Style is a choice: what intentional curation taught me about taste and building brands

I often pull inspiration from other makers or brands. Sometimes consciously, sometimes between the lines. But recently I got really triggered again, when I read the newsletter from Poolsuite FM.

For those who don't know it: Poolsuite is a radio platform, but in the form of a total concept. It's like diving into the summer of 1989. Music, typography, copy, product design, everything fits. They're not building a brand, they're building a world. They also have a biweekly newsletter, and there they introduced a term that stuck with me: intentional curation. And the more I thought about it, the more I realised: this is increasingly what branding and creativity are all about.

What is intentional curation?

Literally translated: conscious collecting. But really it's more than that. It's about actively gathering things that feel like you. Instead of letting your taste be shaped by algorithms or what's trending, you choose yourself what you save. You build your taste by choosing, filtering, grouping, repeating. And that doesn't just apply to design or music. It applies just as much to places you like to go, colours that warm you, people who inspire you. You train yourself to see what others miss. To connect things that at first glance have nothing to do with each other. And from those combinations, taste, style and direction emerge.

Why this speaks to me

All you have to do is scroll on Instagram or TikTok for a minute and you're already flooded with other people's ideas. But intentional curation is the opposite. It's not consuming, it's building. Your lens, your vision and your style. When you're building brands (like we do at ODB), it's tempting to always start from strategy or frameworks. But the brands that really stick are almost always born from a feeling. A mountain of inspiration you've gathered over time and keep refining. And that's where it sits for me: intentional curation as a tool to safeguard long-term relevance.

What I'm doing with it

Recently I've been going back more often to my own 'buckets'. Old folders full of screenshots from years ago, or WeTransfer archives for example. Things I once saved without knowing exactly why, but that inspire me again today. I also try to curate more consciously: not just online, but offline too. Shops, cafés, colours, conversations, routines. It might sound a bit fuzzy, but it really works.

What you can do with it

Whether you're building a brand, developing a concept or just need some inspiration, intentional curation is something that makes you stronger as someone with a vision. Not by working harder, but by looking around you smarter. Not waiting for an idea, but building a frame of reference for those ideas to land in. And that's not something you do in one go. You do it, as Poolsuite itself says, with patience. I'm curious – do you have a 'hidden gem' to share?

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