Aesthetics
As a class, we put together a list of things that we thought determined good and bad aesthetics.
:) - What contributes to good aesthetics?
- simple
- minimal
- sophisticated
- textured
- colourful
- selective
- hand rendered (?)
- symmetrical
- crisp (?)
- clever (?)
- clean
:( - What contributes to bad aesthetics?
- dull
- cheesy
- blurry
- random
- boring
- grainy
- confusing
- cheap
- inconsistent
- silly
- colourful
- cluttered
- illegible
The words with '(?)' are words that we re-considered. Sometimes they weren't necessarily a trait. We also saw that colourful appeared in both good and bad aesthetics, and that when used in different ways can be positive or negative.
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When dealing with aesthetics we immediately respond in a positive or negative way.
But, it's a philosophical debate rather than a factual debate. To a certain point, it's all down to taste.
But, understanding other peoples aesthetic responses is an essential skill of being a Graphic Designer.
When artwork is given an immediate response, it is important that it makes an engaging first impression.
Aesthetic judgment is unfortunately subjective.
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We created rules in pairs for what should be considered when designing to contribute to good aesthetics:
- Immediate good response
- Text is legible
- Quality of image ( resolution and execution )
- Limited colour scheme
- Consistency of style
- Contemporarily styled
- Quality of message
- Consideration of context
- Consistency of composition
- Clarity of message
In preparation for this session, we brought in our 6 examples of design we do and do not like. We laid these in the middle of the table, and, using the list we created and our own judgment, tried to determine what category (good/ bad aesthetics) the work fell under. We put what we thought was good at one end of the table and what we thought was bad at the other.
My good aesthetics purely image based example was put in the bad pile!
In our pairs again, we got an example of good and bad design of our own and analysed them using only singular words. But we did it by glancing at the image for firstly, 1 second, then 5 seconds, then 10 seconds and so on and flipped the image back over each time. Between each interval writing a different describing word. We then swapped and did the same with our parters chosen images. Here are my post-it notes:
We learnt how important it is to make a good first impression, as a lot of graphic design in life is only given 1-5 seconds judging time!
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We then created individually 3 rules of aesthetics and as a class put them together on the board as a 'rule wall':
My 3 rules of aesthetics:
- Must be high quality (pixelation / execution)
- Type must be clear and legible/ readable but not necessarily clean.
- A composition must be recognised IE a border/ layout.
