The Balance of Aesthetic and Communication

If you've been paying attention to trends in the new counter culture of design you may have noticed a breaking away from standard logos, branding, and design in general. Something more raw, cryptic, and beautiful. Design is both returning to and breaking away from its roots in the same step. Clear communication at all costs is falling by the wayside for a more subtle beauty, which harkens back to a fine art rebirth. In the same way an over saturation of ads leads to us ignoring them, standard brands and logos designed to communicate who they are with the subtlety of a sledge hammer will soon become ignored as mundane and uninteresting. Design that places aesthetics and beauty first and foremost shows a respect for the audience, crediting them with enough intelligence to figure it out on their own. Beyond this, if the focus is beauty first, the right audience with a select taste will find it and gravitate. This is a far better method of capturing attention and a sure way to see that the message resonates, rather than another blip on the radar in the ever quickening pace of life. By treating design as an art form, as opposed to a dry method of communication for business we actually amplify the original intent of creating a piece that resonates and thus holds a sense of investment in the viewer.