The Anticipation Letters No.12 – Aesthetic Sensibility and Manifestation
Be a hunter-gatherer. See. Collect. Create. Evolve. Photo: Ea Czyz
Aesthetic sensibility and manifestation
“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.”
One might read this classic shaker expression in a way that function is the most important thing and that aesthetics is something good we can, and preferably should add on top.
But it also highlights a synergy between the usefulness and the aesthetics. They are both fundamentally human needs, and together they make our spaces and objects useful for us, in all the dimensions of what being human means. Mere functions are simply not enough for fully human experiences. But what about this fundamental design statement:
“Form follows function.”
First of all. I’m not saying it’s wrong. It/modernism at large took us out of an era of a growing mass production with lots of decoration and a loss of quality. But still, aesthetic work and aesthetic appreciation is about a lot more than shape. What about colour? The communication of personality, emotions, associations? The bigger part of our surroundings are at this stage in time designed by us humans, even those we percieve as “nature” and that percent only increases. That’s why it’s essential to really be very conscious and take care of our surrounding, in making it work for us, but also always with thoughtful and dedicated aesthetics.
In this 12th issue, we dive into aesthetics, and open up a bit on how complex and essential it is. You’re most welcome to get back to me and continue the conversation.
When developing an aesthetic sensibility and skills, I’ve found that the following three parts are fundamental. This is the 3-step foundation I teach my design students (I have 12+ years experience of teaching design, and I LOVE it, do invite me for talks/workshops!)
TO SEE. Practise noticing, discovering, feeling the beauty and abundance all around you. High or low, big or small, lasting or fleeting.
TO COLLECT. Be a hunter gatherer for things that intrigue you. Your collection will tell you something about what you’re drawn to, what you can work with. Create a constantly work-in-progress aesthetic archive.
TO DO. Experiment. Create with your hands. Move things around. Develop your skills and aesthetic sensibility through noticing what actually comes out when you create, not only “like” things. It might not be what you expected. Communicate. Iterate. Repeat.
Distill complexity into a coherent, but sensory rich appearance.
The more we get out of our head and into our hands, inviting real things, tactility, connecting things, layers of time and space, communicative aspects, cultural associations, trying what work together or not, the more intriguing and unique it gets. Coherence is important in my work, but it must never be flat and one-dimensional.
I did a Materialboard every Monday for a whole year. See what happens if you step away from Pinterest (even though you start there) for a while.
Une Liste de Cinque
Five aspects of an aesthetic practise
When making the aesthetic choices for a brand, a space, an experience, there are different aspects we consider. In the end it’s how it all comes together that matters. How it creates a tonality that feels just right. Or communicates a personality, or an urgency to act and to understand. How it conveys a story the audience can interact with.
Define with Shape
We structure and give personality with different forms. Square or circular, soft or hard, pointy or fluffy? An intricate pattern? It’s designing the parts, but also the whole. Combine, deconstruct. Positive and negative space…It also considers movement, composition, direction.
Express with Colour
Colour is, just as music, highly intuitive and reaches us immediately, evoking emotions. It affects the way we feel, but also act and make choices. Hardly anything talks to us more directly than the colour choices of an object or a space.
Still it’s an underused strategic tool, maybe because colour choices are quite complex, demanding practised sensibility and a lot of knowledge and skills to be used properly and effectively, and mistakes can be unforgiving.
Ground with Materiality
The shape and colour choices are deeply linked to the material qualities. A rough material feels completely different than a sleek, glossy, even though they’re given the exact same colour or shape. We need to consider materiality as an integrated part.
Materiality also enable tactility, comfort, expression of character. This is even more important to consider now, when so much of our experience is digital. An interesting quest is how we can invite that even into our digital experience. We eat with our eyes is the famous saying, but in a way we can also feel with our eyes.
Speak through Typography
You speak with words. And typography is the shapes of word. Your audience “hear” you through the tonality of typography. It is the voice, the personality.Spatial and graphic design are not two separate entities, they are experienced together. This has long been one of the aspects we work with to deliver seamless spatial brand experiences and exhibitions.
Come to life with all senses
Aesthetics are not only the visual appearance. A melody can be light and aery, just like a sheer textile. A scent can appear green or woody. We can feel sensual beauty through our bodies. And imagine with our minds eye. If we approach beauty as a multi sensory thing, how would that change our process, the questions we ask?
How would your values and ideas, emotions as well as usability be manifested in aesthetics, if you look at it more holistically and go through the five aspects above?
