I suppose I would be hard pressed to get a studio full of designers and others who enjoy beautiful things to appreciate ugly as a necessity but I like a challenge, so I’ll make my case here.
“Surround yourself with beautiful things,” is the adage. I’m not certain who said it first but certainly it’s a motto that many get behind. It makes sense. It makes everything prettier and who wants to live among the ugly or the mediocre when the beautiful is there to be had instead. And how do we know something’s beautiful? because of the ugly.
In, “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are,” by Alan Watts, he puts forth an example of a single ball in space. Is it moving? Is it sitting still? Is it big? Is it small? Who knows, you can’t tell. Add another ball, and suddenly you may be able to determine that one is bigger, one is smaller, one is moving, one is staying still, etc.
If we look to Chinese philosophy, we get the yin yang concept, which visually displays the interaction, interdependence and interconnectedness of contrary forces; you can’t have one without the other.
When I first started in this field, I must say that I was surprised to hear Designers and Account Managers referring to a gelatin box or frozen food designs as “Beautiful,” when they seemed unexceptional to me. On top of that, they were gelatin and frozen food packages, what are you talking about, “Beautiful?”
Then I started to field the portfolios. Thank goodness for the digital revolution and PDFs! I always receive a few during the week, and I’m speaking strictly of design portfolios at this point, not photographers or illustrators. There’s a whole lot of ugly out there.
The ugly was easy to identify, whether it was in a portfolio as a concept or on the shelf as a realized design. Pale, gray photography of food, cluttered or scattered information, conflicting patterns or elements, (there’s a reason we don’t wear stripes with plaid) all contributed to my confusion. Why would anyone make something like this if they wanted to be, or already are, a designer? Blame the client, I know, I know…
Eventually, something shines. It may be the concept, the handling of type or icon treatments, a twist on something familiar, but something will break out from the fray and show itself as good or thoughtful, if not beautiful.
Now, if not for the ugly, would I know the beautiful work? Would I just pass every portfolio on to our Creative Director and let him suss it out? Or is it because of the ugly that the good and great work really shines? Is it because of the ugly we know not to mix typefaces, not to leave widows and how not to light food for photography?
I’d say there’s a lot to learn about what not to do from the ugly. We may look to surround ourselves with beautiful things but it’s the ugly that’s out there that helps steer us away, and in turn, towards the beautiful, an ugly necessity.