Taste Takes Time

(This article was issue 17 of Maps, a newsletter on Digital I co-wrote for Base Design from 2022 to 2025.)

First, mankind.

Then, computers.
Graphical User Interfaces.
The World Wide Web.
Web 2.0 and social media.
The iPhone.
Web 3.

And now: Artificial Intelligence.

AI is changing it all again.
Literally everything.
In the most profound ways.

And it’s only the beginning.
As tools improve and become more accessible, it makes all of us question how we work. And where to strategically focus.

Of course I made the reflection myself as well. Haven’t we all? As creatives, what will be our roles in the future? And how will your job evolve?

Well, I’m terribly sorry.
I don’t have the answer.

But I do see clues.

For instance that AI is really good at technical tasks with a clearly defined brief. Like:

• Rewrite this article in under 100 words.
• Make this song ten seconds longer before the chorus.
• Make a landscape video out of this portrait one, without cropping.
• Generate an image of a cyber-punk jellyfish.

And that AI is pretty terrible at coming up with anything that is:

• Strategically smart
• Very contemporary
• Emotionally sophisticated
• Perfectly executed
• Showing excellent taste

In a great article, Elizabeth Goodspeed is making exactly that last point: “AI does not have taste”.

I agree. And it most likely never will.

It’s always humans who provide context, and judge with taste. The outcome of AI fully depends on the creative ambitions of those who use it.

So… back to our original question. Where to move our focus in the AI-age? Well, one thing is clear: good taste will be everything.

That should at least give us enough guidance to figure out where to go next.

Now you may ask: how to acquire taste? Hmm… that’s a big one. Elizabeth writes: “Good taste takes time”.

But maybe that’s more of a subject for our next issue :)

Random finds

→ Love this 20 minute talk by Eric Hu, a love letter to our profession. It touches upon the same subject as the story above: what’s the role of creatives in this age of computer algorithms and AI? The story sure that takes a few turns. Eric reasons that images aren’t necessarily created, they’re discovered.

→ If you can make it to the beautiful city of Ghent, Belgium, then catch Antoine and I talking about AI.

→ If you had enough about AI, check this: our very own Ji made a Chrome extension that immediately blurs out any AI-related terminology on the web pages you visit. She called it Rage Against the Machine Learning. Aha!

→ A genuine desire to reconnect with the real world. Here’s five Base Design experts sharing their personal predictions and aspirations for the branding sector in 2024.

→ Glitch Design manifesto for positive friction. A couple of months ago, Kim Boutin gave a very inspiring lecture at Base in Brussels, advocating for positive friction in digital design. See the picture below.

From my camera roll — December 20th, 11:32, Brussels

Kim Boutin at Base Brussels advocating for Glitch Design.

Until next time,