In early 2023, we were preparing visuals for WorldDAB’s Auto 2023 conference, being held in Paris. The Eiffel Tower is not just a global icon, it's also a large broadcast tower. I’d been reading about AI image generation and decided to test it, more out of curiosity than expectation. The brief was simple:create an image of the Eiffel Tower made of blue neon light, on a black background, with rays emitting from it.
The result was rough, surreal and strangely beautiful. It looked like an idea caught mid-thought. I shared it with the client, expecting it to stay a reference point. Instead, they loved it. That single image, created with Midjourney on a Discord server, became the visual centrepiece of the event.
People often talk about AI replacing creative work, but in this case it created more of it. To make the image production-ready, we worked with a digital artist to enhance the resolution, refine the detail and prepare it for large exhibition panels. The AI gave us the spark; craft made it credible.
Looking back from 2025, the attitudes feel very different. What began as an experiment now sits comfortably in everyday creative practice. The suspicion remains, but so does the fascination. That first neon Eiffel Tower was proof that new tools don’t replace imagination; they expand it.
Read the full WorldDAB case study here.
