Aesthetic Explorations 2023

Aesthetics Exploration – Art Deco

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Born out of the artistic style of 1920s and 30s, Art Deco is a sleek and streamlined (although certainly not minimalistic) aesthetic. Art Deco emphasizes both form and functionality, adding artistic touch to functional items and architecture. Blocks of color and high contrast images are often seen in the Art Deco movement. Art Deco combines…

Aesthetic Exploration – Cyberpunk

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I’d like to explore an aesthetic that has gained popularity recently due to several great influential pieces of media. Cyberpunk consists of a futuristic set of motifs that balance between aspirational and pessimistic. It uses its mix of clean object design and impoverished scenery to tell a compelling set of stories about capitalism through the…

Aesthetic Exploration: 70’s

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The 70’s aesthetic consists of bright colors assembled in a wavy psychedelic pattern and funky out of the ordinary fonts. Not each design followed the same parameters.  Graphic designs began to push the norm and became more experimental. This led to the graphic designs of the 70’s to be coined the “dark horse” of the…

Aesthetic Exploration – Whimsical Aesthetic

Whimsical Aesthetic Our modern day definition for  Whimsical is “Silliness mixed with optimism” [6]. The dictionary Definition of Whimsical is  “Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way” [7]. Fairytales and children’s book illustrations are commonly associated with being whimsical due to their appearances of randomness and chaos. The core of this…

Aesthetic Exploration – Blobject

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A blobject is characterized by flowing curves and the absence of sharp angles or brutalist styles. They’re typically brightly colored and feature friendly childlike design. This style reached ultimate popularity in the early 2000s, especially with the rise of Apple iMac computers, which took a much different path than the boxy, gray, sharp Commodore 64…

Aesthetics Exploration: Minimalism – The Art of Simplicity

Minimalism is a trendy design movement that emphasizes simplicity, clean lines, and a concentration on fundamental features. It’s a minimalist aesthetic that’s grown in popularity in recent years, notably in the worlds of graphic and digital design. This aesthetic promotes function over form and prioritizes content over design features. The Origins of Minimalist AestheticsMinimalist design…

Aesthetic Exploration – Minimalism

I chose to do more research on the Minimalism aesthetic. I chose this because I have always found this style interesting because it translate into art, interior decor, architecture, and art. While doing research I found that this aesthetic first emerged in the early 1960’s and had a big following for the decade. It had…

Aesthetics Exploration- Cubism

Cubism is an avant-garde movement formed in Paris in the early 20th century. The earliest pioneers of the movement were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who were later joined by the likes of Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, and Juan Gris. In cubism artwork, elements of the subject are broken down to basic geometric shapes to…

Aesthetic Exploration – Southwestern

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This southwestern aesthetic primarily involves adobe buildings from an architectural standpoint. This type of building has been dated to time periods before 5,100 BC and appears all over the world, the best examples of this aesthetic in the U.S. can be found throughout Arizona and New Mexico. An adobe building is different from other structures…

Aesthetic Exploration- BRTHR

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BRTHR is a duo of filmmakers, Kyle  Wightman, and Alex Lee. The origins of the duo, and subsequent aesthetic, came about in 2013 when the two released their first video, “Tokyo Slow-Mode”. Now based in Tokyo and New York, BRTHR continually pushes the possibilities of video editing and has a fully realized aesthetic that is…

Midcentury Modern Aesthetic

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I have always had a fascination with midcentury modern. The teak wood, muted tones, velvet/corduroy fabrics, geometric shapes, and simplicity has constantly struck a cord with me time and time again. Midcentury modern dates back to the mid-20th century, roughly 1945-1969 are most often referred to as being midcentury. This aesthetic is mostly correlated to…

Aesthetics Exploration- Streetwear

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I chose the streetwear aesthetic because it resonates with my daily style and I believe many others. It is a very casual and comfortable style yet trendy. This aesthetic includes very expensive shoes, graphic t-shirts, hoodies, sweatpants, mom jeans, and vintage accessories. This aesthetic first became popular in the 1990’s surrounding the hip hop rise…

