Sasha Lantukh

Taste is built through exposure—and that’s where friction starts.

February 6, 2026

Last week I realised I have no memory of the skirting boards in the home I grew up in.
I lived there for 20 odd years. No idea if we even had them. Let alone the profile, finish, or quality.

I only noticed because I was doing DIY in my own house.

I’m sure there are people who spend their entire careers thinking about skirting boards. Attending trade shows. Debating materials. Obsessing over millimetres. I just wasn’t one of them — until I needed to be.

There’s a Russian word: насмотренность (nahs-MOH-tren-nost).
It means taste built through exposure over time.

The more you see — art, design, culture, websites, logos, baseboards — the better you get at spotting what works, what doesn’t, and why.

As a designer, I can usually tell if UI or logo is good or bad technically. With some context, I could even tell if it might be appropriate for the organisation it represents (different skill entirely). But that doesn’t mean I can judge interior design, architecture, or skirting boards without spending time there.

Clients are the same. They have deep exposure to their business, market, audience, and competitors. Designers have deep exposure to visual systems, patterns, and craft. Sometimes these worlds overlap. Often they don’t.

When they don’t, collaboration can feel surprisingly hard — even when everyone wants the same outcome.

Good design takes time because exposure takes time.
Or it takes prior experience — which also costs.

And clients’ personal taste, while valuable, isn’t always the same as what their business needs. Alignment is the work. Not opinion-swapping.

Maybe I’ll turn this into an actual online “taste test” one day.

For now, it’s just a reminder: most design problems aren’t problems of taste—they’re problems of uneven exposure; you trust what you’ve seen work and miss what you’ve never had to notice.

NEXT UP