Anton Burmistrov unlocks a new world of typography design with Adobe Firefly

Some creators play it safe. Others are committed to learning and evolving. And then there are those like Anton Burmistrov, who play by their own rules. Inspired by the limitless possibilities of generative AI, the Estonian designer who is based in Valencia, Spain, developed a new form of design called Recursive Approach that allows him to turn existing shapes into any object imaginable.

The experiment also earned a 2024 Adobe MAX Creativity Award, impressing judges with its creative and unconventional use of Adobe Firefly, our family of generative AI models and services. Recursive Approach continues to evolve, providing graphic designers around the world with an AI-powered magic wand that can help them bring their wildest typographic dreams to life.

“Growing and improving as a designer means obtaining new skills. For me, that means developing my 3D design capabilities and applying them in unlikely ways,” says Burmistrov. “Type has traditionally been a challenge for AI models, but Firefly can read shapes and apply my prompts in ways no other model can, which makes it perfect for this project.”

From orthodox beginnings to the Wild West of design

Burmistrov’s first exposure to art was a far cry from the digital designs he creates today. His father was a restorer for the Eastern Orthodox church, so he grew up surrounded by classical oil paintings and religious antiquities.

But he quickly branched out. Burmistrov would go on to take drawing lessons and attend art school as a teenager, which eventually led him to earn a degree in graphic design from the University of Greenwich in 2011. Upon graduating, he joined the world of branding and advertising and hasn’t looked back since.

“As designers, branding clients trust us to sculpt the wisp of an idea and some rough guidelines into something meaningful,” says Burmistrov. “The result is either a massive success or fizzles into nothing. It’s stressful but also makes the job incredibly rewarding when we get things right.”

Meanwhile, Burmistrov sees advertising as a “Wild West niche” of creativity. While many specialists stick to tried and tested creative methods, great advertisers treat every new brief as an opportunity to experiment.

Revolutionary designs inspired by happy mistakes

More recently, Burmistrov’s love for experimentation inspired him to dive into the world of generative AI. He began to experiment with Adobe Firefly in early 2024 and immediately appreciated how generative AI could help him create and visualize designs in new ways.

Recursive Approach was a prime showcase of Burmistrov’s talents as a creative problem-solver and his willingness to embrace new technologies. To create the unique lettering for the project, he fed black-and-white structural references and style guides from Adobe Illustrator, online images, and his personal photography into Firefly and used simple text prompts to bring his design ideas to life. Burmistrov then edited the outputs from Firefly manually to create original reference images that now sit in his ever-growing typographic library.

Recursive Approach was a near-immediate success. What started as a branding exercise to see whether designers could use tone-of-voice as a prompt for generative AI models became a ground-breaking approach to type that continues to make waves across the graphic design community. As the judges of the Adobe MAX Creativity Awards noted, Recursive Approach elevated basic vector design to a genuine typographic art form.

While developing, testing, and refining AI prompts for Recursive Approach, Burmistrov was delighted by the “happy mistakes” that Firefly returned. These unexpected outputs often led him to rethink and adjust his design concepts. He is an avid fan of Alex Trochut, a respected artist known for developing new typographic styles based on “accidents” that happen during his design process, and Burmistrov adopted a similar mindset when developing his revolutionary take on 3D typography.

Driven by a desire to create

Burmistrov continues to push new boundaries with generative AI. For instance, he has begun using Adobe Firefly in his client work and to develop his own design briefs. That includes unique concept graphics like Yum Tongue, which Burmistrov developed as part of his video tutorial series, Design Academy. In addition to sharing his knowledge and insights with fellow designers, studies like Yum Tongue reflect the increasingly ambitious nature of Burmistrov’s most experimental work.

Reflecting on the past whirlwind year, Burmistrov encourages other artists in his field to be fearless, especially with today’s technologies making graphic design more accessible than ever. “An idea is the result of a desire to create something,” he says. “If you’re possessed by that desire as an artist, all you have to do is take the leap and see where things go. And of course, have fun along the way.”

Learn more about Anton Burmistrov and his game-changing graphic design methods on Instagram or his website.

Check out the full list of 2024 Adobe MAX Creativity Awards honorees on the Awards webpage.