The Creator-Curator Hybrid
Why Audiences Want Curation As Much As Creation
A new kind of influence is taking shape: less about creating, more about knowing what’s worth paying attention to. I spoke to a few successful curators to get their take on this shift.
When Content Creation Isn’t Enough
We’re drowning in content. The internet, once a place of discovery, now sometimes feels like an overflowing stream: everything is available, but very little actually satisfies. Every scroll, swipe, and search unleashes another round of recommendations, all courtesy of algorithms convinced they know exactly what we want.
It’s the Recommendation Era. Instagram and Tiktok’s For You pages, Spotify’s automated playlists: the internet isn’t just showing us content anymore; it’s deciding it for us, feeding us a never-ending stream of videos, songs, hot takes, and shopping links based on our digital breadcrumbs.
And while that automation can feel like magic, it can also feel… a little much. Content moves faster than we can process it - increasingly generated by AI, and increasingly indistinguishable from what’s real. Apple’s fake news alerts earlier this year made headlines for a reason. Deepfakes are rising. It’s harder to tell what’s real, and harder still to care.
As a result, something is shifting. If creators were once the internet’s golden children, producing original content to feed our insatiable scroll, this next phase belongs to someone else: the curator. Not necessarily the loudest voice or the most prolific, but the most discerning.
Curators are the new digital tastemakers, and their currency isn’t volume - it’s taste. Instead of flooding us with more, they tell us what’s worth our time. They don’t always create content; they contextualise it. They filter, select, elevate - and crucially, add a point of view. It’s not just what they choose, but how they frame it.
And while traditional social media remains the most visible playground for this shift, it’s increasingly supported by a growing ecosystem of platforms built specifically around curation. Substack (hi!), Are.na, and PI.FYI, all tap into a rising demand: less noise, more depth. Less content, more context.
Because in a world where everything is available, the real value is knowing what actually matters.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE. Curation Is Power in a Noisy World
As content multiplies, the challenge isn’t access; it’s orientation. We don’t need more input; we need better filters. That’s where the curator comes in: not just as a tastemaker, but as a trusted lens in a world of endless noise.
In the Overwhelm Economy, Filtering Is Key
In a digital landscape where every platform is pushing more and more content onto us, attention spans are shrinking and it’s harder for anything to actually stick. Morningstar reports that 65% of people globally feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available online. In this space, having someone who can filter through the noise is essential.
Noora Raj Brown, brand consultant and founder of objects of desire , spoke to the exhaustion of choice online:
“There's too much out there and most of it isn't very good. The economic realities of the media landscape means that most legacy publications have to chase eyeballs, and they do that by being everything to everyone. I don't think that works for people. When you find someone who resonates with your own aesthetic world, it's a special relationship”.
In this context, the curator’s key job is:
“Finding beautiful things that are worthy of our readers' time and money, and explaining why those things matter”.
Lottie Bisou, curator and founder of THE ART DIRECTOR, echoed that sentiment:
“We’re all tired. Or at least I am! The scroll is infinite, and most of it forgettable. A good curator needs to filter through the copycat visuals to find something more unique, intriguing and thoughtful. We’re living in an age where jumping on a trend equals success. So essentially, algorithms are rewarding the one thing all (good) creatives were taught never to do: steal and copy. Eventually, consumers will tire. I think now, people are seeking connection and human thinking, and good curation should provide both.”
Taste Is Today’s Currency
Taste has always been a signal of identity, status, and cultural capital. As sociologist Pierre Bourdieu identified, taste is a social tool. And in today’s digital space, it’s also highly shareable. Good taste doesn’t just attract; it circulates. It creates a cycle where audiences engage with content not just because they like it, but because they want to be associated with the world it represents.
Zara Wong, brand consultant and founder of Screenshot This by Zara Wong, told me:
“The purpose of a curator is that they can cull down and present the best of the best according to their point of view of the world.”
On the subject of taste being niche, Noora Raj Brown told me:
“To me, the best things are niche. Curation should be the vehicle to understand a very specific, visceral world, and to be able to live in that world, through content or product or whatever your service is.”
Good curators don’t just reflect culture: they shape it. They make niche sensibilities feel desirable. Their influence isn’t loud, but it’s lasting. As Lottie Bisou put it:
“True curation is a quiet rebellion. Amidst all the social noise, top curators are trying to slow down, be intentional, and curate what actually matters. Not what’s trending, but what resonates and links to a true insight. It’s also become more personal. People don’t want mass taste, they want someone whose lens they trust.”
