Branding

Good taste isn’t innate; it’s developed. If you see a million examples of something, whether it’s design, music, or any medium, you’ll begin to see the nuances that separate the mediocre from the exceptional. Taste is crafted through exposure, curiosity, and time.

Taste is a practice you can develop and strengthen. It's a reflection of who you are.

a) I use generative AI primarily for concepting and moodboarding. It helps clients imagine what their brand identity could look like. I save time browsing stock image libraries or trying to describe art direction concepts (“It would look like this illustration depicting a car, but it would actually show a jar of cream!”). AI-generated concepts then... See more

People with negative taste make things by trying something very simple and then stripping away pieces until it looks good. They can detect goodness, but not create it, so they’re limited to designs with very few variables, because then they can go thru all the options and pick out the ones that look OK.

People with positive taste, on the other hand,... See more

Though taste may appear effortless, you can’t have taste by mistake. It requires intention, focus, and care. Taste is a commitment to a state of attention. It’s a process of peeling back layer after layer, turning over rock after rock. As John Saltivier says in an essay about building a set of stairs, “surprising detail is a near universal property... See more