What role does beauty play in your work?
When we experience something beautiful, we often feel pleasure. Beauty evokes an emotional response in us. There are many different types of things that we can find beautiful across our five senses. We can see, taste, touch, smell or hear something beautiful. Beauty is a combination of shape, form, color and composition that pleases our aesthetic senses, especially sight. Beauty is not specific to one type of style – nor is it superficial. It creates an emotional response that is hardwired in us. Our brain releases dopamine when we experience beauty, similar to when we go on a good run, have sex, do drugs or eat chocolate. Beauty is a part of functionality in many types of creative work. Research has shown that beautiful environments make people behave better, lowers crime, and even helps people heal in hospitals. People choose to buy products based on the beauty of the package design. As designers and creators, we can’t ignore something so closely tied to functionality.
What constitutes “good design” in general?
Good design is in my opinion both beautiful and functional. It’s successful at what it’s trying to achieve or communicate. Good design can be used to inform, inspire, delight, sell products or tell a story. It can also make complex topics easier to understand, make experiences simpler, reduce waste or drive attention to a cause.