At Davos, the “Board of Peace” unveiled a UN-adjacent seal—gold globe, olive branches, shield—that reads less like diplomacy and more like authority. Category cues, map projection, and material choices do the talking: what gets centered, what gets cropped, and what gets gilded. In a tool-rich moment, “good enough” execution becomes its own signal—symbols as posture, and branding as policy before the institution ever speaks.

CES 2026 is full of AI demos, frictionless tools, and promises of “more with less”—but once everyone has the same tech, the only real edge left is human judgment. This piece looks at how creative quality, taste, and mentorship become economic infrastructure in a tool-rich, meaning-poor marketing world.