AI Design Merge for Symbols: Apply Structural Changes While Preserving Style
In symbol-based workflows (common in apparel and accessories), designers often create multiple variations of the same base illustration.
Typically: One version introduces a design change (e.g., updated shape or component)
Another introduces a style change (e.g., color or material)
There is currently no efficient way to merge these selectively across symbols.
Proposed Feature:
An AI-assisted “Design Merge” tool that compares two objects or symbols and allows users to selectively merge:
Structural changes (geometry, proportions, components)
Appearance attributes (color, stroke, effects)
Example:
Symbol A: square pocket, black
Symbol B: rectangular pocket, pink
Desired result:
→ square pocket, pink
Katy Kirby
shared this idea
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Thanks for asking for a more complex example — sharing one here to better illustrate the workflow.
In this scenario:File 1 contains two versions of the same symbol:
a base design
and an updated version that introduces structural changes (e.g., pocket shape, seam placement, proportions)File 2 contains multiple color variants of the original design, where each variant has its own unique distribution of color across different regions of the garment
Goal
Apply the structural updates from File 1 across all variants in File 2 while preserving each variant’s existing color logic.Why this is difficult today
The challenge is not just transferring shapes — it’s maintaining the relationship between structure and color across multiple variants:When geometry changes (e.g., pockets or seams), the underlying regions that define where colors are applied also change
Each variant has a different color layout, so the result cannot rely on a single shared appearance
There is no way to automatically detect how updated structural elements should inherit or map to the correct color regions in each variantThis results in a highly manual process:
Rebuilding or re-mapping color regions for every variant
Reapplying fills and details individually
Repeating the same update across all colorwaysDesired capability
A workflow that can:Compare two related design states (original and structurally updated)
Detect and apply structural changes to a target set of variants
Preserve each variant’s existing color placement, even when the underlying geometry has changedThis becomes especially important in symbol-based workflows, where a single structural update needs to propagate cleanly across many variations without breaking or redefining the visual styling in each one.
Let me know if helpful to expand further — happy to share more about our workflow to help further explain. -
Interesting. A 'style eyedropper' of sorts?
The example is somewhat simplified (and is solvable with a current Eyedropper’s click), but you mention a specific workflow — can you please share several examples, complicated enough to see where the current toolset is lacking?
