Alex T

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on the atlas — 3

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I’ve come to believe that developing taste is not so unlike going to therapy; it’s an inefficient, time-consuming process that mostly entails looking inward and identifying whatever already moves you. It’s the product of devouring ideas, images and pieces of culture not because someone you respect likes them, but because you simply can’t look away. Developing taste is an exercise in vulnerability: it requires you to trust your instincts and preferences, even when they don’t align with current trends or the tastes of your peers. Because while having taste is cool, taste itself reflects a certai…
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
looking at things outside contemporary graphic design is certainly a large part of how I’ve developed my own sense of taste – though my drive to seek out wide-reaching design inspiration was admittedly as much a product of curiosity as it was a result of insecurity. Collecting pieces of design history felt like an ethical way to bootstrap my taste level while I was still figuring out my own point of view; if this colour palette worked for Tadanori Yokoo, it would work for me too. But as I looked at more old stuff, I realised I didn’t actually like all of it. I started to tease out what spoke t…
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
Taste takes work. Though good taste is often expressed through a single output (say, interior design or illustration), it’s typically shaped by exposure to a variety of diverse inputs. A common theme heard amongst iconic, tasteful creatives is how often they look outside their own field for inspiration: the architect inspired by nature, the clothing designer inspired by anime, the illustrator inspired by medieval tapestries.
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
In design, good taste can be knowing what old typeface to bring back, which photographer to work with or when to stop using a certain popular colour. In other words, it’s knowing when to lean into, or out of, a trend – an especially apt detail when you consider that mass adoption of an aesthetic tends to result in it losing value (see: chic sans serif becoming tasteless blanding). 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 on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
As templated tools, the proliferation of AI and the ubiquity of design tutorials make technical skills more accessible than ever, it’s simply not enough to be able to draw or design anymore. Now you need to have taste. Taste is what enables designers to navigate the vast sea of possibilities that technology and global connectivity afford, and to then select and combine these elements in ways that, ideally, result in interesting, unique work.
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
AI image generation is essentially a truncated exercise in taste; a product of knowing which inputs and keywords to feed the image-mashup machine, and the eye to identify which outputs contain any semblance of artistry. All that is to say: AI itself can’t generate good taste for you.
Elizabeth Goodspeed on the importance of taste – and how to acquire it
Wisdom, diligence, courage, caution, strength, flexibility, resolve, compassion, agility, steadiness, loyalty, character: We need all these virtues for human flourishing. None of us has it all. As we cycle through the diverse animals of the Chinese zodiac, we’re reminded of each creature’s strengths and superpowers but we ought not to ignore their weaknesses and vulnerabilities either. Nor should we forget that, even in the origin myths, it was in robust relationship that these creatures flourished and in selfish isolation that they failed.
Here Be Dragons - by Jeff Chu 朱天慧
Zhou explained that no one animal—and no one person—contained all that was needed for a strong family, a healthy society, or a fruitful world. “What our ancestors were pursuing was wisdom through integrity, harmony and balance. It’s never about an individual hope,” he said. “We need to live with integrity and in harmony with others and the environment.”
Here Be Dragons - by Jeff Chu 朱天慧
But the notion that any particular sign of the Chinese zodiac has any particular bearing on one’s own luck—in other words, that it has anything significant to say about individual success—is completely unmoored from the philosophical principles that inspired the zodiac’s creation and that have long undergirded Chinese society. Chinese culture has always emphasized collective harmony and prioritized communal good. It’s nonsensical to imagine that, every twelve years, you might have a good one and you’d be all set. None of this was intended to be about me or the singular you or any person in iso…
Here Be Dragons - by Jeff Chu 朱天慧
We all suffer silent crises, carrying burdens that are utterly invisible to those closest to us, and occasionally even opaque to ourselves. Yet it is good. Even when we can’t feel it, it remains good. While suffering is a normal part of human life, it is not the essence. At the center of being is not suffering, but grace. We will forget this fact many times throughout our lives. The task before us is to hold each other up, to remind one another of the truth that is truer than our deepest misery, to attend to the gift God has given us, to accept that it is good even when we do not feel that goo…
On Living. Mental health, the church, and the… | by Alan Noble | Medium
Let me be clear: If you are suffering, get professional help, but accept two facts: First, life is hard, and during some periods it is all-but unbearably hard. Life can become so difficult and painful and soulless that you cannot comprehend it. Even if you have experienced these seasons, you almost certainly cannot remember them accurately. You might be able to objectively recall the dates when you were unable to work because of depression, but that experience of depression remains inaccessible, unless it returns in force. For all of human history we have known this truth. Human existence is i…
On Living. Mental health, the church, and the… | by Alan Noble | Medium
Living in a society governed by technique inclines us to imagine life is easier than it ever is. Technique is the use of rational methods to maximize efficiency, and we see it everywhere: Time saving technology, apps that maximize our workouts, medicines that drown out irrational thoughts, ubiquitous entertainment in our pockets, and scientifically proven methods for parenting, working, eating, shopping, budgeting, folding clothes, sleeping, sex, dating, and buying a car. The promise of technique is that we are collectively overcoming all the challenges to life through research, technology, an…
On Living. Mental health, the church, and the… | by Alan Noble | Medium