Speeding up, amplifying, and making the final project more readable. Valentino Parlato, Coordinator of the Design Courses at Arsutoria School, explains: “AI shortens timelines, but creativity and technical knowledge remain the human part of the work.” This is the vision guiding the school’s footwear and bag design courses: integrating advanced tools while maintaining solid foundations in drawing, technical knowledge, and digital design. It is from this strong base that AI becomes a true ally.
Workflow and tools
“A drawing that used to take up to an hour can now be rendered in two clicks, freeing up time to rethink, review, and improve the idea,” Parlato explains. AI tools enter the workflow with a clear purpose: not to generate ideas “from scratch,” but to speed up time-consuming tasks and allow students to focus on creative decisions. The first key step is the rendering phase, which follows traditional hand drawing and digital sketching. By uploading a detailed digital drawing and adding material references—such as leathers and textiles—into the prompt, tools like Vizcom and Gemini 2.5 Flash generate photorealistic images of the product, making it possible to explore multiple material and color variations.
The next step is professional post-editing. AI-generated renders are refined in Photoshop to correct lighting, stitching, metal components, and other technical details that artificial intelligence often fails to interpret correctly. “This is where human expertise comes into play,” the coordinator summarizes. “Without a trained technical eye, it would be impossible to understand whether what AI produces is actually feasible.”
The workflow is completed in the Branding and Collection Development module. During moodboard creation, students use Photoshop’s AI features—such as automatic background removal and Generative Fill—to quickly assemble inspirations and visual palettes. For dynamic content, students also experiment with Meta AI, which allows them to create short videos from images, enhancing final presentations with animated content.
Finally, the course introduces Newarc.ai, a platform that generates high-quality images, supports negative prompts, and enables product visualization on virtual avatars, simplifying product presentation without the need for real photography. The platform also meets high standards of security and compliance in data management, which is why it is known to be used by major sportswear footwear brands.
Irreplaceable Skills
Creativity and technical ability remain irreplaceable. On one hand, artificial intelligence does not diminish the importance of product culture— on the contrary, it makes it even more crucial. Parlato explains that AI often imitates forms seen online and adds: “If you delegate creativity to AI, you get a collage of images or elements taken from the digital ecosystem or from existing products. That will never be innovation.”
On the other hand, these tools generate images without understanding real construction logic. “AI can produce a credible-looking product, but if you don’t understand how shoes or bags are built, you can’t tell whether what you’re seeing is actually feasible.”
Case Study: Gabriel Robustelli
A concrete example of the effectiveness of this approach is the final project by Gabriel Robustelli, a graduate of the Shoe One-Year Diploma. His project began with a hand sketch, later developed digitally in Photoshop through the addition of materials, textures, and visual references.
For the rendering phase, he used Vizcom, uploading both the digital drawing and a collage of materials. The tool generated realistic interpretations of the concept, perfectly suited for presentation. Not satisfied with stopping at static renders, Gabriel chose to bring his footwear to life using Higgsfield, an AI platform for video creation. The result was a virtual runway featuring avatars, transforming the project into an immersive experience.
The combination of traditional technique, digital design, and AI made his collection clear, credible, and perfectly suited for both portfolio presentation and personal branding.
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