Why Taste is the New Creative Currency in Branding and Identity

AI is transforming creative industries at a speed no one can ignore. In branding, identity design, and creative campaigns, we’ve entered a new reality: almost everything looks good. From logos to Instagram carousels to campaign visuals, AI tools are producing outputs that are polished, stylish, and often indistinguishable from studio-grade work.

This is a fundamental shift. In the past, the barrier to entry was technical skill, mastering design software, understanding composition, and producing visuals that looked professional. Today, AI collapses those barriers. What used to take a design team hours, or even weeks, now happens in minutes with a prompt.

The floor has been raised. “Looking good” is no longer a differentiator.

So the question becomes: when every brand can generate polished work instantly, how do you stand out?

The answer is taste.

From Craft to Curation: The New Role of Creatives

Branding has always been more than decoration. A brand identity is not simply a logo or a colour palette; it is the system that signals professionalism, authority, and clarity to the market.

AI can generate assets. But it cannot choose the right ones. It cannot decide whether a typeface signals authority or playfulness, whether a colour scheme resonates with wellness clients or fintech investors, or whether a campaign visual aligns with a brand’s long-term positioning.

This is where taste — trained discernment — becomes essential.

• Taste is strategic. It connects execution to business goals.

• Taste is cultural. It recognises which aesthetics belong to which markets.

• Taste is editorial. It selects, refines, and cuts away the noise.

Without this, a brand may look “good” but still feel wrong.

Why Branding Without Taste Fails

A brand identity system built only on generated assets will lack cohesion. You might see this in:

• Inconsistent campaigns. Social media posts look different from the website, which looks different from packaging. The result is amateur.

• Mismatched tone. Elegant typography paired with childish colour palettes confuses audiences and erodes trust.

• Visual clutter. Endless variations without a clear standard dilute recognition.

The problem isn’t the quality of the outputs, AI guarantees polish. The problem is the absence of a clear point of view.

This is why taste has always been at the heart of branding and creative direction. AI doesn’t remove that need; it amplifies it.

The Evolution of Creative Campaigns in an AI World

As AI becomes embedded in design workflows, we will see a split in the creative industry:

1. Volume Creators producing endless “good” visuals cheaply and quickly. These will serve the low-cost, low-barrier market.

2. Taste-Makers designers, strategists, and creative directors who provide the framework, standards, and editorial eye that brands actually rely on.

Campaigns in the AI era will not be won by sheer volume of outputs. They will be won by clarity, restraint, and consistency. The brands that succeed will be those that can filter abundance into identity.

Training Taste: How Creatives Stay Relevant

If taste is the differentiator, the next question is: how do you build it?

Taste is not innate. It is cultivated. It comes from a disciplined process of exposure, reflection, and practice.

• Study brand systems. Look at how leading brands structure typography, colour, and imagery. Notice how consistent they are across every channel.

• Analyse campaigns. Don’t just save ads you like; ask why they work. Who are they speaking to? What emotion are they triggering?

• Create your own archive. Build a personal “brand library” of references, moodboards, and case studies. The best creative directors are also the best curators.

• Practice editing. For every ten AI outputs, choose one. Force yourself to explain why it works. That explanation is where taste is trained.

This discipline is what separates brand designers and strategists from casual users of creative tools.

Competing When Everything Looks Good

For small businesses, founders, and entrepreneurs, this shift can feel overwhelming. If AI can make anyone’s Instagram look polished, how do you build credibility?

The answer is the same: taste.

• Don’t rely on volume. More posts, more logos, more variations won’t build authority. Cohesion will.

• Define foundations. Choose two typefaces, three colours, and a consistent image style and stick to them.

• Work with systems, not one-offs. A strong brand identity is a framework you can grow into, not a collection of random templates.

• Invest in direction. Whether from a guide, a studio, or a mentor, invest in a structure that helps you edit, not just generate.

When your competitors are flooding the feed with “good-looking” content, your advantage is to look considered, consistent, and clear.

The Future of Branding: Taste as Technology

As AI raises the floor, taste becomes the ceiling. The future of branding and identity will not belong to those who can generate the most. It will belong to those who can discern the best.

Taste functions like a technology of its own: a cultural operating system built from practice, curation, and judgment. It is what turns abundance into meaning, and noise into narrative.

AI can raise the baseline of design execution. It cannot raise discernment.

Closing

The truth is simple: AI has made “looking good” cheap. Only taste makes it priceless.

For creatives, strategists, and brands, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that the bar of execution has been levelled. The opportunity is that discernment, clarity, and creative direction have never been more valuable.

When everything looks good, only taste tells the truth.

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