Aesthetic Exploration – Modern Architecture, Jakubczak

“The term “Modern architecture” describes architecture designed and built within the social, artistic, and cultural attitude known as Modernism” Erin Midgol (1). There is a strong emphasis on experimentation.  Modern architecture came around with advancements of engineering and building materials. With respect to architecture, modernism came around in the 20th century, and became more prevalent…
Color Wheel

Exploration an aesthetics: Zentangle

The art form I want to explore in this post is Zentangle. Here is the Zentangle inventors’ portfolio sites. http://mariathomasonline.com/maria_thomas_bio.php And below is a video that introduces Zentangle film by the National Museum of American Illustration. The lecture delivered by the couple is truly inspiring.The feature image of this post is the Color Wheel, which…

The Cyberpunk Aesthetic

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  Screen Capture of the city in ‘Cyberpunk 2077’   The cyberpunk aesthetic combines multiple visual aesthetics but generally portrays cities at night that are very high tech and futuristic. These elements are exaggerated with low key lighting that contrasts deep blacks with vibrant neon lights. Shades of purple, blue and pink are often key…

Aesthetics exploration – Lighting

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I chose aesthetics in lighting because it is a field that encompasses both technical and creative aspects of lighting design and has various practical applications in different settings. It can be used to create a specific atmosphere, enhance the functionality of a space, and bring out the best of architectural features while being sustainable. Aesthetics…

Bohemian Aesthetic

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Young Bohémienne: Natalie Clifford Barney (1875–1972) at the Age of 10 The word “bohémien(ne)” was first associated with artistic, countercultural people in 1800s France. The association is confusing because the word “bohémien(ne)” or “bohemian” actually refers to three (fairly) distinct groups of people. Firstly, the word refers to Bohemia, an actual region that sat within…

The Aesthetic of Green Cities

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  This aesthetic was inspired by a new skyscraper above being erected in Denver which will finish building in 2023. This new apartment building will incorporate a hiking trail within the building that scales from the bottom, all the way to the roof. This aesthetic incorporates our inherent human love of nature within a city…

Aesthetic Exploration – Tom Sachs, “Handyman of High Art”

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     Ever since I was first introduced to Tom Sachs via the Neistat brothers, Casey and Van Neistat, I have been captivated by his bricolage and handmade DIY aesthetic. The aesthetic almost seems anarchic but it’s quite the opposite as Tom has established an extremely deliberate set of guidelines and codes in his meticulously…

Aesthetics Exploration – Psychedelic

The aesthetic that I chose to explore was psychedelic art. It originated in the 1948, and is only possible with Albert Hofmann’s discovery of LSD. Originally, psychedelic art was literary with notable authors such as Lautreamont, and Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Then in the 1960s the aesthetic turned into an artform. Artists such as Rick Griffin and…

Aesthetics Exploration – De Stijl

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The De Stijl movement was founded in 1917 and is known for having major contributions to the artistic and architectural world. Considering that the De Stijl aesthetic began towards the end of the Expressionism era, which was known for its unusual massings, distorted forms, and natural influences, there is no doubt that the primary “fathers”…

Aesthetics Exploration – Outrun

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Outrun, also known as or attributed with synthwave and retrowave, among others, is a relatively new aesthetic. It only recently came about and gained popularity in the 2010s. Outrun visuals and music evoke nostalgia, familiarity and longing of the 80s, even with people who were born long after they ended. Fast, boxy cars, neon colors…

Tiki Taka: An Aesthetic of Soccer

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When we were discussing art in class, sports being considered an art was brought up. That discussion got me thinking of soccer since I used to play a lot of it in the past, and it specifically made me think of team playstyles. One of the most prominent team playstyles in the last couple of…

Aesthetics of Modern Gothic Design

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Photo source: Matt Cameron (1) Introduction Tracing back to its roots in 12th-16th century architectural styles, modern gothic design is an impressive style. While the modern style may be more free and open, some similar themes include use of ornate embellishments and focus on light and shadow. There is an emphasis on functional geometry and repeating…

