Max Ottignon, co-founder of independent branding studio Ragged Edge, spoke to us for the Creative Talent Edit on what he really looks for when he’s hiring and why “taste” is the industry’s most misunderstood word. This expands on the conversation behind question six of the editorial, with more of what he had to say about judgement, structure and the industry’s junior talent problem.

Not really, according to Max. “The tools have made everything superficially slicker, but superficially slick does not mean good,” he says. Once you look past the sheen, you’re still checking for the same things you always were, like clarity of ideas and thinking.

“You can have a 30-second glance at a portfolio and still see straight away.”

So what is “taste,” and can it actually be taught?

Max is firm that it isn’t something you either have or don’t. “Taste is something you build, create and curate. It comes from a deep awareness of culture, history, the technicalities of good design – and you have to be around the right people to learn it.” Some people have a natural affinity, he admits, but the sharpest edge of it, “the little touch that elevates something from good to great,” comes from proximity to watching decisions get made, and understanding why.

It’s part of why Ragged Edge asks people to spend a minimum of three days a week in studio. “It’s the little conversations – why this is good, why that doesn’t work, why you’d move that three pixels to the right. If you’re not around for that, your progression slows down.”

If you were building a brand from nothing, what’s the first creative hire you’d make?

Not a campaign specialist, Max says – a brand champion. “Agencies can execute. Agencies can do strategy. The one thing we can’t do is be a champion for the brand internally.” That person needs enough seniority to be heard at the top table, and a holistic view that goes beyond logos and typefaces to the single idea a business wants to communicate across every touchpoint. Someone who can think conceptually and articulate the value of design to people who don’t speak design.

How do you actually test for that in an interview, without loading candidates up with take-home tasks?

Ragged Edge doesn’t set them at all. “It’s not inclusive – it favours people who can afford the time.” Instead, candidates bring a “creative share”: walking through the behind-the-scenes of a project they’ve already made, decision by decision. “You learn so much from how someone structures that story and how they talk about the calls they made.”

It’s also why the studio is actively hiring interns. AI-native juniors, in Max’s view, aren’t a threat to be managed but an asset: “They’re not relearning old habits, they’re just wiring new ones. They bring thinking a senior-only team can’t replicate.”

Where do you think the industry’s got its priorities wrong?

Speaking on borrowing too much from software culture, Max argues that “digital product design is about removing friction, reducing cognitive load. Brand design is the literal opposite – it’s about interrupting, making people stop and think.”

Applying a product mindset to brand, he says, is death by a thousand cuts: “it gets to the edges, and you end up with something unremarkable that blends in. If it blends in, it won’t get noticed. If it’s not noticed, it won’t be remembered. If it’s not remembered, it won’t be chosen.”

His read on where that leaves creative judgement against AI is characteristically upbeat, and he notes that even Anthropic’s own Jack Clark has said there’s no real evidence AI systems can be truly creative.

Read more from Max in our Creative Talent Edit