Mar 19, 2026
Creativity
A Year of Bili
summary
24 seasonal headers a year, one character, and what designing against AI's defaults taught me about keeping a character, and a culture, true to themselves.
Design Lead, AI illustration (freelance) · 2026 to present · with the Bili team · about 68 finished headers so far, rotating twice a month without a developer
The short version
Bili greets every child on the app's home screen. Twice a month, Bili changes to match the season.
I planned and produced that calendar: 24 scheduled headers a year, plus alternates, seasonal fillers, and "anytime" Bilis, about 68 so far.
AI makes the volume possible. The planning, the cultural judgment, and the hand finishing make it Bili.
The challenge
A home screen that never changes stops being seen. The team wanted Bili to feel alive: celebrating what kids are celebrating, noticing the weather, the monarchs, the first day of school. That meant a new, on-model illustration every two weeks, forever, for a small education team.
And these aren't neutral images. Bili is in public schools across Texas, California, and Florida, used by families of many faiths and backgrounds. Every header had to be joyful for one child without leaving out the next.
Planning a year, not a picture
Before generating anything, I built the calendar: a bilingual catalog in Figma that maps the whole school year, September to August, two slots a month. Every card has a Spanish and English title, a short cultural note, and a red flag for anything that needs care.
The calendar is where the real decisions happen:
Choosing what to celebrate. Día de los Pueblos Indígenas (Indigenous Peoples' Day) instead of Columbus Day. Lotería (a bingo-style card game), Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), Día del Niño (Children's Day), Mother Language Day. Monarch season, stargazing, fireflies.
Designing alternates. Not every district celebrates Halloween, so October has an ALT: Bili in a monarch-butterfly costume, which honors the fall migration and works for every school.
Being specific. Bili's New Year isn't generic confetti: Bili holds 12 grapes and a suitcase, two Latin American traditions for good luck and a year of travel.
Planning for gaps. Seasonal fillers cover any week of a season, and "anytime" Bilis tie into sections of the app, like a Bili building the word SOL (sun) for the word game, or hugging an alpaca for the animals unit.
Not every district celebrates Halloween, so October has an alternate that works for every school.
Anytime Bilis, tied to sections of the app.
Keeping Bili, Bili
Every header starts from the original illustration and a character sheet built from it. The rules never change: the same face, curly hair, warm brown skin, embroidered shirt, patched jeans, and espadrilles. Only the season changes, through the props, a costume layer, and the scene around Bili. Each one is made full-body, so it works whether the app shows a bust or the whole figure.
The original Bili.
Bili's character sheet, built from the original.
Bias shows up by default
The biggest lesson of the year wasn't about prompts. It's that bias shows up by default, every time, unless you design against it.
What drifts
Left alone, image models pull toward a generic idea of a cartoon kid. Skin tones creep lighter from one generation to the next. Curly hair loosens. Cultural details flatten into something that could be from anywhere: a vague "festive" outfit instead of a specific one, confetti instead of a tradition.
None of this happens dramatically. It happens a little at a time, which is exactly why it's easy to miss.
Designing against it
A few habits made the difference:
Anchor to an artist's hand. Every header starts from the original Bili and a character sheet built from it, so the model is working from one Bili, not its idea of a kid.
Lock what can't change. The face, skin, hair, and core outfit stay fixed; only the season, props, and scene change.
Check skin tone on every image. Not on the batch, on every single one. Then fix it by hand when it slips.
Be specific about culture. Specific details are harder for a model to flatten than generic ones. A tradition holds its shape; 'festive' doesn't.
Decide the culture before generating anything. The planning (what to celebrate, for whom, and what needs an alternative) happens in the calendar long before any image exists.
Año Nuevo (New Year) and Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead).
The workflow
Plan. Pick the moment, write the cultural note, flag anything sensitive, decide if it needs an alternate.
Reference. Start from the original and the character sheet, so the model is anchored to one Bili, not its idea of a cartoon kid.
Generate. A prompt template locks the character and the drawing style; only the season, props, and pose change. I generate a handful of options and pick the strongest.
Fix by hand. Hands, faces, and outfit details drift, and skin tones creep lighter. I correct every image until it matches the original Bili.
Test in the app. Each header goes into a home-screen mockup at the real crop, next to the learning path, before it's final.
Prep and hand off. Full-body on a transparent background, at a consistent size, ready to schedule. The team reviews each batch.
Ship. The header rotates on schedule, twice a month, without a developer.
What a year looks like
September.
October.
November.
Fall fillers.
December.
January.
February.
Winter fillers.
March.
April.
May.
Spring fillers.
June, July, and August.
Summer fillers.
The part that stays human
AI made it possible for a small team to have a new, on-model illustration every two weeks. But the judgment (what to celebrate, how to show it, and whether this image looks like the kid it's for) is the work. It doesn't get faster, and it shouldn't.
What I learned
The calendar is the design. Choosing what to celebrate, and for whom, mattered more than any single image.
Start from an artist's hand. Everything holds together because it's anchored to the original illustration. AI extends a style; it shouldn't invent one.
Bias shows up by default. Models drift toward lighter skin and generic culture unless you design against it, every time.
More from this project
Original Bili by illustrator Maried. Calendar, AI illustration, planning and hand finishing by me.
