Glenn Batkin

Advertising first

Glenn Batkin describes himself as having had "an illustrious career as an award-winning Creative Director / Art Director in advertising", shaping brand stories, before curiosity pulled him into AI imagery^[2]. He lists SUNY Buffalo, Parsons and the School of Visual Arts on his LinkedIn, where he goes by Creative Director, Art Director and AI Artist, and he is based in New York^[1]. He has not published the agencies, clients or awards from those years, so this page names none.

He is also a photographer. Dream Prompts, which featured him in October 2024, notes his street photography and his close-up images of butterflies, and he keeps a separate photo portfolio^[7]. On AI LIVE, Chris Branch calls him a legend in the advertising space^[18].

A curiosity called Midjourney

He started working with Midjourney in August 2022^[7]. On AI LIVE he has named Midjourney's version 4 as his magic moment with AI, the release that made it click^[13]. His portfolio site, artificial-imagination, went up with its first gallery in January 2024, opening with a series of anti-fur posters^[4].

AI is the bridge between the known and the uncharted, where innovation and imagination converge.

Glenn Batkin^[2]

He works concept first. He told Dream Prompts that the idea drives the execution rather than the tool, and that he avoids a single signature style so each project gets its own visual language^[7]. For some pieces he writes the prompt like a film treatment, with action, setting, lighting and composition; for others he starts from a simple visual reference or a style reference. He researches museum collections and art books to get period terms right, and he iterates: "Rarely does perfection emerge on the first pass"^[7].

The visual twist

His signature is one flipped idea carrying a message. A rabbit wears a fur coat. A snow leopard presses its paws together in prayer above the line "Survival shouldn't require a miracle." A gorilla huddles in a blanket on a subway bench. A child sleeps inside a glass revolver, and a seahorse is built from washed-up plastic^[4][5]. Most of these point at animal welfare, the environment or homelessness, and on AI LIVE Chris called him one of the best in a small community making work for non-profits and animal causes^[16]. Brand and charity names in the galleries are mostly his own concept work rather than commissions. One real one, a 2023 anti-fur campaign for the International Anti-Fur Coalition made with Daniel Jay and a small team, was reposted on X by curator accounts in France and Poland, with 3,800 and 1,912 views^[34][35].

Sometimes the twist goes real. When the AI action-figure trend filled LinkedIn with people turned into boxed toys, Glenn made extinct animals instead, each one missing from its own blister pack. It went viral, and a charity took it up as an official campaign^[16]. Lürzer's Archive lists it as Freedom For Animals Empty Packs, with Freedom4Animals.org as the client, in its online selection for issue 230^[32]. The idea travelled well beyond his own feed: the French ad-curation site Creapills shared it on X, where that post has 6,716 views^[33]. AI LIVE has used it ever since as the example of a spec idea turning into the real thing^[12]. Away from causes, the Hill Street Gallery in Catskill, New York represents his AI illustration, and he made posters for its annual Winter Solstice event^[22][6].

Into motion

By 2024 and 2025 his portfolio had a motion page as well as the galleries^[3]. On AI LIVE, Chris noted that Glenn, like his friend Eric David, had done more print and image work than video spec ads^[25]. The motion reel is a run of concepts: The Last Witness, a Netflix sci-fi pitch about sentient AIs left to steward human knowledge after climate collapse; Loaded Words, on cyber-bullying that follows teenagers home; a felted, stop-motion look for Best Friends Animal Society; a green plastic toy soldier at an office desk for the Wounded Warrior Project^[3].

Three pieces build the gallery-object look he is best known for in motion. The Boxer is a wind-up robot fighter under a spotlight, inspired by the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "Steel"^[29]. The Private Life of Objects is a fictional MoMA teaser for kinetic sculptures that never move the same way twice^[30]. The Mashup Museum runs on one rule, that history is remixable, and puts porcelain classical figures on superbikes^[31].

Real campaigns

On 20 March 2026 he posted Confronting Factory Farming for Freedom for Animals, working with Hanna Yael Gabay: animated portraits of a pig, a bull, a rabbit and a chicken, open-mouthed against flat yellow, ending on the line "Factory farming is cruelty made routine."^[9][16]. It was a real campaign rather than spec. Chris played it on AI LIVE Ep. 115, said it gave him Animal Farm vibes, and closed with "Glenn is one of the best of the best."^[16]. He also lists earlier Freedom for Animals work, Made Homeless by Humanity, as selected for Lürzer's ARCHIVE^[6].

Vibe directing

On 1 July 2026 he posted a 19-second 2028 Olympic trailer: athletes in black and white, traced in red, yellow and blue light, closing on the rings and the year^[10][20]. He made it by bringing his own images to OpenArt's director agent and steering the mood and movement in conversation. "It doesn't feel like prompting anymore," he wrote, calling it "vibe directing with a creative partner"^[10].

Less about writing the perfect prompt. More about having the right creative conversation.

Glenn Batkin^[10]

AI LIVE picked up the post as a news item in Ep. 124 and played the trailer in Ep. 125^[19][20]. Chris gave it a 1, Andrew Davis said it could open a BBC sports show, and the chat voted eight 1s, one 2 and one 3 while Glenn watched. Chris's reaction made it the phrase of the week: "Everyone talks about vibe coding. Can we talk about vibe directing, please?"^[20].

A day-one viewer

Glenn is one of AI LIVE's longest-standing viewers and a regular in the live chat^[12]. In November 2025 Chris gave his experimental series Metamorph Protocol a proper showcase in Ep. 98^[11]. In January 2026, at Artlist's studio preview in New York, Chris finally met Glenn and Eric David in person^[12]. Weeks later the two surprised him with a birthday video in the style of Neural Viz, starring Chris's Tiggy character^[14][24].

His one-line verdicts are part of the show. He called Paul Parsons the goat, win or lose, and Simon Meyer the king of the spin^[17]; he and Eric pitched an AI band story as an AI Spinal Tap^[27]; and on Creator Sessions he called Phil Langer's Icarus Rising one of the most engaging pieces^[26]. On a voice-agent ad in Ep. 122 Chris noted that getting a 1 from Glenn is a serious thing^[18], and in Ep. 114 he called Glenn probably one of the top 100 people he knows doing AI^[15]. By autumn 2026 Glenn and Eric were working on a project together in Canada^[28][21].

Recognition

Brian Sykes named him in his Top 100+ AI Creatives on LinkedIn in January 2025, and Dream Prompts made him a Featured Artist in October 2024^[8][7]. He lists two more honours that we could not confirm with the organisers: inclusion in Lürzer's ARCHIVE 200 Best Digital Artists 2025, and CHOICE DAO's AI 70 Movers and Shakers of 2026^[6][1]. He also reports speaking on an ASMP New York panel on AI in photography, with Sherry Horowitz and Big Al Gruswitz^[6].