Examples from art and design

- [Instructor] To help put you in the proper mindset for understanding design aesthetics, let's take a quick look at some things that society has deemed to be beautiful over the centuries. Afterwards, we'll talk briefly about aesthetics in print and digital design. Let's start our review of beauty and things with pleasing aesthetic qualities by looking at nature, such as space, earth, plants, and animals. There's Aurora Borealis in our skies and nebulas in space. The Grand Canyon, Mount Fuji, the Great Barrier Reef, spiral patterns in nature, schools of fish, zebra, and giraffe, and so on. People also find beauty in manmade structures and objects like architecture and furniture. Think the Taj Mahal, El Castillo at Chichen Itza, and the Chrysler Building, or an elegant Eames lounge chair with an ottoman and a Tiffany lamp. In the world of art, we have such iconic images as Michelangelo's "Sistine Chapel" and Botticelli's "Birth of Venus." We have Rembrandt's "Mona Lisa," Van Gogh's "Starry Night," and Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss." Okay, so I can't show you any more recent work without obtaining permission due to copyright laws, so let's just drop some names here. Looking at more contemporary art that is objectively beautiful and/or worthy of aesthetic consideration, think of internationally renowned artists like Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Andy Goldsworthy, Cindy Sherman, Carrie Mae Weems, James Terrell, Anish Kapoor, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker, Ai Weiwei, Olafur Eliasson, and Banksy to name a few. In the world of graphic design, there are some remarkable, noteworthy graphic designers, many of whom you benefit by knowing about, like Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Michael Beirut, Stephen Sagmeister, Eddie Opara Massimo Vignelli, David Carson, Louise Fili, Ellen Lupton, Gail Anderson, Chip Kidd, Neville Brody, Jessica Walsh, and Jessic Hische. The list could go on. In web design and development and UI/UX design, there are a whole slew of people you might want to follow, including Jen Simmons, Sarah Soueidan, Rachel Andrew, Lea Verou, Chris Coyier, Meagan Fisher, Cameron Moll, Dawn Norman, Eric Meyer, Jeffrey Zeldman, Rachel Nabors, Jared Spool, Stephanie Walker, Eric Kennedy, Erica Hall, and IDEO, the Global Design and Innovation Company, celebrated for their use of design thinking and human-centered design approaches. These are just a handful of the key experts and innovators who are out there designing and innovating our web experiences, so definitely take the time to look them up. Let's shift now to talking about what makes for good design and how good design can affect perception. Look at how these two graphics speak about environmentalism. Is one of them more immediately appealing, perhaps more objectively, successfully designed than the other? And why? What can we say about the choices each designer made regarding shape, color, illustrative style, and the intended message behind the design? Who is the target audience for these images? Is it the same audience? Should the audience matter? Absolutely. Part of being a good designer is learning who the audience is and creating visuals that will appeal to that group. So what kinds of things do people find attractive in designs? Harmonious colors and attractive, readable texts help with effective communication. Textures and gradations attract us, as well as contrasts, patterns, and movement. So do symmetry and alignment, like repeating shapes and lines, and white space to enhance focus. The principles and elements of design, when used intentionally with an eye towards aesthetics, can be employed by you to create good design. Good design emphasizes clarity, honesty, and transparency without overt manipulation, yet, can we be persuaded, rightly or wrongly, by good design? If it looks good on the outside, like a package, a brochure, or a website, mustn't the product or service also be of high quality on the inside and more worthy of our consideration than that of a competitor with an inferior design? That is a good question worth pondering. Just because someone spends more money on a design doesn't necessarily mean that they have a superior product or service, or does it? As a designer of web experiences, you have a responsibility to your stakeholders and clients to create designs that promote the client's image, products, or services while attracting their target audience. As you go through the rest of this course, you'll be introduced to multiple design concepts that, when used effectively, can help you improve the aesthetic qualities of your digital designs for web experiences.