Vectoria

This project explores the aesthetics of vector graphics using generative AI. Rather than producing true SVG or EPS files, the images in Vectoria mimic the formal qualities of vector design through Flux’s text-based rendering engine. Unlike traditional vector software, Flux does not allow for precise path editing or pixel-free resolution. Instead, it interprets written prompts and attempts to simulate the look of vector art within the limitations of its visual system. These constraints became part of the project’s logic: embracing flat compositions, rejecting texture, and treating colour as structure. The result is a synthetic homage to digital drawing—where artificial intelligence reconstructs the aesthetic of Illustrator from language alone. These are not technical diagrams or branding exercises, but visual artefacts: speculative outputs from a machine trained to imitate design.

Vector graphics emerged in the mid-20th century through military and engineering systems such as the SAGE radar interface and Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad (1963), the first graphical user interface. Unlike raster images, which rely on pixels, vector graphics are instead constructed from mathematical curves and coordinates, making them infinitely scalable—ideal for typography, logos, and CAD. Software like Illustrator and CorelDRAW brought these capabilities to mainstream designers in the 1980s and ’90s, defining an aesthetic of smoothness, clarity, and control. Vectoria, by contrast, embraces the inexactness of generative AI. It can mimic vector graphics, but not construct them. What we see is an illusion of precision—an approximation rendered in convincing disguise.

Within these limits, the project finds its identity. Every image uses flat RGB colours—primary, secondary, and tertiary hues chosen for their digital clarity—and avoids gradients or texture that would suggest rasterisation. The motifs are minimal: the male form, stylised flowers, abstract geometries and text. Each piece borrows from the languages of illustration, branding, and graphic design—yet belongs to none of them. At its core, Vectoria is a celebration of surface and simplicity. It’s about simulating the aesthetic logic of vector graphics using AI as a generative tool. The works that emerge are not precise enough for a client brief, yet far too exacting to be accidental. They exist somewhere between blueprint and poster, between digital craft and artificial play. If you detect a hint of queerness, all the better for it.