Streamline Moderne: Simplified Art Deco

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During the roaring 20s, when Art Deco reigned supreme, opulence and grandeur were common parts of Art Deco architecture. However, when the great depression hit, the times called for a more simplified style. Architects, designers, and artists everywhere took inspiration from aerodynamics, creating designs that had lines that flowed like airstreams. Sometimes this was for…

Aesthetic Exploration – The Space Age

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The 1950’s were a time of great prosperity for the United States of America. The technological developments that were spurred on by World War II were becoming commercialized and mass produced by the previously-wartime indsutry for the everyday citizen to enjoy. Household appliances, the vacuum cleaner, fiberglass, and modern cars from Ford and General Motors.…

Aesthetics Exploration – Art Academia

Art Academia is the aesthetic that characterizes biological and naturalist illustration, patent diagrams, and DaVinci’s sketches. It is an old aesthetic, and a contemporary one. It spans various techniques and styles from pencil sketches to ink drafting. In all of its iterations however, it is characterized by largely black and white illustration with minimal earth…

Dirtbag Aesthetic Exploration

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The term “dirtbag” originated in the climbing world to describe people who were so committed to climbing that they would forgo a traditional lifestyle in order to spend as much time as possible climbing, beginning in the 1960’s and 70’s. Examples of dirtbags are Yvonne Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, and The Stone Masters, a…

Aesthetic Exploration – Art Deco

Art Deco, a shortened version of the French phrase Arts Décoratifs, is an architectural and product design style that originated in pre-WW1 France and became popular in the USA and Europe from the 1920’s-1930’s. Significant people in Art Deco included Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, and Pierre Chareau (1). Major influences for the Art Deco style…

Biophilic Design

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The aesthetic that I chose to study is a combining of nature with architecture. This aesthetic is the cause for indoor house plants and larger windows with better lighting that allows the people inside to feel closer to nature. This style was initially created by a man named E.O Wilson in 1984 in a book…

An Examination of Pop Art

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Pop art is a fairly modern aesthetic that was created in the mid 1950’s as a result of artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. The movement was fabricated as a statement that criticized the fine art’s negative views of mundane or commercialized art, and pop artists generally worked with bright colors, and simplistic…

Aesthetic Exploration // Dadaism

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Dadaism was an avant-garde art movement which came to fruition in Europe in the early 20th century. Beginning in 1920, artists who felt a strong opposition to the first World War began to resonate with a new counter culture art movement. In its roots, artists saw Dadaism as a protest of the colonialist and nationalist…

Aesthetic Exploration- SolarPunk

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As an identified aesthetic Solarpunk is a relatively new concept and idea space. This is point further proved by the fact that Cyberpunk is recognized by the computer as I type and Solarpunk gets treated to the red squiggly line, suggesting that I may have meant to say “Solarium”. “The term, coined in 2008, refers…

Aesthetic Exploration: 60s Show Bikes

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Welcome to the world of custom motorcycles. Within this world there are countless aesthetics to choose from, dating from the early 1900s to present day. Seemingly every decade and every industrialized country has a history with custom motorcycles that is unique to its time and place. For this blog post I wanted to showcase the…

Aesthetic Exploration – The Braun Style

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Figure 1 Dieter Rams https://rolling.design/en/blog/dieter-rams/   The aesthetic I chose is dubbed the “Braun Style,” which was created by Dieter Rams in the 1960s and inspired designers like Jonathan Ive at Apple. Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer best known for his work with the electronics company Braun during the 1950s and 60s. His…

Aesthetic Exploration- A Million Times

In this fast-paced world where every event depends on the singularity of time, we often overlook the complexity and implications of time in our day-to-day life. A Million Times’ is a kinetic art installation by the Swedish Design studio Humans Since 1982. The work makes use of several clocks that work synchronously to create mesmerizing…

