Miami-based app founder Igar Tali
Ilgar Tali and his company, Smartist, are unique in an art world that struggles to leverage technology. As a child prodigy artist in Baku, publicly exhibiting his work before the age of 16, Tali still recognized the power of technology from a young age, playing around with Photoshop and the early days of the web. Eventually, he married the worlds of graphic design and advertising with his aesthetic, UX and finally AI.
“As my exploration expanded into web development, I realized my true passion was anchored in the visual components, especially in crafting user interfaces,” he wrote.
Then he moved to New York.
A mock-up on the app
Intending to work as an artist in the United States in 2014, Tali used Instagram to experiment with showing his art in various interior settings. But he was immediately faced with challenges in the digital landscape that he realized applied to many others in the industry.
“Creating art mockups was time-consuming and tedious,” he explained, “Involving searching for suitable images, ensuring their usability, and mastering tools like Photoshop.”
The challenges of this experience “planted the seed” for Tali’s app, Smartist, to simplify this process industry-wide. Art is placed in situ using AI, empowering artists and designers to increase sales using cutting-edge technology.
App design
The seed grew during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tali left New York for Miami, and where he was able to launch the first iteration of Smartist in April 2021.
To Tali, craft and consciousness are synonymous, and he allows the technical aspects of backend work to provide art with purposeful mission…and profit.
“Historically, artists’ primary struggle has been selling their art and making a sustainable living from their craft,” he determined. “…many artists have part-time jobs to support their art careers.”
Smartist endeavors to empower artists to succeed and continue their creative pursuits by using time-saving enhancement products, deliberately intended for sales growth. Of course, art valuation is subjective, with challenges of market dynamics and personal tastes rendering a uniform aesthetic or criteria list nearly impossible. Conversely, artistic integrity cannot be compromised by changing trends.
“Artists frequently find themselves in a delicate dance — striving to stay true to their artistic vision while navigating the realities of a market-driven environment,” explained Tali, pondering industry obstacles.
Although Smartist is not magic, the “double-edged sword” of AI is breaking new ground and allowing rapid innovation.
Phone-friendly UX
Tali expertly expounded on this:
“The evolution of AI is inevitable, and it’s more pragmatic to embrace it as an ally rather than fear it. Generative AI, in particular, has the potential to revolutionize the creative process by accelerating it, enhancing human creativity with new ideas and concepts, and, significantly, offering artists with disabilities alternative norms of creation.
The impact of AI on the job market is often summed up in the saying, ‘AI won’t take your job, but someone using AI will.'”
Tali bravely forged Smartist without angel investment, convicted in his vision. The app has since garnered over 800,000 downloads by artists and art professionals from 175 countries since its launch, with a goal to pass 1 million.
In the future, Tali hopes Smartist will collaborate with the myriad institutions of Miami’s thriving art scene. But whatever happens, the product and technology behind them stand alone.
