Brands lean into human creativity as handcrafted art becomes more of a luxury in the age of AI

The sound of pencil putting lines to paper. The geometric shapes of a cartoon animal before it comes to life on the page. Those were the opening shots of a teaser for Prada’s 2026 holiday campaign, which introduced a series of films made “using the anachronistic craft of hand-drawn animation,” working with longtime Disney animator John Pomeroy. “I learned my craft with pencil and paper, old-school analog drawing with pencil and paper,” Pomeroy, who left Disney in 2003, says in the teaser video. It’s that kind of skill that some artists say has become a greater asset than ever. In the age of widespread and accessible AI, artists say they’ve noticed more brands leaning into handcrafted art as a selling point.

In recent weeks, the luxury fashion houses Prada and Hermès touted their human-made art projects in social media campaigns — even tagging the artists behind the work to showcase their authenticity. Alina Golovlova, a stop-motion artist in Prague, said that recently, she has felt that her work is actually “appreciated more than in previous years” as brands try to separate themselves from the AI content flooding the internet. “In previous years, I felt like I was just some hired content creator. No one really cared to tag me or make a [collaborative post],” Golovlova said. “And I think now