[ELARA'S POV]
Brandon Chen wanted robots.
Not actual robots. He was very clear about that during our second meeting at a coffee shop in SoHo that served sixteen-dollar lattes in hand-thrown ceramic cups.
"People think AI equals robots. Terminator. Ex Machina. Black Mirror dystopia bullshit." He pushed his thick-framed glasses up his nose. Kid was twenty-eight but looked nineteen. Wore a hoodie that probably cost more than my first car. "I need to change that visual language."
I'd brought my tablet with initial concepts sketched out. "What if we flip the expectation? Instead of hiding from the robot aesthetic, we lean into it but make it beautiful. Elegant. Human."
His eyes lit up. "Show me."
