“There's no arguing about taste,” people say. And often mean: anything goes. Everything is equally valid. It’s all a matter of personal preference.
In private life, that may be true. In social and professional contexts, however, taste is neither arbitrary nor objective. It arises from cultural conventions – and has to be continually understood and reinterpreted.
Taste follows rules. It is shaped by experience, education, social environments, technologies, and cultural codes. By what we have learned to read – and to appreciate.
Culture is the operating system of a society. Without shared cultural conventions, there would be no taste. No architecture. No design. No music. No fashion. No products. No coexistence. These codes are not universal. They are shaped over time. Locally. Socially. Historically.
That is why there is no single taste, den but many equally valid ones. So, is there such a thing as good and bad taste? Yes and no. Not in a moral sense. Not in terms of “right” and “wrong”. But in terms of: appropriate or inappropriate.
Good taste means:
A product speaks the language of its target audience. It respects their codes. It meets their expectations – or deliberately challenges them.
Bad taste means:
A product misses its context. It sends the wrong signals. It appears arbitrary, artificial, or ignorant. Not because it is “ugly”, but because it is misread.
As a designer, I do not work with my personal taste. I work with cultural translation. I ask: Who uses this? In what environment? With what expectations? With what values? With what self-image?
My task is not to judge, but to understand. A good product shows that someone has truly understood what it is about. Not only technically. Not only economically. But culturally as well. I read contexts. I translate cultures. I develop solutions that fit. It is about curated coexistence.
Good design does not emerge from taste. It emerges from understanding. If you would like to discuss this, I would be pleased to hear from you.