Aesthetic Exploration – American Numismatics

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Aesthetics  of American Numismatics The phrase ‘pocket change’ means something is inexpensive or cheap. But have you ever stopped to look at your pocket change? Although coins today carry very little value and are not used as a primary form of currency in daily life, that as not always been true. In 1929, the peak…

Aesthetic of the Incomplete

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When we think of seeing a building or work of art, I believe many of us would imagine a complete, fully-realized structure or piece. The aesthetic of the incomplete capitalizes on this inherent psychological reaction by intentionally leaving something looking incomplete, thus challenging conventional expectations. This aesthetic utilizes Gestalt psychology, founded in the 20th century,…

Aesthetic Exploration: Victorian Architecture

History: Victorian architecture refers not to a particular style but to an era—the reign of Queen Victoria over the United Kingdom of Great Britain from 1837 to 1901. During this long reign, architecture in Britain was dominated by many different styles. Some were evocative of the past—Gothic, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Scottish Baronial, Italianate, and Greek, to…

Aesthetic Exploration: Eldritch

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The word Eldritch is commonly defined as an adjective to describe that which is strange, eerie, uncanny, ghostly, or similarly fear-inducing. It is also commonly associated with H.P. Lovecraft’s elder gods and eldritch horrors such as Cthulhu or Yog-Sothoth. Below are four artists renditions of an eldritch horror pulled from a simple google search with…

Maximalism as an Aesthetic

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Maximalism, as one might guess, is an aesthetic that heavily opposes minimalism. Where minimalism says “Less is more”, maximalism responds with “No, actually, more is more.” Maximalism is a form of expression that relies on excess. Although the word maximalist has only started gaining prominence in the last few decades, the concept has been around…

From Factories to Furnishings: Industrial Chic

I chose the industrial chic or industrial aesthetic because I have always enjoyed its look. Something about the exposed brick, ductwork, and metal has always drawn my attention. While this aesthetic is most commonly associated with interior design, it can just as easily be applied to a variety of objects. This can be done primarily…

Aesthetic Exploration- Retro-Futuristism

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Retro-Futurism is an aesthetic that takes on an artistic style similar to that of the 40s and 50s. This is the kind of style that reminds me of classic Coca-Cola ads or drawings like “Rosie the Riveter”. What makes retro-futurism special is the incorporation of what someone from the mid 1900s might expect the distant…

Organic Architecture Aesthetic Exploration

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Organic Architecture The definition of organic architecture is the focus on sustainability and the harmony of interaction between buildings and nature. This aesthetic creation is contributed with Frank Lloyd Wright and his unique architecture designs. It is believed it was started as early as 1908  when Frank Lloyd Wright began to use organic when describing…

Aesthetics Exploration :- MAXIMALISM

Maximalism can be defined as the aesthetics of excess. It is an expression belonging or relating to a style in design, art, etc., that uses the largest range of materials and colors possible and very complicated shapes of forms. According to Wikipedia, maximalism in the arts is “a reaction against minimalism… an aesthetic of excess…
An intricate airship hovers amongst a metal jungle that poses as a city

Aesthetic Exploration – Steampunk

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  [1] An airship hovers over a Steampunk city, exhaling steam into the sky above and shining light on the city below   Steampunk was originally inspired by the science fiction genre, but is primarily viewed through a retrospective lens, adapting historical concepts through a futuristic interpretation. The “Steampunk era” is devoid of digital contraptions,…

Aesthetic Exploration – Architecture Parlante

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Architecture Parlante, French for “speaking architecture”, is an architecture aesthetic meant to convey its purpose through its form. It originates in the 18th century during the Revolutionary period to describe the works of the French architects Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Étienne-Louis Boullée, and Jean-Jacques Lequeu. Although not used as a term in modern architecture, a modern equivalency…

Aesthetics Exploration: Aerodynamic Design

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Aerodynamic design refers to the science of designing objects in such a way that they experience minimal air resistance, also known as drag, while simultanesously generating either lift or downforce, depending on the application. Engineers achieve this by designing and simulating streamlined shapes that allows air to flow smoothly over the surface of the object,…

