Taste
On aesthetics, curation, design instinct, and why taste is the last unfair advantage.
Why Taste Is the Last Unfair Advantage
When everyone can build with AI, what you choose to build and how you design it becomes the differentiator. Taste is pattern recognition, not preference.
Read TasteDesign Is the First Impression That Never Leaves
Typography, spacing, colour, animation - these aren't decoration. They're the product. Why obsessing over design details is the most important work.
Read TasteThe Curator's Manifesto
Curation as a creative act, not just collecting. The internet has an abundance problem, and curators are the new creators.
Read TasteWhat Wes Anderson Taught Me About Product Design
Symmetry, colour palette restrictions, attention to background details. How film aesthetics apply to web design.
Read TasteYour Bookmarks Are Your Autobiography
What you save says more about you than what you share. The case for treating bookmarks as a personal archive, not a junk drawer.
Read TasteDesigning for Obsessives
Why niche products beat mass market ones. Forest fans, pub enthusiasts, Japanese food nerds. Build for the obsessed.
Read TasteThe Collector's Instinct
The deep human urge to collect - books, links, records, magazines. How collecting is pattern recognition in disguise.
Read TasteThe Taste Stack
Introducing the concept of a taste stack - the layers of influences, experiences, and obsessions that form your creative identity.
Read TasteDigital Spaces Need Interior Design
Websites need the same care as physical spaces - lighting, furniture, atmosphere, personality. The interior design of the internet.
Read TasteBuild the Gallery Before You Make the Art
Why distribution and presentation matter as much as creation. Modern Retro isn't just images - it's a gallery experience. The container shapes the content.
Read TasteEvery City Has a Font
London is Gill Sans. New York is Helvetica. Tokyo is something elegant you can't quite read. How typography and cities share personality.
Read TasteAI Can Make Anything - But It Can't Want Anything
The paradox at the heart of AI creation. AI tools can generate infinite content, but they have no desire, no taste, no reason to prefer one thing over another.
Read TasteThe Best Brands Feel Like People You'd Want to Know
Why brands with personality always win. From fifteen years in advertising, the brands that endure are the ones with genuine, human-feeling personality.
Read TasteDesign Systems for Life - When Product Thinking Escapes the Screen
How design systems thinking applies beyond software. Consistency, reusable patterns, and intentional constraints - for products, decisions, and life.
Read TasteTaste Is Editing - What You Leave Out Matters More
Taste isn't about what you include - it's about what you cut. The best menus, albums, portfolios, and products are defined by what is missing.
Read TasteThe Bookmark Graveyard - Why We Save Things We Never Revisit
Everyone has hundreds of bookmarks they'll never look at again. But what if the pattern of what you save revealed something about who you're?
Read TasteYour Font Choice Says More Than Your Copy
Typography is the first thing people feel, before they read a single word. Why your font choice is the most important design decision you'll make.
Read TasteColour Is Feeling - The Palette Decisions Nobody Notices
Four accent colours across fourteen products. One background tone that isn't quite white. Every colour choice is a micro-decision about how something feels.
Read TasteThe Ten-Year Taste Test - What Survives and What Does Not
What would you still recommend from ten years ago? The books, albums, restaurants, websites that have aged well - and the ones that have not. A reflection on what lasts.
Read TastePlaylists Are Portfolios - What Your Music Says About Your Taste
How music playlists are really taste statements. The curation involved in a good playlist mirrors the curation involved in a good portfolio.
Read TasteCollecting vs Hoarding - When Does Saving Everything Become a Problem
The digital magpie problem. When does thoughtful collection become mindless hoarding? The difference between a library and a landfill.
Read TasteWhen Taste Is the Only Input - Building With AI as a Non-Coder
When AI does the making, all that's left is your judgement. That's both the power and the terror. Your taste is fully exposed.
Read TasteSeeing What Matters - The Skill Nobody Teaches
Scanning 100 things and knowing which 3 matter. This is what I'm actually good at. Where the skill comes from, and why it's impossible to put on a CV.
Read TasteCoherence - The Quality That Separates Good From Great
The most important quality in any product: coherence. Everything fits together - name, design, tone, experience. Nothing jars. Why most products fail this test.
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