Brandon Jacoby
Designer and founder of Kainoa, an independent design practice; formerly Head of Design at Capital and a designer at X / xAI and Cash App.
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What they believe
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Great design has always been great design regardless of the tools; design has always been about decisiveness and judgment.
great design has always been great design agnostic of the tools. And like sure the tools that are popular at any give one given time are help guide and shape especially like aesthetics that are kind of in trend at any given moment. But, design has always been about decisiveness and judgment.
youtube.comSaid 21 Apr 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These one: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 20 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Great design has always been great design regardless of the tools; design has always been about decisiveness and judgment.
great design has always been great design agnostic of the tools. And like sure the tools that are popular at any give one given time are help guide and shape especially like aesthetics that are kind of in trend at any given moment. But, design has always been about decisiveness and judgment.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Decisiveness is a really, really big deal for this year and beyond, in a world where more ideas and more room for micro decisions exist.
a world where we can get more ideas and create more real estate for these micro decisions to exist, decisiveness actually is a really, really big deal for this year and beyond.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Patterns that work show up in 90% of products, and they are there for a reason, yet a lot of designers reinvent the wheel.
there are patterns that work that show up in 90% of the products out there. Those patterns are there for a reason and like a lot of designers, and I'm guilty of this myself, reinvent the wheel.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
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Knowing when to reinvent the wheel and when to follow patterns is the number one trait a junior designer can have right now and will let them go very far.
know when to reinvent the wheel, know when to follow patterns. And I think that that skill of knowing when to do either of those is like the number one trait that any, especially junior designer, can have right now that I think will let them go very far.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
The limit of technology to create the tooling needed to make the things one sees in one's head is gone.
the limit of technology to create the tooling that we need to like create the things that we see in our head that we think are that are great, that limit's gone.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
People who already ran through walls are on an upward slope with AI, while those scared to, who externalize blockers and get stuck, may not be empowered by it.
the people that have had a tendency to to do that before are like, you know, on this upward slope of now having even more autonomy and like there's less things that they need to partner with or like people that they need to partner with to like go run through those walls, but the people that were like scared to run through those walls, they would externalize blockers, that would get stuck. I I don't know if AI's suddenly going to to empower them
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Visual design fundamentals change how someone feels when they interact with a product, and those principles are still true.
there are so many design visual design fundamentals that like change how someone feels when they interact with the product. Those principles are still so true
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Taste is much more about the journey of design than about the result.
taste is so much more about the journey of design, much more than the result.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Taste may be somewhat innate, but it can be informed and shaped; it is a muscle that has to be fostered.
I like fall probably closer to the first one, but I think it can be informed and shaped. I don't think it's like impossible to learn taste, but I think it's something that you have to foster. It's a muscle.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Knowing when to go deep into many prompts and when not to fight every battle, because not everything needs to be new, is the zooming in and out that creates taste.
knowing when to go super deep into many different prompts to really like kind of shape and build something new versus, you know, it's okay to not fight every battle and to say like not everything needs to be needs to be new. And like that process of zooming in and out, I think is is what creates taste.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Much of design has become homogeneous, with designers designing for other designers.
so much of design have become homogeneous where designers are designing for other designers
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Software is a form of hospitality, welcoming a user base into a product.
software is this form of hospitality where you're you're welcoming a user base into a product.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Craft and consequence can exist at the same time; they are not mutually exclusive.
Craft meets consequence is this idea that like those two things can exist at the same time. They're not mutually exclusive.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
What a designer can learn outside their craft may propel their career forward much more than a design crit with someone at a company they look up to.
there's so much to be learned as a designer that's outside of our craft that is actually going to be the thing that like propels your career forward so much more than getting a design crit with someone who's at a company that you look up to
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
The earlier the stage of the company, the more important it is to get along well with the team outside of design.
the earlier that you go in like a company's age that you're going to be working with, like the more important it is to like jive well with the team outside of design of course.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Starting does not have to be where you finish; creating something terrible to get an idea on paper is what starts the snowball rolling.
starting is not where you finish and doesn't have to be where you finish. And like just creating something that's terrible to get a idea on the paper is what like starts the snowball rolling down the hill.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
Good enough is okay for most people and there is a lot of it in the world, but some push it a little further.
for most people like good enough will be okay. That's not a bad thing. There is a lot of good enough in the world and like many people just need good enough. But there's always like the ones that push it just a little further.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
A big part of taste is delivering high levels of craft in an accessible way so that as many people as possible can experience it.
the big part of taste is actually figuring out how to like deliver high levels of craft in an accessible way so that as many people as possible can experience it.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
The hardest part about big companies is not that nothing gets done, but that everything takes a long time to get done or to find out whether it can.
the hardest part about big companies is not like that you can't get anything done, it's just that everything takes a long time to get done or it takes a long time before you find out if it can get done.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
The design industry is shifting to be more and more filled with independent people.
the world is shifting to be especially with the design industry is shifting to be more and more filled with independent people.
Brandon Jacoby - Seeing Taste vs. Creating Taste as a designer Said 21 Apr 2026
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Where they publish
Site brandonjacoby.com Portfolio of his independent studio, Kainoa.
Client work across brand, product design and motion (Special, Coinbase, Helicon, Atomic), a short account of his career at X / xAI, Capital and Cash App, and how to book a project slot.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
x.com @JacobyBrandon His account on X.
The account his studio site and Dive Club's episode description both point to; not read for this entry (x.com is a login wall to a script).
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
Interviews As a guest Long-form interviews on other people's channels, chosen and not exhaustive.
His own voice by his own participation: Dive Club's hour on seeing taste versus creating taste, designing at X, and going independent.
Link verified 4 Oct 2026.
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