Aesthetic Exploration – Nature Reclaiming Civilization

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The aesthetic I chose to study is best described as ‘nature fighting back’. Depictions of this aesthetic include imagery of nature flourishing despite man-made obstacles – how humanity has abandoned, neglected, or mistreated a space that was once vital to everyday life. This style was popularized by multiple forms of media, ranging from photographs, paintings,…

Aesthetics Exploration – Retro Futurism

Retro Futurism is an aesthetic which employs the use of one technological theme to create an idealized Sci-Fi outlook of what civilization could become. The Jetson’s, Lost in Space and Fallout are all examples of Retro Futurism with a specific focus on flying cars, personal robots and atomic advancements. Retro Futurisms appeal is one of…

Industrial Aesthetic

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“Industrialism adheres to a simple, strong aesthetic with a focus on the raw functionality of the elements” – Alison Giese (designer) Industrial aesthetic in design gained popularity in the early 2000s and has remained popular. Most of the context I’ve seen it in is in interior design, or the design of city spaces. Generally, industrial…

Aesthetic Exploration – Brutalism

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Brutalism is an architectural style that arose in the 1950s in the United Kingdom. The style arose during building reconstruction in the post-war era. Brutalism is a style where the raw materials used to construct the building are exposed. Buildings usually have a dark worn out aesthetic to them. A great example of this is…

Instagram User neptunes2000’s Outfit Pictures

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The outfit picture or (fit pic) has been on Instagram since the creation of the image sharing social media site. Like most things, fit pics started as a simple way for a person to share their outfit. Commonly, users will either take a photo in the mirror or have a photographer take pictures of them.…

Ski Bum Aesthetic

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Uncover Colorado defines a ski bum as “A person who moves to a ski town, takes up just enough employment to pay for their skiing habit, and lives to ski 100+ days per season. Some last a season, others stick around for life. There’s an art to ski bumming. Ski bums are often lifties and…

Aesthetic Exploration – Utilitarian Design

The utilitarian aesthetic is distinct and recognizable, but sometimes overlooked as an aesthetic decision. Since it emphasizes a focus on functionality over achieving specific aesthetic properties. Nonetheless, the usage of utilitarian philosophy in design produces distinct designs which can be evaluated aesthetically. The philosophy of Utilitarianism was first concretely defined in the early 19th century…

Superflat Aesthetic

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Background Superflat or Superflat Pop is an aesthetic that rose to popularity in the 2000s-2010s. The term Superflat was founded by the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami in 2001 and was used as the name for his postmodern art movement. The Superflat aesthetic has many distinct characteristics, including manga characters, neon/pastel color pallets, a 2D (flat)…

Aesthetic Exploration – Art of Human Anatomy

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How well versed does one need to be in the structural design of the human form?  If one intends to have the figure as a central element in their works, they will need to explore and memorize the design of the human form.  If one wishes to become a master draftsman in any genre, studying…

Industrial Design Aesthetic

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  The aesthetic I chose was Industrial Design. I chose this aesthetic because it was something I’ve always seen/known about on a superficial level but never really understood. The design seems to be increasingly popular, or at the very least, seen a recent resurgence in popularity in both personal spaces and in commercial/public spaces based…

Aesthetics Exploration – Ma(間)

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Ma is a Japanese word that means a space or an interval in time[1]. It’s a common word used in everyday speech, but when talking about aesthetics, it has been used to describe “the partiality in Japanese design for empty spaces, vagueness, abstraction, asymmetrical balance, and irregularity.” [2] It can also be used as an…

Aesthetic Exploration: Magewave

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The aesthetic I chose was magewave, a composite aesthetic that has taken years to develop, borrowing from many different themes, and solidifying itself into a truly unique aesthetic (that happens to now be one of my favorites.) Wizards have always evoked a very specific image, one of knowledge, power, and fantasy, and in contrast to…