I feel like a combination of both human input + algo could work.

For some definitions of “work” I agree.

But, a premise of the OP’s question seems to be a how-hard-could-it-be.

The color of the birds matters. That’s how hard aesthetics is. The shape matters too, for anyone who missed my larger point…and their names because the text is a graphic element.

And all the negative space.

If you want an analogy, there aren’t general purpose algorithms that solve 3-sat in the way we want it solved. Good solutions to specific problems require hand crafting a procedure tailored to the data.