An Aesthetic Mind

Aesthetics is an important principle for doing designs.

According to the dictionary: Aesthetics is the philosophical theory or set of principles governing the idea of beauty at a given time and place. It is relating to the philosophy and science of aesthetics, concerned with the study of the mind and emotions in relation to the sense of beauty, relating to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality. Can Aesthetics be condensed into such a formula as simple as design = aesthetics + functionality? And is it possible to build a universal set of aesthetics standard for design purpose?

Aesthetics is an important principle for doing designs. Where can you add or subtract from aesthetics, or even multiply, to make the design - being functionality as such a solid concept when designing something, you must keep with the "regular" or "current" aesthetics! Even so, in some aspect or detail, you can never detach from your own influences, visual culture, and in an unconscious level, you may be limiting the process of creation and the very response to the problem you are trying to solve. It is the subjectivity of art…A design guru who can predict what fashion or design trend will do, and, therefore, determine what will be considered aesthetically pleasing tomorrow rather than today! First - aesthetics as trends in public taste. Second - exposure to the designed environment as a direct influence on those trends!

The golden ratio 1:1.618, which captures a certain pattern of natural beauty. Throughout history, the ratio for length to width of rectangles of 1.61803 39887 ... has been considered the most pleasing to the eye. This ratio was named the golden ratio by the Greeks. In the world of mathematics, the numeric value is called "phi," named for the Greek sculptor Phidias. It occurs in nature everywhere from nautilus shells to sunflower seeds. It was used in architecture long before the Greeks though it may not have been specifically designed. So at a certain level, will eventually aesthetics becomes globally generalized? Neuroscientists try to find if the human brain is "hard-wired" to respond to something in a positive way. Furthermore, we can change the structure of our brain by repeated exposure to similar objects. Meaning that indeed through the internet, each individual gets more and more exposed to the same stimuli eventually resulting in similar notions of aesthetics. However, this process will take a long time due to a large number of stimuli available!

Beauty is in the beholder's eyes. Aesthetics is the principle behind beauty: Is beauty only about people? Isn't Nature beautiful too? Isn't Universe beautiful too? Isn't animal kingdom beautiful too? Aren't fauna and flora beautiful too? Isn't our planet Earth beautiful too? Isn't our Sun beautiful too. Beauty cannot be defined in an absolutely objective way. It is visual+emotional. The definition will differ from person to person as it is in your heart. In this case, the heart rules the brain. If you see beauty with your judgment comes into play. What is beautiful for you now is not there when someone has changed the opinion of that person's character that may make the same person ugly or not so beautiful anymore. Beauty that is built on one's character is stable and is forever. Beauty is reflected in the expression of joy that overflows with gratitude abundant to NATURE. No one can completely define what beauty is, beauty is such a wonderful world where it consists of appreciations, attractions, many more, it depends on individual soul where identification of beauty is a must.

Business is moving up the maturity from functioning to firm to delight; aesthetics is an important principle for either product design or business innovation. Though it is subjective in some degree, still, it’s possible to have some common criteria such as the golden ratio to wow customers or delight audience.

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. -Confucius

Posted in: Mindshift,UX/CX