Creativity Is Dead, Long Live Curation | Highsnobiety

Democratization of curation changed the role and value of curators in form, but not in cultural importance.

This expanded meaning of curation makes products only one of the currencies individuals and brands trade in.

And so, a good starting point for any brand to think like a curator is to create your own aesthetic world instead of simply relying on your product’s aesthetic or your visual handwriting. A brand’s aesthetic world is infinite: it extends to a pair of sneakers, a piece of furniture, a playlist, and even collaborations.

This flips the script of brand strategy from product benefits to the story, and makes it imperative for brands to think like curators.

Curation shifts attention from products to the curatorial point of view, which is infinitely more valuable.

When brands moved from manufacturing products to manufacturing culture, design, luxury and art, curation zoomed onto taste, aesthetics, identity and social status.

Bankrupt department stores and downsized mass brands are a cautionary tale of what happens in the absence of any curation. Good news is that, unlike art galleries of old, modern culture welcomes curators of all stripes and presents endless curatorial opportunities for brands.

The role of a curator is to sort through culture and show us what we need to know and why.

With a good reason: the aesthetic world and the narrative that curation creates is much harder to replicate than a brand’s visual handwriting and a tone of voice. For Acne Studios, a curatorial point of view lives as a store experience; a carefully chosen influencers and friends of the brand and what architects and interior designers the brand coll... See more

Under pressure for newness, brands struggle to actually create new stuff, but by curating the old, they give it renewed meaning and purpose in consumers’ eyes.