How to develop your design taste

Be Your Own Design Team #26

Author

Aneta Kmiecik
July 25, 2025

Quick note from me

If you missed my latest posts, here’s a quick recap:

Today, I’m sharing how to develop your design taste, based on 13 years of practice.

Story outline

  • Level 01: Explore designs

  • Level 02: Tear down designs

  • Level 03: Critique designs

  • Level 04: Talk about your opinion

  • Portfolios built on Framer

🫶 Together with Framer

The no-code web design platform that helps you show taste in your portfolio

Framer helps you launch a portfolio that feels thoughtful, intentional, and truly yours. If you’re used to Figma, the transition is smooth, but the final result is a living expression of your design taste.

How Framer helps designers show taste in their portfolios:

  • Flexibility that lets you express your personality through creative layouts and motion

  • You control the vibe: minimal, bold, playful. Framer doesn’t limit your aesthetic

  • Carefully curated templates you can remix without losing your voice

  • A familiar interface so you can focus on creating a tasteful portfolio

  • Interactions that add polish without clutter

Ready to show taste in your portfolio on Framer? Use the code "ANETA" for a discount and start today.

Why taste feels so abstract and far from our reach?

Natural taste feels real because it hides the fact that it’s actually learned. The more effortless your taste looks, the more high-status it seems, while anything too studied or rule-based gets seen as lower. As Pierre Bourdieu, French philosopher, said in his book “A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”.

  • Taste is shaped

  • Taste can be different

  • You can learn it

  • You can change your taste too

I didn’t grow up surrounded by “good taste”. I was just a curious kid in a small Polish village who liked drawing. Over time, through painting, music, and design, I started training my eye, and I’m still doing it. Taste isn’t something you’re born with. You build it, slowly, by paying attention.

How can you develop your taste more intentionally?

Level 01: Explore designs

Train your eye by noticing what catches your attention: online, offline, physical and digital, across disciplines and cultures.

  • Observe a lot, but intentionally

  • Save work that makes you pause

  • Ask yourself: what do I like here? Why?

  • Look at design, art, fashion, architecture, film: different styles and origins

  • Notice details in everyday things too, like signs, menus, or product packaging

Level 02: Tear down designs

Don’t just look at things, try to understand how they’re made.

  • Pay attention to spacing, rhythm, type, layout, materials

  • Reflect on what kind of feeling or atmosphere it creates

  • If possible, read about the history behind it and put it in context

  • Try recreating elements to see how they work up close

Level 03: Critique designs

Compare your work with things you admire. Be honest, not harsh.

  • Place your design next to others: compare and contrast

  • Ask yourself: what’s working? What feels off?

  • Look beyond digital: compare with work from other fields too

  • Learn to edit with intention

Level 04: Talk about your opinion

Taste isn’t just personal, it’s shaped in conversation. Sharing your perspective helps sharpen it.

  • Post work you admire and explain what you like about it

  • Talk through your design decisions, even simple ones

  • Discuss design with others, your words shape how you see things

Portfolio examples built on Framer

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Keep designing ✨
Aneta