That shift - from mass appeal to personal perspective - is exactly what defines the modern curator’s influence.
Everyone Can Be A Curator. Can They?
Traditionally, the curator was a rarefied role - part intellectual, part gatekeeper - responsible for defining taste from inside elite cultural institutions. Figures such as Hans Ulrich Obrist were seen as both aspirational and influential, operating within a niche, highly academic world. But as traditional media lost power and visibility, many of these curators moved online; not just to evolve, but to survive.
Today, they’re joined by the rest of us. Everyone, it seems, is curating. Or at least, trying to. Instagram’s decision to allow hidden likes and expanded carousels ushered in the era of the “Instagram dump”: faux-spontaneous but carefully edited. Effortless, by design. Less polished on the surface, but often designed to signal taste in a way that says, you either have it, or you don’t.
But can everyone really be a curator?
Even in the time of democratised curation, expertise still stands out. Zara Wong spoke to the depth and perspective needed for meaningful curation:
“While I love the worlds of fashion, style, beauty and brand, I think it's so important to understand the worlds that inform it, like fashion history, as well as fine art, architecture, literature and films. The past, as well as the present such as what's happening in pop culture, economics, socially; My background in finance, English literature and fine art has informed how I approach my content curation. Working in legacy media as well as brand, marketing and retail has really informed my perspective - especially fortifying the commercial and business understanding.”
Noora Raj Brown also shared a thoughtful point on how personal experience shapes curation:
“My family is Indian. Colors and patterns are so integral to the way we live. And growing up as an immigrant, on the outside looking in, taught me to observe the way people tell stories about themselves. The way we dress and the homes we live in are two essential parts of that.”
What separates a moodboard from a worldview is lived experience, and knowledge.
Curation As A New Form of Creation
It would be reductive to say that today’s curators are simply selecting: they’re shaping. Through framing, reordering, interpreting, they take what already exists and give it fresh context; and sometimes even fresh meaning.
When asked whether she saw herself more as a curator or a creator, Zara Wong told me:
“Curator I'm more comfortable with, and given my background in editorial and in marketing. Creator I'm getting more used to - I'm more comfortable as a creator through idea production and conversation starter than the traditional meaning of creator”.
She added:
“Even if I don't always agree with a certain POV, it is still eye-opening and stretches the borders of one's own understanding to see other people's curating. It’s healthy and necessary to be challenged, otherwise you remain stagnant.”
Curation today isn’t passive. It’s an act of authorship and a new form of influence. And in a world flooded with content, that kind of framing matters more than ever.
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THE LIST. Recommendations On Where To Get Great Recommendations
Below is a list of some of my favourite curators - a shaping culture through sharp taste, strong perspective, and consistently great ideas. Because where you get those recs matters.
Screenshot This by Zara Wong
For industry-savvy fashion insights, thoughtful recs, and the sharpest brain-to-feed curation on the internet.
Object of Desire by Noora Raj Brown
For beautifully specific recs that speak to the true aesthete: rare finds, aspirational objects, and the stories our things tell about us.
THE ART DIRECTOR by Lottie Bisou
For behind-the-scenes creative truths, sharp visual thinking, and the kind of art direction advice you wish someone had handed you ten years ago.
Perfectly Imperfect by Tyler Bainbridge
For beautifully chaotic internet energy, anti-algorithm recs from your favourite tastemakers (including Charli XCX!), and the kind of cultural spiral you actually want to be part of.
Service95 by Dua Lipa
For global culture via the queen of taste herself: literary picks, offbeat travel guides, sharp essays, and a curated world of everything cool, smart, and slightly unexpected.
The Cereal Aisle by Leandra Medine Cohen
For smart, soulful dispatches on getting dressed, market picks with personality, and fashion advice that feels like your funniest, most self-aware friend wrote it at 7am. In a great outfit.
Getting Around With William O’ Connor by William O’Connor
For travel content with depth: hype-free travel recs, underrated gems, and cultural context that make you want to pack a bag. Without following the crowd.
On point and thoughtful writing, as per, Matteo! And we need more lists like the one you added at the end! Seems like everyone and their mother is curating digests and round-ups on Substack nowadays, so we may need curation for the curators themselves 🗂️🗂️🗂️
On point! Sometimes, I also think about the downsides: One being that everyone just wants to be associated with something – and so they call themselves a curator in order not to have to deal with the actual struggles of creating. Not to mention those without any real knowledge in their field, especially regarding anything that is not strongly IG/TikTok approved