Melissa Garlington

Work & Play

Typedreams: an image library for creatives

How can we make high-quality AI imagery accessible, searchable and commercially usable for creatives?

Role: Founder & Product Designer | Timeline: 2023 – Present | Platform: Web App • Shopify

Focus: Product Strategy • UX/UI Design • AI Workflows • Branding • Growth

The Challenge

The explosion of AI image generation created a new problem.

Designers were spending more time writing prompts than actually designing.

Every project started with searching, generating, regenerating, organising and exporting assets.

The creative process had become fragmented.

I saw an opportunity to build a curated image library where creatives could instantly download production-ready AI imagery instead of starting from scratch every time.

The Opportunity

Rather than competing with image generators, I wanted to complement them.

Typedreams provides ready-to-use assets for:

  • Product Designers

  • Graphic Designers

  • Marketing Teams

  • Agencies

  • Content Creators

  • Small Businesses

Every collection is commercially licensed and curated around real design workflows.

Understanding the Problem

Through conversations with designers and my own experience, I identified three recurring pain points.

Finding quality images takes too long.

Most designers browse multiple stock websites before finding something usable.

AI outputs are inconsistent.

Generating images often requires dozens of prompt iterations before reaching a usable result.

Licensing creates uncertainty.

Many AI-generated assets lack clear commercial licensing, making them difficult to use professionally.

Growing the Platform

Since launch, Typedreams has grown into a library containing:

  • 500+ curated AI images

  • Commercial licensing

  • Growing collection catalogue

  • Customers across multiple creative industries

  • Organic traffic through SEO

  • Community-driven growth through social media

(Replace with actual numbers if you have them.)

Beyond the Product

Building Typedreams meant designing far more than a website. It required creating an entire product ecosystem including:

  • Brand identity

  • Design system

  • Marketing website

  • Content strategy

  • SEO

  • Email campaigns

  • Social media

  • Affiliate programme

  • Customer onboarding

Every touchpoint was intentionally designed to build trust and encourage repeat customers.

Challenges

One of the biggest challenges wasn't creating images—it was creating consistency.

Every new collection needed to feel like part of a cohesive product rather than a random assortment of AI-generated artwork.

This required establishing visual standards, naming conventions, quality criteria and a scalable publishing workflow.

What I Learned

Building Typedreams taught me that successful AI products aren't defined by the technology, they're defined by the experience surrounding it.

The real value wasn't generating images.

It was reducing creative friction.

By curating, organising and packaging AI-generated assets into a simple workflow, I transformed an overwhelming creative process into a product that helps designers move from idea to execution much faster.

Melissa Garlington