To hate, or not to hate AI, that is the question many creatives ask themselves. Yet at November’s Upscale Conference by Freepik in sun-drenched Málaga, that tension gave way to humanity, gratitude, and connection. Across two days of talks and workshops, speakers and attendees wrestled not with whether artificial intelligence will change creativity — it already has — but how craft, taste, and collaboration can anchor us through the transformation.
“Every renaissance begins in crisis,” said co-founder & CCO of Wonder Studios Justin Hackney in his keynote. “This is the modern fear echoing through history and time. AI is the transformation into the next renaissance of meaning.” It’s a compelling idea: that we are not witnessing the death of creativity, but its rebirth. Upscale pulsed with that energy, a gathering not of alarmists, but of artisans. As Hackney framed it, “What gives something meaning? We do. People do. Humans do.” Málaga, with its bright coastal air and centuries of layered history, felt like the perfect setting for such a dialogue. The city’s fusion of old-world craftsmanship and new-world optimism mirrored the creative industry’s current crossroads.
For independent interdisciplinary designer Andrea Mata, the conversation begins and ends with craft. “AI in a vacuum is boring,” she said. “It’s the craft, taste, and hours of creative knowledge that we bring to it that make it interesting. AI cannot replace the creative. AI replaces the process.” Her statement echoed a sentiment that surfaced repeatedly: tools evolve, but the creator remains. The camera certainly threatened the painter, Photoshop intimidated the photographer, the computer unsettled the graphic designer, but the common denominator has always been craft. Design, after all, is built on creativity, taste, humanity, and critical thought — the things no algorithm can replicate. Craft is the new rebellion. But rebellion, it turns out, is nothing new to creatives.
That intersection, where human intention meets machine capability, was the real heart of Upscale. The newly announced Freepik Spaces, demonstrated by the company’s Chief Experience Officer, Martin Leblanc, offered a glimpse of how this collaboration might evolve. Billed as a shared environment for creatives to co-create, remix, and iterate, Freepik Spaces merges generative AI with collaborative design workflows. I asked Freepik’s CEO and co-founder, Joaquín Cuenca, what he thinks the next creative rebellion might look like and what role Freepik might play in it. “I can’t speak to how technology will be different in 100 years,” Cuenca said, “but I can say what will remain the same: people’s curiosity and inventiveness.” In that spirit, Freepik Spaces aims not to replace the designer but to extend their reach, to make AI less of an isolated engine and more of a communal workshop. Its launch captured Upscale’s essence: a platform built for collaboration, not substitution.
Still, amid the excitement, conversations at Upscale never ignored the ethical and environmental weight of this moment. Of course, ethics and environmental concerns matter, and it’s up to us in this new digital era to pave the path and set the protocols. Yonatan Dor of The Dor Brothers cut to the core: “1984 on steroids,” he warned. “How do we regulate the deepfakes, propaganda, and weaponization? Technology doesn’t need to be policed — it’s us who need to be policed.” His call for “values over profit” resonated in a room full of designers grappling with their role as both creators and curators of visual truth.
AI’s champions often call it a democratizer of creativity, yet several speakers challenged that assumption. Not everyone, they reminded us, has access to high-speed internet, a powerful computer, or even a safe, creative environment. The entry curve is steep. “AI is a privilege,” Andrea Mata noted. “Let’s not take it for granted or abuse it.” The takeaway: if AI truly expands creative opportunity, it must also expand access. That means diversifying teams, investing in education, and ensuring that the next generation of creatives doesn’t inherit a landscape defined by inequity.
Iván Garriga and César Pesquera of creative studio Caapsai reminded us that friction builds greatness and tension between analog and digital, human and machine, isn’t a problem to be solved but a condition to be embraced. “It’s our humanity that will guide us on this journey,” they said. “This is the rebirth of the creative industry.” That spirit of productive friction fueled projects like Gen:48, a short-film competition where teams have just 48 hours to ideate and execute a 1- to 4-minute film, and Runway TV, a retro TV station showcasing AI-created short-films and series. In both, the question wasn’t “Will AI replace us?” but rather, “How can it help us see differently?”
The word craft floated through every conversation, but what does it mean today? Craft has been defined as a combination of technical skill, strategic creativity, care, attention to detail, and commitment to producing a high-quality product. “Making things by hand” is a notable piece of the Oxford dictionary definition. No definition mentions the tools. Whether we craft with code, clay, or computation, what matters is intention. AI, in this sense, is simply the latest medium — a new brush, a new lens, a new language.
To hate or not to hate AI misses the point. The real task is to shape it; to lead with intention and meaning. As Hackney reminded the audience, “We are humans exploring these new tools, trying to find new ways to connect, collaborate, and come together.” At its best, AI doesn’t diminish the creative act; it deepens it. It asks us to interrogate our values, refine our taste, and assert our humanity through design. It invites us to balance speed and soul.
“Learn. Create. Repeat.” might as well be the creative mantra of the decade. As I left the golden light of Málaga, the streets alive with the hum of conversation, the future of creativity felt less like an uncertain battleground and more like a collaborative invitation. The tools may evolve, but the craft endures. The next renaissance won’t be powered by AI alone. We will power it: the curious, the intentional, the beautifully human.
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