Taste is not purely subjective
People think taste is subjective, until they start to design things. Paul Graham argues that most people keep their thoughts on taste as unexamined impulses, starting from childhood. When they like something, they have no idea why—it could be because their friends like it, because it’s fashionable, or because a movie star uses it. Once they become designers, they start to realize the relationship between taste and good design. We all need to examine taste more objectively.
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As designers, we have to start objectively defining quality: what does quality mean for our company, our team, and our own careers as designers? How can we make design education less focused on process, and more focused on quality? When we eliminate blurry words and subjectivity from the conversation, our individual taste skills can finally be used to reach that shared quality goal.
Relevant (and linked in the article) pieces :
- Taste for Makers, from Paul Graham
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, a book from Gabrielle Zevin
- How A24 took over Hollywood, a video by Vox Media
- The role of taste in design, from Cennydd Bowles
- You are what you eat: How to improve your product and design taste, from Herbert Lui
- On Taste / Process, from Margherita Sabbioneda