The Taste Foundation Series.

73 concepts, 649 bites of science-backed taste deconstruction — how taste actually forms, why you feel what you feel, and how taste is acquired. Unpack inside the app as your welcome gift from Tender team.

What taste is5 concepts

the frame: the model itself, and that it's buildable

  1. 01Taste Is Built, Not Born
  2. 02Taste Is a Type, Not a Score
  3. 03Good Is a Landscape, Not a Checklist
  4. 04Does It Mean It?
  5. 05The Eye and the Sensibility
Learning to Notice16 concepts

building the eye that reads whether a thing means it

  1. 06You Label, You Don't Read
  2. 07Fast, and Fooled
  3. 08Rebuild What You Recognise
  4. 09Break It Into Choices
  5. 10Intention vs Accident
  6. 11Coherence vs Mess
  7. 12Earned vs Edgy-for-Nothing
  8. 13Read the Floor
  9. 14Read the Type
  10. 15Compare to Build a Standard
  11. 16Name It — But Don't Let the Word Lie
  12. 17Your References Are Your Ceiling
  13. 18Read the Whole, Then the Tell
  14. 19Know How Good Your Read Is
  15. 20The Curse of Knowing
  16. 21It Means It Across Every Sense
Taste Is the Whole5 concepts

reading whether the fused, multisensory whole means it

  1. 22You Meet It Whole
  2. 23Does It Keep Its Word?
  3. 24The Same Move in Every Sense
  4. 25Reading the Vibe
  5. 26Meant or Posed
Why you feel what you feel9 concepts

the laws beneath the gut: the floor's gravity vs the engine that builds a type

  1. 27Two Layers of the Pull
  2. 28The Ease Trap
  3. 29The Safe Middle
  4. 30Beauty Buys Credibility
  5. 31The Eye Wants It to Hold Together
  6. 32You Love What You've Lived
  7. 33The Edge of Your Type
  8. 34The Pleasure of the Climb
  9. 35Wanting Isn't Liking
The fine lines14 concepts

the trainable axes of taste; each owned in the middle, with a floor on both cliffs

  1. 36Effortless or Try-Hard
  2. 37Striking or Loud
  3. 38Rich or Cluttered
  4. 39Resolved or Fussy
  5. 40In the Pocket or Off
  6. 41Soft or Sharp
  7. 42Warm or Cool
  8. 43Grave or Light
  9. 44A Voice or a Costume
  10. 45Sincere or Ironic
  11. 46True or Fake
  12. 47Fresh or Derivative
  13. 48Witty or Laboured
  14. 49Friction or Frictionless
Beyond pretty12 concepts

the deeper registers; where taste-types and does-it-mean-it crystallise

  1. 50Kitsch
  2. 51Camp
  3. 52The Sublime & the Aura
  4. 53The Uncanny
  5. 54The Grotesque
  6. 55The Beauty of Imperfection
  7. 56Minimalism vs Maximalism
  8. 57Brutalism & Anti-Design
  9. 58The Cute
  10. 59The Cool
  11. 60New Sincerity & the Post-Ironic
  12. 61Nostalgia: Restorative vs Reflective
Taste is a tribe6 concepts

taste-types as social: read the signal, the cycle, and whether it's meant

  1. 62Taste Is a Tribe
  2. 63The Snob and the Omnivore
  3. 64The Quiet Flex
  4. 65Trends Are a Cycle
  5. 66Cool, and the Algorithm
  6. 67More Than a Tribe
Your taste6 concepts

owning your own coherent type, held with conviction

  1. 68There Is No Good in a Vacuum
  2. 69You Can't Borrow an Eye
  3. 70Steal, Don't Imitate
  4. 71Your Taste Is a Pattern
  5. 72Performing Taste, or Having It
  6. 73Taste Is Saying No

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