste.

Built for Day 14 · Building With AIDuplicate it · use it as a checklist

First, the problem

You can spot AI-built work instantly. The tells:

The font. The same friendly geometric sans on everything. If it defaulted to it, it's a tell.
The layout. Centered hero, three feature cards, the same section rhythm every time.
The gradient. Purple. Always purple. Or a soft pastel blob floating behind everything.
Emoji icons. The fallback when the model doesn't know what else to put there.

None of this is a model problem. It's an input problem. The model gives you the average of everything it's seen — because you asked it for the average. Generic in, generic out. Here's how to stop.

The method — 4 steps, in order

1. Know what you're building first

Don't ask AI to make something from scratch. That's how you get the average. You decide the direction; the AI executes it. Before you generate anything, answer: what is this exactly (one sentence)? Who's it for? What feeling should it give? What does it explicitly not look like?

Prompt to run first — before any generation

Before you build anything, ask me 5 questions to understand what I actually want — the purpose, the audience, the feeling, the references, and what it should NOT look like. Don't generate until I've answered.

That one move kills 80% of generic output. You're directing, not delegating.

🔒 Unlock the rest of the playbook

Read steps 2–4 + the tools, free

Drop your email and the full playbook opens right here — nothing to download.

The references system (where to pull them, what to never copy)
The "treat it like an intern" correction loop
How to actually build taste
The one Claude Code skill that upgrades everything (with the install command)

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✓ Unlocked — here's the full playbook.

2. Give it real references

The single biggest lever on quality. AI has no taste of its own — you lend it yours through references. Where I pull them:

Pinterest — broadest. Search the feeling + the medium ("editorial website design", "brutalist landing page").
Dribbble — UI / product design specifically. Higher signal, more polished.
Behance — full case studies and brand systems when you want depth.

The rule: don't reference anything that already looks AI. No purple gradients, no floating blobs. Pick work with a clear point of view. Save 5–10 strong references, then feed them in.

Prompt

Here are 5 reference images [attach]. Don't copy them — extract the design language: the type treatment, the colour discipline, the spacing, the overall feeling. Then apply that language to what we're building.

3. Treat it like an intern

The AI doesn't have the answers. It's guessing. A talented intern on day one — capable, fast, but it needs direction and correction. So never accept the first output. Correct it like you'd correct a junior:

"The headline font is generic. Make it heavier and tighter."
"Too much purple. Black, white, and one accent colour only."
"This section is weak — the alignment is off and the cards don't match. Redo it."
"I don't like the emoji icons. Use a real icon set or none at all."

Every correction is the actual instruction. The 3rd or 4th pass is where it starts looking like yours. The shortcut that changes everything: ask it to show you options, not describe them.

Prompt

Mock up 3 versions of this on a single page so I can see them side by side. I'll pick one, then we'll refine it.

You can't judge a visual decision from a text description. Make it render. Choose with your eyes.

4. Build taste

The hard one. AI can execute taste — it can't have it for you. If you can't tell good from average, no prompt will save you. The good news: taste is trainable. How I built mine:

Save everything good you see. Build a swipe file. When something stops your scroll, save it and ask why.
Study the best, not the trending. Awwwards, Brand New (underconsideration.com), top design studios — not whatever's viral this week.
Copy to learn, then diverge. Rebuild something you admire to understand how it works. Then make your own call.
Develop opinions. "I don't like this" is useless. "The spacing is too tight and the type is fighting the layout" is taste.

The one-line summary

Direction + references + correction + taste. Skip any one and you're back to the purple gradient.

Bonus — the tools I use

The Front-End Design skill for Claude Code (Anthropic). The biggest single upgrade. It pushes Claude away from generic AI aesthetics — the purple gradients, the default fonts — toward distinctive, production-grade design with real typography, creative layouts, and thoughtful animation. Install it (one command in your terminal):

npx -y skills add anthropics/skills --skill frontend-design --agent claude-code

That drops it into your project's .claude/skills folder. Then just build as normal and tell Claude: "Use the front-end design skill to build this. Direction: [brutalist / editorial / premium SaaS / etc]." It outputs working HTML/CSS/JS or React with the design baked in. Pair it with steps 1–3 above and you're a long way past anything that looks AI-built.

References: Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance (gather), Awwwards + Brand New (study).
The side-by-side trick: always ask Claude to mock up multiple options on one page so you choose visually, not from text.

Built this for Day 14 of Building With AI. If it was useful, the rest of the series is at @alixqureshi.