The project is based on the Metlach.
Affordable tiles featuring the mosaic patterns of grand St. Petersburg to finish the apartments of its residents or for collecting antique designs.
It offers the opportunity to feel connected to the city’s culture and overall aesthetic, even when living in its less historical districts.
It preserves the ornamentation of St. Petersburg in the everyday life of its residents.

Branding Metaphors
Print—a confirmation of belonging to the city’s culture. It references the dry pressing technology used in production.
Indistinct printing—a sign of repeated losses and restorations.
Semi-transparent and concrete textures are used.


Rebranding through the eyes of AI
logo
Generation in the Recraft AI neural network.
// Create a logo for a brand called metlach, 18th century collectible metlach tiles, sophisticated style, print effect, white logo on a solid black background in a semi-circular shape, minimalism style.
Recraft AI
The typeface was identified using What Font Is.
What Font Is
colors
The color palette was also generated in Recraft AI, and the visual noise was cleaned up in Photoshop with an eraser.
// Create a vector color palette for branding with 4 colors from black to white in the rhombic shapes in a horizontal line. Strict style
Recraft AI, Photoshop
product
The product’s exterior design, for the quarry tile, was created using the Stable Diffusion XL neural network, which excels at generating patterns and motifs.
// Metlach tile
Stable Diffusion XL


Stable Diffusion XL
posters
Episode 1 — The Brand Spirit
The first series of promotional posters, expressing the brand’s restrained, antique spirit, was created using Leonardo AI.
// realistic photo of promo poster with a metlach tile for a brand called «metlach». the style is based on black prints that echo the pattern of 18th-century metlach tiles and textures: translucent tracing paper and gray concrete.


Leonardo AI
Episode 2 — Product Pattern Highlights
The second series, which captures the consumer’s attention with striking, interesting patterns on the quarry tile, was created by generating several parts of the poster using different neural networks and then assembling them in Photoshop.
- Twenty variations of the product’s appearance were generated in Stable Diffusion XL, from which the most successful patterns were selected.
// Metlach tile // Colorful metlach tile
- A minimalist caption was generated in Ideogram, designed not to distract from the main focus—the tile.
// The poster has the text «metlach» slightly extended upwards, followed by «decoration of your apartment with metlach pattern». Minimalism style
- In Photoshop, the two resulting generations were combined and adjusted using the «free transform» tool to fit a single poster size. Various compositional options were considered—varying in detail and complexity—using both a single tile and multiple tiles.
Stable Diffusion XL, Ideogram, Photoshop


Stable Diffusion XL, Ideogram, Photoshop


Stable Diffusion XL, Ideogram, Photoshop
Episode 3 — Contextually Integrated Product











