The Authentic Gesture:
What role does creativity play in today’s communication landscape?
By Simon Taylor
February 18, 2026
In an age of machine learning, LLM’s, and synthetic relationships, definitive answers appear to be abundant. The creative industries are talking about ‘taste’ as a key differentiator between human imagination and AI capability. Taste is clearly part of the story, but what lies beneath the curatorial gaze? What is it that fundamentally separates us from the predictive algorithm and builds depth into recognition?
Our approach centres around curiosity, it’s what generates the work we do and supports our creative process. From strategy onto execution, curiosity can broaden a project beyond initial publication and catalyse the operational phase. Curiosity can help maintain the development of ideas during a run or sequence, each iteration able to pivot without weakening originality.
“Rather than speeding up and relying on instinctive solutions, curiosity clarifies the differences between reacting and responding, slowing down decision making by focusing on investigation.”
Rather than speeding up and relying on instinctive solutions, curiosity clarifies the differences between reacting and responding, slowing down decision making by focusing on investigation.
Taste alone doesn’t have the bandwidth to compensate beyond immediacy, its role is to present opinion in the moment. Taste is the aesthetic that chimes with the zeitgeist, but what survives between brand and consumer is actually a dialogue. A feedback loop of call and response. In this sense, curiosity is the heart, aesthetics are the surface.
To reach an outcome we apply technique to technology, it makes curiosity tangible. Technology has fixed protocols that make it work, but technique is fluid, a flexible action. An example might be language, often said to be the first technology created by humans. So because technique allows for meaning to be shared at an emotional level, language gives us a myriad of outcomes. Every day the possibilities continue to emerge. Speech alters, visual cues appear and disappear and as new waves of information arrive on our shores, processes adapt. So does taste. What you will adopt tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet! The same cycle is true of technology. Developing a versatile approach to technique opens up pathways into technology that are both creative and productive. Humanity is driven by technique because technique is always about adaptation. Through this lens we can see communication as both cause and effect with authenticity as the prize. However, taste is often the trap!
“Speech alters, visual cues appear and disappear and as new waves of information arrive on our shores, processes adapt. So does taste. What you will adopt tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet! ”
To lead or follow remains the puzzle. Successful brands need to attract while remaining accessible, be simultaneously defined and unique while creating an authentic persona or voice.
However, to be authentic has its own set of challenges. You must own the decisions you make, not play to a pre-defined simulation. The authentic is always about ‘becoming’, never ‘being’. This is why taste is a double edged sword. What counts are the choices we make, not the style we affect.
Curiosity is often about problem finding rather than problem solving. Learning from ambiguity. This can be really useful in opening up dialogue. But don’t stop there! The authentic gesture belongs to you, it’s the part of communication that an audience anticipates, expects. Taste may play a role when curiosity is paired with outcome, but taste requires validation and therefore a compromise, and then it’s no longer yours. To be authentic is to differentiate. You have to own it.
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The Authentic Gesture:
What role does creativity play in today’s communication landscape?
By Simon Taylor
February 18, 2026
In an age of machine learning, LLM’s, and synthetic relationships, definitive answers appear to be abundant. The creative industries are talking about ‘taste’ as a key differentiator between human imagination and AI capability. Taste is clearly part of the story, but what lies beneath the curatorial gaze? What is it that fundamentally separates us from the predictive algorithm and builds depth into recognition?
Our approach centres around curiosity, it’s what generates the work we do and supports our creative process. From strategy onto execution, curiosity can broaden a project beyond initial publication and catalyse the operational phase. Curiosity can help maintain the development of ideas during a run or sequence, each iteration able to pivot without weakening originality.
“Rather than speeding up and relying on instinctive solutions, curiosity clarifies the differences between reacting and responding, slowing down decision making by focusing on investigation.”
Rather than speeding up and relying on instinctive solutions, curiosity clarifies the differences between reacting and responding, slowing down decision making by focusing on investigation.
Taste alone doesn’t have the bandwidth to compensate beyond immediacy, its role is to present opinion in the moment. Taste is the aesthetic that chimes with the zeitgeist, but what survives between brand and consumer is actually a dialogue. A feedback loop of call and response. In this sense, curiosity is the heart, aesthetics are the surface.
To reach an outcome we apply technique to technology, it makes curiosity tangible. Technology has fixed protocols that make it work, but technique is fluid, a flexible action. An example might be language, often said to be the first technology created by humans. So because technique allows for meaning to be shared at an emotional level, language gives us a myriad of outcomes. Every day the possibilities continue to emerge. Speech alters, visual cues appear and disappear and as new waves of information arrive on our shores, processes adapt. So does taste. What you will adopt tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet! The same cycle is true of technology. Developing a versatile approach to technique opens up pathways into technology that are both creative and productive. Humanity is driven by technique because technique is always about adaptation. Through this lens we can see communication as both cause and effect with authenticity as the prize. However, taste is often the trap!
“Speech alters, visual cues appear and disappear and as new waves of information arrive on our shores, processes adapt. So does taste. What you will adopt tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet! ”
To lead or follow remains the puzzle. Successful brands need to attract while remaining accessible, be simultaneously defined and unique while creating an authentic persona or voice.
However, to be authentic has its own set of challenges. You must own the decisions you make, not play to a pre-defined simulation. The authentic is always about ‘becoming’, never ‘being’. This is why taste is a double edged sword. What counts are the choices we make, not the style we affect.
Curiosity is often about problem finding rather than problem solving. Learning from ambiguity. This can be really useful in opening up dialogue. But don’t stop there! The authentic gesture belongs to you, it’s the part of communication that an audience anticipates, expects. Taste may play a role when curiosity is paired with outcome, but taste requires validation and therefore a compromise, and then it’s no longer yours. To be authentic is to differentiate. You have to own it.
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Services
Clients & Awards
Portfolio
Approach
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