This is excellent Tam, a really good examination of a topic that's getting dissected in all sorts of clumsy ways (ahem... Style-ish pod!).
In the context of work, and brand, and working in brand (lol), I've seen how taste can be exclusionary. Sure, that 15-year creative director has taste but does that make them a better commercial marketer?
I think my point is that taste is important when it comes to design and aesthetics and the creative arts, but is it discernment that is more important. The difference with discernment is that if you're using Claude as your co-pilot in a brainstorm, you know what's rubbish (most of it) and you know when something really hits and needs exploring. Discernment comes from working on brand after brand after brand. Struggling through the articulation of a strategy or a messaging hierarchy. Swimming through key visuals for a campaign and learning how to critique or develop ideas without throwing a wet blanket on a junior designer. And I 100% agree that this is being lost on the lower rungs of the marketing career ladder. Have you read Zoe Scaman's brilliant piece on this?
Thanks Amy - and yes, ha! I had totally forgotten about that episode of Style-ish and the subsequent apology episode (awks) but clearly it has lodged in my brain somewhere…
I have read @Zoe Scaman’s piece and she’s just published ‘The Whetstone’ which is equally brilliant and feels in dialogue with part of what I’m grappling with here - she is always the touchstone I need when I disappear a bit too much into my own mind about our industry!
Discernment is critical, yes, but I feel the same way about it as I do taste - it can be learnt, and I don’t think we’re very far away at all from truly discerning AI, especially as brilliant, capable creatives and strategists build their own agents and that knowledge becomes subsumed.
And then, putting aside the junior/mid/entry conundrum - what about the industries where discernment and taste isn’t required? I suppose my beef is, perhaps we all need to stop comforting ourselves with false binaries, and start talking about the complete economic and industrial restructure that is coming about, rather than trying to justify ourselves? And I think Zoe’s work is genuinely doing that for strategy. I just can’t get away from how privileged the conversation is around who gets to command salary in 20 years time, and I don’t see anyone grappling with that question at a really fundamental level across the board. Or maybe my sources are wrong and I’m not reading widely enough, but I’d so welcome more reading about it.
Thank you for sharing Mia, I’m glad it provoked something in you - hoping it comes to fruition! I’ve been chewing over it for weeks and even with getting it out here, I’m still chewing over it.
This is excellent Tam, a really good examination of a topic that's getting dissected in all sorts of clumsy ways (ahem... Style-ish pod!).
In the context of work, and brand, and working in brand (lol), I've seen how taste can be exclusionary. Sure, that 15-year creative director has taste but does that make them a better commercial marketer?
I think my point is that taste is important when it comes to design and aesthetics and the creative arts, but is it discernment that is more important. The difference with discernment is that if you're using Claude as your co-pilot in a brainstorm, you know what's rubbish (most of it) and you know when something really hits and needs exploring. Discernment comes from working on brand after brand after brand. Struggling through the articulation of a strategy or a messaging hierarchy. Swimming through key visuals for a campaign and learning how to critique or develop ideas without throwing a wet blanket on a junior designer. And I 100% agree that this is being lost on the lower rungs of the marketing career ladder. Have you read Zoe Scaman's brilliant piece on this?
Thanks Amy - and yes, ha! I had totally forgotten about that episode of Style-ish and the subsequent apology episode (awks) but clearly it has lodged in my brain somewhere…
I have read @Zoe Scaman’s piece and she’s just published ‘The Whetstone’ which is equally brilliant and feels in dialogue with part of what I’m grappling with here - she is always the touchstone I need when I disappear a bit too much into my own mind about our industry!
Discernment is critical, yes, but I feel the same way about it as I do taste - it can be learnt, and I don’t think we’re very far away at all from truly discerning AI, especially as brilliant, capable creatives and strategists build their own agents and that knowledge becomes subsumed.
And then, putting aside the junior/mid/entry conundrum - what about the industries where discernment and taste isn’t required? I suppose my beef is, perhaps we all need to stop comforting ourselves with false binaries, and start talking about the complete economic and industrial restructure that is coming about, rather than trying to justify ourselves? And I think Zoe’s work is genuinely doing that for strategy. I just can’t get away from how privileged the conversation is around who gets to command salary in 20 years time, and I don’t see anyone grappling with that question at a really fundamental level across the board. Or maybe my sources are wrong and I’m not reading widely enough, but I’d so welcome more reading about it.
Really insightful, Tami. Going to be returning to this for the next few days…you’ve put voice to something I’m also grappling with. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing Mia, I’m glad it provoked something in you - hoping it comes to fruition! I’ve been chewing over it for weeks and even with getting it out here, I’m still chewing over it.