In nature functionality and aesthetics are intertwined, never separated.
Of course. It is us humans, who started separating things… it’s the same as we did with the misguiding separation of the body and the mind.
This led to design being misunderstood, and perhaps misused as a superficial thing, a layer over a functional object, which is limiting the understanding of what we can do. To defend that, we say that ‘form follows function’ and so on, but it never really tells the whole story, does it. Our appreciation of and need of aesthetics is a highly complex, multi-faceted thing.
Meaning and context matter and can shift our perception.
If we create in a conscious way, in harmony with nature and the planetary boundaries, with ethic aspects, with dedicated small scale production, there’s a certain aesthetic in that too. The same way, what we perceived as beautiful yesterday, might suddenly no longer appear so, like with the fashion industry. Non-conscious brands might not even seem attractive anymore.
It seems that our sense of beauty really is paying attention to the whole, so when we find out something that sort of disturbs the idea of what you first appreciated, the illusion is torn, and you see that glitch, inevitably shifting our perception.
Take Care of Your Clothes. The Rituals – Brushing. Still from film sequence for the exhibition Omstart Mode at Textilmuseum.
All senses can perceive and appreciate aesthetic value.
When it comes to sensory design, my go-to is always Juhani Pallasmaa. The Eyes of the Skin has been somewhat of a bible to me, and it’s even brought into the brand photo I use on my front page of entiere.se.
This one, The Thinking Hand explores how an aesthetic practise, and appreciation, is an embodied act.
The aesthetic choices should always serve the purpose of a project.
This is a close-up of the exhibition structure for the project Stötta Vasa/Support Vasa,
The aesthetic choices needed to work with the ship, but not steel the attention from its absolute wow-effect. It should co-exist in the overall space, but still invite the visitors to learn more about the biggest project since its salvation, and if possible, make donations.
Learn more about the project in my portfolio here, and on the Vasa museum site here. And here’s some kind words about the collaboration with the in-house team (scroll down a bit).
Aesthetic has not only to do with the what, but also the how.
How things are made are becoming increasingly important again. The process, the how, to me is essential both for the footprints it leaves, how it affects people and the planet, and also part of its story, of the aesthetic experience and interpretation.
The aesthetic interpretation of a flower is only enhanced by us knowing that it is slowly unfolding, and not constant. Or take Jackson Pollok, when we think of his paintings, his actions, walking over the large scale paintings, pouring, splattering paint across the surface, is part of the perception of the pieces.
When creating our Sequence screens, two people (me and my husband and collaborator) lays out, in trained synchronisation, each and every thread in the desired pattern. This kind of conscious creation, this ritual, I find will be a part of the aesthetic appearance. Probably should do a film about it…would you find that inspiring?
Aesthetic inspiration in words and sound.
Laurie Anderson is an avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker who has this really authentically clear, authentic and personal voice. Listen to her song Letters. Image cred and link to a recent article in V Magazine.
In the book A Poetry Handbook, the beloved poet Mary Oliver, whose work I often pick up, especially when I’m at our summer house (which I am now), walks readers through exactly how a poem is built, from meter and rhyme, to form and diction, to sound and sense.
Have you listened to Matthew Halsall? He creates this high spirited jazz. Listen to his song Colour Yes, close your eyes, how do you perceive his aesthetic?
Leaving space for poetry, and for accidents.
The 3-Michelin star chef Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana, explained that “Mistakes are human, and in a certain way, that’s beautiful.” When his pastry chef dropped a meticulously made dessert, Bottura saw the beauty of it, and turned it in a legendary dish. Watch him talk about it in this YouTube-clip.
Happy accidents are also something the iconic graphic designer Paula Scher encourages. To experiment and see what happens, when you do that, you open up for interesting things. This interview was posted in The Beautiful Thinkers Project on Medium.
A Sunday Note to self
(to create anticipation)
There’s so much beauty everywhere when you take the time to pay attention. Let’s be hunter gatherers for the real deal, constantly learning, listening, creating, evolving.
Let’s keep the conversation going!
xxx Charlotte Ryberg
In Pursuit of Beautiful Concepts
Thank you for reading The Anticipation Letters – The new Sunday ritual. A more personal and intuitive letter on design, life, work, philosophy, inspiration, creating anticipation for the week ahead. Words by ENTIÈRE founder Charlotte Ryberg. If you wish to receive it in your inbox each Sunday, subscribe below.