AI Artwork & Personalised Commerce

An AI-powered Shopify experience connecting creative exploration with products customers can personalise and purchase.

Overview

Artifai is a Shopify application that allows customers to generate custom artwork and preview it on print-on-demand products.

The platform brings image generation, artwork refinement, product customisation and purchasing into one storefront experience. Customers can start with an idea, explore visual styles and variations, and see how their artwork will look on a product before placing an order.

The Challenge

Generating an image is only one part of creating a personalised product. Customers also need to refine the result, choose a product and position their artwork with confidence before purchasing.

The challenge was connecting these steps within Shopify while coordinating AI image generation, image storage, product previews and third-party fulfilment. The creative experience needed to work alongside the practical requirements of ordering and production.

The Goal

Build a scalable web application that connects AI image generation with Shopify and print-on-demand services, giving customers control over creating, editing and purchasing personalised products.

The experience follows five steps:

1. Describe an idea and select a style. Start with a prompt and choose the visual direction for the artwork.
2. Generate artwork. Create an image from the selected prompt and style.
3. Choose a variation or refine the result. Explore alternatives before deciding which artwork to use.
4. Select and customise a product. Preview the artwork, then adjust its position and scale.
5. Purchase the finished design. Place an order through Shopify, with automation connecting the order to fulfilment services.

What I Built

AI Artwork Generation

• Prompt-based image generation within the Shopify experience
• Style selection to guide the visual result
• Artwork variation generation
• A refinement workflow for exploring and selecting designs

Product Customisation & Previews

• Live previews of generated artwork on print-on-demand products
• Image positioning and scaling tools
• Support for previewing artwork across multiple products
• A connected journey from artwork selection to purchase

Shopify Integration

Shopify Liquid provides the storefront integration and custom frontend functionality. The application connects the artwork creation and product customisation experience with Shopify purchasing, allowing customers to move from designing a product to ordering it.

Order Automation & Fulfilment

• Automated order workflows
• Integration with third-party print-on-demand fulfilment services
• Coordination between personalised product orders and fulfilment

Application Architecture

The application uses Node.js for backend functionality and MongoDB for data storage, with Shopify Liquid providing the custom storefront experience.

This combines the customer-facing creative tools with the services needed to generate artwork, manage application data and connect orders to external fulfilment providers.

Cloud Infrastructure

The platform runs on AWS:

• EC2: Application hosting
• S3: Storage and delivery of generated images

Separating image storage from application hosting supports a workflow in which artwork is generated, refined and reused across product previews.

Outcome

Artifai connects AI artwork generation with personalised commerce. Customers can move from an initial idea to a product preview and purchase within a single Shopify experience, while order automation links the storefront to print-on-demand fulfilment.

The project brings together creative tooling, storefront development, backend engineering and cloud infrastructure around one customer journey.

Technology

• Commerce: Shopify, print-on-demand integrations
• Frontend: Shopify Liquid, custom storefront functionality
• Backend: Node.js
• Database: MongoDB
• AI / Images: AI image generation, artwork variations, live product previews
• Infrastructure: AWS EC2, AWS S3
• Automation: Order workflows, third-party fulfilment integrations