Taste is the new creative superpower

“When taste is deployed effectively, it operates like good branding: an intangible melding of factors that make one thing cooler, better or more marketable than its counterpart” – Elizabeth Goodspeed

We recently published an article about when we use AI and it got us thinking more deeply about taste and how it’s our true currency in our machine age. Your superpower isn’t making things. It’s knowing what’s worth making in the first place. Taste is a strategic skill and as Elizabeth Goodspeed, US editor-at-large, It’s Nice That says: “When taste is deployed effectively, it operates like good branding: an intangible melding of factors that make one thing cooler, better or more marketable than its counterpart.”

AI-first design is just jargon. Distinctive design requires human taste, which informs your input and helps you judge the artistry of the output. Machines can simulate style, but they haven’t developed human-grade taste. AI has no shame, no pride, no nostalgia, no ambition, no cultural reference. Machines can design the moodboard. Humans still decide the mood. Yes, AI can generate 1,000 options. It can’t tell you which one matters.

“AI has no shame, no pride, no nostalgia, no ambition, no cultural reference. Machines can design the moodboard. Humans still decide the mood”

What do we mean by taste? We like the simplicity of this from Merriam Webster: taste as individual preference is critical judgement, discernment, or appreciation.

Prompting AI is taste in action

Prompt engineering is a learnable skill, part art, part technique – requiring style vocabulary, aesthetic sensibility and cultural fluency. Take ‘vibe coding’ for example, whereby you prompt AI in plain language, running on vibes to describe your desired functionality and AI takes care of the actual code and build. The term was coined last year in a tweet by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. Google searches jumped 2,400%. You might have experimented with a website builder like Loveable or you’ll have seen lots of stories in your social feeds.

‘Vibe coding’ tools like this have created a tectonic shift in software development – the plates have moved from knowing how to code to knowing what to build. The tech capabilities are there and improving with every iteration. Non-technical users, designers and developers can rapidly prototype and create functioning web or mobile apps, landing pages etc without deep coding experience. This is truly exciting. But, if you haven’t got that style vocabulary, aesthetic sensibility, and cultural fluency / technical capability to test, review and refine the results – seek advice. You could end with with a generic looking website or logo that could do more damage than good. We all instinctively know when design lacks taste.

But it’s more than a question of taste.

We all need to know our technical limits. As designers and developers we’re well-placed to use these tools meaningfully and responsibly to create digital products. We’ve also been ‘vibe coding’ our own project management software because we couldn’t find tools that worked for what we needed. But being ‘vibe coders’ doesn’t make us software engineers. You wouldn’t put us anywhere near medical software where lives are at stake.

Now we’ve said that, let’s get to back to taste.

Taste is a project

Taste is built through constant exposure, obsession, critical thinking and years of knowing what you hate as much as what you love. It isn’t innate. Being prolific on social doesn’t make you an arbiter of taste. It means expanding your horizon through curiosity, consistent exposure and curation. Inspiration is limitless. And yet …

Creativity is stuck on rinse and repeat cycles

The evidence is all around us that creativity is stuck on rinse and repeat cycles. As Stocksy found in its The Curation Paradox report: “Creative industries are stuck in a loop: remixing the same ideas, feeding the same feedback cycles, flattening taste into a slurry of predictability.” We’re living through the ‘Meh-ocene’, says the report authors – defined by creative stagnation and output that’s average at best. How to fix this? One answer is to become a black belt at curation. If you’re feeling pinned out, try a tool like Are.na for creative research or idea sharing.

“Creative industries are stuck in a loop: remixing the same ideas, feeding the same feedback cycles, flattening taste into a slurry of predictability” – Stocksy

Go outside

Find inspiration beyond your industry walls. Talk to writers, artists, designers and architects. Immerse yourself in theatre, art, literature and music. Watch an old classic. Visit museums and galleries – see a masterpiece. Artist Maggi Hambling lists Rembrandt and Benjamin Britten among her influencers. Who would you list? Question everything. Understand why you like something or why you hate it. Learn what to keep. Know what to discard. Don’t chase trends.

Be the times – the tale of a music maker, and a baker

A music maker. Musician and record producer Pharrell Williams has probably never operated a sewing machine. But he’s the Creative Director of Louis Vuitton. His philosophy is it’s not about the item, It’s about the idea. And taste always outranks technique.“At the heart of creativity is being curious’, says Pharrell who is helping the luxury fashion house strengthen its identity as a ‘cultural maison’. Unpredictable creative collaborations like this help brands accumulate cultural capital and shape taste.

A baker. A couple of years ago, Greggs hooked up with Primark to become the ultimate odd couple, launching a sell-out Festival Collection, released in limited drops. Wearing a Greggs bucket hat, steeped in irony and nostalgia, was a badge of cultural identity for fans, old and new. And as the Guardian reported at the time other streetwear labels were also revisitng the 1990s taste for reworking everyday labels. Sports Banger, for example, created a cult T-shirt by using the logo of Heras, the Doncaster company that makes the temporary fences seen at festivals.

The Greggs campaign was part of its wider brand strategy to shake off ‘stodgy and beige’ image and reinvent itself as a lifestyle brand. The collection drove a 21.4% buzz increase for the bakery chain according to YouGov BrandIndex.

A final thought – average never changed anything

None of us want to live through dull. Be unpredictable and unconventional. Take a risk. Have an opinion and keep it tight. It’s what clients want. Up to the Light’s What Clients Think 2025 report found that 40% of clients said that they wanted their agencies to push boundaries more. This was higher than in 2024. They thought that the creative work was ‘solid but unexceptional’. Nobody wants to see that on their report card. Clients wanted to see more unexpected, interesting solutions.

When everyone has access to the same AI tools, you’ll produce the same things, unless you have a point of view they can’t replicate. The most prolific won’t win the AI era. The most difficult to replicate will. You’ll need tastebuds to do this.

Curious? Let’s schedule some time together. Connect with us here.