About Brand Candy Creative
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Our Story (ft. AI)
We know you can't wait to hear all about us, but first, we think it's critical to address the elephant in the room—the big, AI-shaped elephant. Essentially, after tons of debates, links sent back and forth, and dipping our toes into the waters that are modern GPTs, we decided that AI is here to stay. Those who choose not to use it due to moral reasons are inspirational. (We still don't use it for writing actual content.)
But in today's fast-paced digital world, we decided we could either sit this one out and wait for the AI to catch up with us or blossom alongside the bots to harness the true power of AI, creating stunning stock photos that cater to diverse needs. After all, we both possess deep knowledge of graphic design, share a slight obsession with Pinterest, and have a love for all things aesthetically pleasing.
Our AI-generated images offer unique, high-quality visuals that are significantly more affordable than the thousands of dollars you could easily spend on a single photoshoot. To accomplish this, we first began by researching and reading (we researched and read a lot). Then, we took online courses, we learned all about how to wrangle the beasts that are AI tools to our specific wants and needs, and then, we made a bunch of God-awful, warped images (at best).
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But with each passing day, our vision for this business became sharper, and our images improved significantly.
When we couldn't edit a botched image with our training, we turned it over to Photoshop and edited it until it looked just right. We proudly stand by our work and its quality.
Not only are our images aesthetically pleasing, but they are also ​easily accessible, making them a smart choice for you (unless you want to learn how to tweak prompts for multiple language generators and use Photoshop, or hire someone who can). Together, the two of us make an incredible team, and we want to join yours as well. We genuinely care about the small businesses that have already trusted us throughout our training process, and now we're excited to cater to a broader audience.
About Amelia & Jackie
Have you ever met someone randomly and later looked back to reflect on what your life would have been like if you had never crossed paths? I, (Amelia), can wholeheartedly say that my life would have been filled with much less humor, creativity, warmth, empathy, and deep, genuine friendship if I hadn't met Jackie. Fun fact: we actually met online while I was her editor at a digital publication. We both attended UNCW for our undergraduate studies, but we missed each other by a year. It wasn't until I was in graduate school at Syracuse University and was editing a health article she had written that we became friends.
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Anyway, long story short, 10 years later, Jackie is stuck with me. And I'm really glad. She and I have been planning to start a business for a long time now, but the timing was just never quite right, or our ideas had proven too complex, or we'd burned out. That's what I love about AI; if I can imagine scenes (yes, even everyday scenes) that others can't, or haven't yet, then the possibilities are endless and open.
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That shouldn't be confused with my saying that learning to create images with AI was easy. I've done a lot of graphic design work over the past decade, and it's much easier for me to create without prompts. What made it all worthwhile was working with Jackie (she's Gen Z and definitely leaned in harder to AI than I did at first).
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She's brilliant. Like, actually a marketing genius. She always has new ideas bubbling, and she's extremely charismatic and easy to talk to. She and I both have chronic illnesses and have struggled finding work-life balance when working regular 9-5 hours (I'm a night owl, she's an afternoon Starbucks frequenter).
When I pitched this idea to her for her to be my co-founder, I had to laugh to myself a little when she suggested that maybe I should find someone who could invest more time than she could. The girl is whip-smart, and as I told her, if she weren't my co-founder, I would have to do this alone.
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Thank God, she agreed.
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​Xx, Amelia
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