The Value of an Aesthetic Eye

I am not one for conspiracy theories, but there is one conspiracy I am convinced has been plotted for decades to overthrow the western world: GHASTLY ID PHOTOS. When they insist on always placing a light source immediately next to the camera lens, it guarantees a single consisten effect. The entire subject is reduced to the photographic equivalent of a kindergarten portrait. My six-year-old son's loving depiction of me with two eyes, two nostrils and a mouth is nearly the same two-dimensional image that stares back at me from my driver's license, except that it wasn't rendered with so much love and care. I've heard it explained once that they want to ensure you look exactly like the ID photo, but the only way this will resemble me is if the guy checking my ID holds up a flashlight to his cheek and shines it directly into my eyes — nice!

MOST OF OUR WORLD is blind to the visual beauty and drama all around them. Photography is only one example. If I were to hand cameras to 100 people ask them to take beautiful photos in less then bright light, 95 of them would use the built-in flash and ruin it. Call it a lack of education, but even if I were to explain it to them, nearly half of them would roll their eyes at me and keep using the flash (I know because I've tried, and some of those were so-called professionals).

A design agency executive once explained to me that the vast majority of clients will pick the ugly design as a rule. If they produce nine good concepts and then add a less-than-desireable concept to make it an even ten, then they could almost guarantee the client would choose the less-than-desirable concept. Weird? In my career as a freelance designer and art director, I had exactly the same experience.

But here's the funny thing: those same people who are so aesthetically challenged will usually recognize good design over time. Sure, asked to make a snap decision all at once, most people will usually pick what is familiar or visually simple, albeit ugly. But when they take a few days to decide and have a chance to get use to the fresh ideas, they almost always come around, saying something like, "The more I think about that concept, the more it grows on me. Let's keep it."

WE NEED CREATIVE DIRECTION in our work. While it's true that most sane people will recognize good design and bad design, creating it is something else, let alone stopping bad design and images from going out the door. Any production operation that fails to hire a proven aesthetic, is about to bite off their nose to spite their face, and that's not a pretty image. While it's common to have a team of engineers and no designer, it's not smart. You need at least some part time aesthetic looking at what you produce before it goes out. After all, nobody cares about how well a thing works, if it looks like garbage at first glance.