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Taste
What 491 collectors reveal about design taste
Since 2013, 491 collectors contributed 7,240 weekly ‘taste’ collections of designs they found desirable, each coded against 52 dimensions of desirability — then clustered and ranked by distinctiveness. The DL was founded in 2013 by Professor Altringer Eagle at Harvard. She continues to run it since 2025 at Dartmouth.
226
collectors profiled
4
taste clusters
52
dimensions
8%
silhouette
Four families of taste
The Observer
Form, elegance, media
Clever Solution11%Brand & Market Strategy9%Form & Elegance9%
Media & Entertainment24%Tech17%Fashion14%
The Pragmatist
Efficiency, clever solutions, tech
Clever Solution17%Convenience & Efficiency17%Digital Experience Design8%
Tech26%Media & Entertainment14%Fashion12%
The Idealist
Social impact, belonging
Convenience & Efficiency14%Clever Solution10%Form & Elegance9%
Fashion22%Food & Drink15%Health & Wellness12%
The Tastemaker
Fashion, brand strategy
Brand & Market Strategy14%Clever Solution8%Convenience & Efficiency8%
Fashion24%Tech14%Health & Wellness13%
How taste shifted across cohorts
Each row is one cohort year, showing the domain mix of what collectors chose.
The first cohort. Students finding their voice in a brand-new assignment format, still figuring out what it means to collect desirable things.
Media 23%Tech 17%Fashion 11%Food & Drink 8%Home 8%
The assignment settles into its rhythm. Students begin to notice patterns in their own taste, and the collections start to feel personal.
Tech 19%Media 17%Food & Drink 14%Home 12%Fashion 11%
Social media products surge in popularity. Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine reshape what students think of as desirable design.
Media 19%Fashion 17%Home 15%Tech 13%Food & Drink 7%
A broader aesthetic palette emerges. Architecture, food, and fashion compete with tech for attention. Collections become more diverse.
Fashion 21%Tech 19%Media 14%Home 13%Food & Drink 11%
The tech obsession peaks. Smart home devices, wearable tech, and app-first products dominate — this cohort sees the future as designable.
Tech 24%Fashion 18%Media 14%Home 8%Food & Drink 7%
A pivot toward sustainability and social impact. Students increasingly choose products that signal values, not just function.
Fashion 20%Tech 19%Media 11%Health 11%Food & Drink 10%
The collections mature. Students show more design literacy, referencing materials, craft, and manufacturing in their reviews.
Food & Drink 20%Fashion 17%Tech 16%Media 15%Health 10%
Pandemic year. Collections shift toward home, wellness, and digital experience. The domestic sphere becomes the stage for desirability.
Health 17%Media 15%Tech 14%Fashion 14%Food & Drink 11%
The final cohort in this dataset. A synthesis of trends — tech, sustainability, wellness, and craft all coexist.
Fashion 17%Tech 14%Food & Drink 14%Media 14%Health 12%
The final cohort in this dataset. A synthesis of trends — tech, sustainability, wellness, and craft all coexist.
Fashion 17%Tech 14%Food & Drink 14%Media 14%Health 12%
Tech 18%Fashion 18%Health 14%Media 13%Food & Drink 10%
Fashion 21%Tech 14%Health 12%Media 12%Food & Drink 11%
Tech 17%Fashion 14%Food & Drink 14%Health 13%Media 9%
Fashion 19%Food & Drink 15%Health 13%Tech 12%Media 9%
Architecture
Education
Fashion
Food & Drink
Health
Home
Media
Nature
Other
Services
Social & Civic
Tech
Transportation
Workspace
How distinctive is each collector?
Each dot is a collector, positioned by how far their taste vector deviates from the population mean (cosine distance percentile).
The Observer
The Pragmatist
The Idealist
The Tastemaker