Pablo Stanley at Touch RGB

Touch RGB is the first digital design festival, featuring technological innovations, international speakers, and showcasing important experiences in the design sphere. We invite Pablo Stanly, a designer, entrepreneur, and co-founder of Antrepreneurs and Musho, to the Design Institute's blog.

Pablo, your journey as a designer and entrepreneur, culminating in the creation of Musho, must have been filled with fascinating twists and turns. Could you take us through some of the key moments that shaped your path to founding Musho?

Yeah, it's been a while, right? And I think there's always been curiosity that gets us to different places, and just the ability for a team to be nimble and adapt to different things that the market needs.

We have had to keep learning and keep growing together to just create stuff that just doesn't exist. It's so cool to work on stuff that no one else is doing. But at the same time, that makes it hard because there's no place to go and look at and see what others are doing and see solutions that others have solved.

So, that puts a lot of pressure on ourselves to do a good job. But the team is amazing at finding solutions for all that stuff. Also, just on the business side, finding the right partners, finding the right investors has been, we've been lucky to find people who have been supporting us through our journey as we go through this.

And yeah, I think it's just luck and determination at the end. And trusting your team and that they can figure it out.

The title of your talk at Touch Festival, "The Dunning-Krueger Effect in Design," piques curiosity. How does this psychological phenomenon intersect with the world of design, especially in the context of Musho?

I don't know if it's exactly with the world of design, but mostly it's about just a journey. A journey into discovery and a journey of high confidence, and a lot of energy; and then, arriving to a place of failure and deception and feeling like you cannot do it. But then, just like any hero's journey and an adventure of a person that is going through different challenges.

I think our team has been able to go through that process of feeling really excited about something and failing, and then learning from that failure to do something better. And that's our journey explained with the Dunning-Kruger effect. The Dunning-Kruger effect has been just something that we have seen that is just common in our journey as entrepreneurs, as people who build tools and who are curious about learning new things.

We get excited about something first. We get really confident and we do something, and we take a journey and we take those first brave steps with a huge cap of ignorance. But that's good because you want that courage, you want that braveness in the beginning before you realize that, oh my God, you didn't know anything in reality. This was more complex than you thought, but it's good to not know how complex things are in the beginning. Because maybe you wouldn't even try them. You wouldn't even take those first steps if you knew how complicated things are.

So it's good to be ignorant in the beginning, because you get to that place where you have to really, really learn something.

So these are just going to be three stories explained with that journey of the Dunning-Kruger effect in which we have tried different things as a creator, artist, and designer.

Design and AI seem like an unbeatable duo in today's tech-driven world. How has Musho harnessed the power of AI to amplify creativity and streamline the design process?

Musho is becoming a tool that different creators use to get a project started quickly. It doesn't do everything a designer will do, which is like the finer details, the bringing a design to excellence. Musho just accelerates that process and helps the designer get there quicker and not just quicker, but also try different things in a quicker way.

I think when you're exploring something new, a new design, a new company, a new brand, or even when you're just working with something established, but you want to iterate on the things that you can create on something new, usually that process can bring the blank canvas syndrome, where you don't know where to begin. There are so many options that you could take, so many paths that you can take, and it's hard to even take that first step. It's scary. And Musho makes it easier to not just take one step, take multiple steps, and make mistakes, and try different things, and see what is the thing that works and what doesn't in a quicker way.

So it helps the designer just feel more confident about taking those first steps and feeling confident about failing and being okay with that failure because you can easily take it in a different direction with Musho, because you can just ask it to take a different direction, and it will try its best to follow your prompt, follow the context, and follow a brand. But after that, it's the designer who now Musho takes them to that 70 percent of the way, and then that extra 30 percent is a designer just like working on the finer details, pushing those smaller copy changes or pixel moves that will make a design shine.

In your demo, "Discover Musho," attendees will witness the magic of creating stunning landing pages in seconds. Can you give us a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes process of developing Musho's AI-powered functionalities?

When using Musho, we'll be able to see how you can get started with a blank screen and quickly design something amazing that looks close to what your prompt tells the little robots to do.

Now, Musho on the other side, how it works on the back. It works very similar to how a design team would work. It's a main designer, your lead designer, who is listening to your request and then from there, it just goes and talks to other little robots who specialize in different things: one specializes in copy, another one in photography, finding the right images for the design, for the project; and another one in everything related to layout and composition.

So, these little robots work together to create something unique, something that didn't exist before, in a matter of seconds.

Touch Festival is poised to bring together design luminaries from around the globe. What are you most excited about regarding this digital design extravaganza?

I'm thrilled to be part of Touch RGB! First, because it's a melting pot of brilliant minds in the design world—getting to share space with folks like Fonz Morris, Cleber De Campos, and all the other incredible talents is just inspiring. What excites me the most is the opportunity to dive deep into discussions about UI/UX, Generative Design, and Immersive Design. These themes are at the heart of where design is headed, especially with AI and new media shaking things up. Beyond the talks and panels, I'm looking forward to the hands-on workshops and the Design Bootcamp. It's one thing to talk about design, but another to roll up your sleeves and create alongside others passionate about shaping the future. Plus, networking in such a vibrant atmosphere—I can't wait to see the collaborations and ideas that emerge I'm ready for it.”

Apart from Musho, you've held design roles at Lyft and InVision. How have these experiences shaped your approach to entrepreneurship and product development?

Those experiences gave me a unique perspective on both, the power of collaborative design and the impact of user-centric product development. At Lyft, I learned the importance of empathy in design—not just understanding users' needs, but truly feeling them. This experience taught me that successful products solve real problems in intuitive, accessible ways. At InVision, being at the forefront of design collaboration tools, I saw firsthand the magic of empowering teams to create together seamlessly, no matter where they are in the world. These experiences have been instrumental in shaping my approach to entrepreneurship with Musho. They instilled in me a deep commitment to building products that not only delight users but also foster collaboration and creativity among teams, reinforcing my belief that at the heart of great product development is a profound respect for the user experience and a relentless pursuit of innovation in service of community and collaboration.

Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring designers and entrepreneurs looking to make their mark in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape?

Embrace curiosity and resilience. The digital landscape is constantly changing, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Stay curious about new trends, technologies, and user behaviors. This curiosity will fuel your growth and innovation. And, be resilient. You’ll face setbacks and failures, but these are just stepping stones on your path to success.

Focus on solving real problems for real people. Understand your users deeply and design solutions that truly meet their needs. And remember, collaboration is key. Surround yourself with a diverse team of thinkers and doers, as different perspectives will enrich your work and help you overcome complex challenges.

Lastly, never stop learning. The digital world is vast and full of opportunities to expand your skills and knowledge that can guide you to make a meaningful impact.

Interview by Nini Papashvili

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