Elevate Your Aesthetics for Beautiful Business Outcomes

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the instant economy and how having everything at our fingertips is an existential danger. Faster, easier, cheaper is a destructive battle cry, fueling planet-decimating things like fast fashion.

If the Great Pause of the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that things have to change. Our accelerated culture, which skimps on integrity to cash in on volume, comes at a devastating price: socially, environmentally, and humanistically. 

This is where aesthetic integrity comes into play. It’s the antidote because it’s all about quality. It’s a human-centered approach that makes all the right connections, backing external appeal with a creative, thoughtful internal structure.

If you’re not a designer, you might believe that you don’t need to think about aesthetic integrity. That’s not at all the case. From a CEO who’s pitching a rebrand to their board of directors to an intern who’s helping run a social media channel for a brand, you’ve got to understand why it’s so important and how to spot it, leverage it, and, perhaps most importantly, deliver it.

Design matters. Now more than ever. 

What the Heck is Aesthetic Integrity & Why Do We Need It?

Good design isn’t just nice to look at — it has a tangible impact on your well-being. Neuroscience shows that enjoying something that looks and works great causes your brain to release happiness-driving chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.

Dig a little deeper, and you’ll notice that great UX is all about creating relationships. Again, that’s a science thing. As legendary neuropsychologist Donald Hebb once said, “Cells that fire together, wire together.” 

Our perception of the world is shaped by how our brains communicate with our bodies. Give your mind something pleasing to engage with, and you drive a physical outcome, like clicking on an ad or a “buy now” button.

Plus, math drives the universe. So, if you look at iconic architecture, like the White House, for example, you might notice that the design is beautifully composed and balanced — in other words, aesthetically pleasing. That’s because the architect, James Hobson, used mathematical sequencing like the Fibonacci spiral to project symmetry and balance.

(Source: GoGeometry.com)

I believe that a smart harmony of form and function is key to aesthetic integrity. For example, I’ve been on the hunt for a premium shaker bottle because I'm trying to drink more healthy nutrient-rich shakes, and it’s been a hassle. Most of the ones I’ve tried end up breaking or leaking. Finally, after sifting through endless reviews and way too many Google searches, I found a bottle that broke out of the sea of sameness. 

The marketing was spot on, showing the exact pain point I was facing when I shook my shake, and it leaked. The short video clip spotlighted the shaker bottle like it was an iPhone or expensive car. The bottle's differentiated form factor — it's pill-shaped — works perfectly because the curvy design means no weak or leaky hard edges.

Great design is also about eliminating the excess. As Leonardo Davinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” 

The bottle’s shape means that you don’t need the metal ball that mostly every other shake bottle manufacturer uses for balance. It’s a pain to clean, easy to lose, and annoying all around. Instead, this bottle does the trick on all points and is exactly what I envisioned. I’ve already told half a dozen people about this shaker bottle and know at least two who have bought it. (You are welcome, Shakesphere!)

That’s the perfect example of how, in its essence, aesthetic integrity helps people make meaningful connections and improve their lives. If that sounds like a fundamental value of a successful business — and the perfect way to express it — you’ve got the picture.  

Earn a Seat at the Table

This leads me to one of my favorite sayings (and pieces of art — this hangs in my office, and I look at it every day):

Its creator, Tim Belonax, made it using a mix of algorithms in the Facebook analog makerspace. Pretty meta, right? 

Read the fine print, and you’ll see this sentiment (and truth) comes from Charles Eames, the iconic designer who has inspired my journey as a designer, creator, and entrepreneur.

Here’s the full quote:

“Eventually, everything connects — people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.”

The glue? Aesthetic integrity. 

There are many reasons that Eames’ work endures. Take his iconic chairs, for example — one of which I’m lucky enough to own.

Together the perfect blend of a disruptive design, brilliant marketing strategy, and a simple object (a chair) makes the item valuable and the aesthetic invaluable. 

To me, there’s no question: the investment was well worth it. Since I purchased the vintage chair a few years ago, its value has already appreciated nearly 30%.

But that’s just the superficial part of it. How the chair makes me feel is the thing. I’m proud of it. I talk about it, and I use it as a muse — clearly because I’m writing about it.

Your naked eye can appreciate its beauty: the aesthetic.

Your body can feel the comfort. You can sit in it for hours and still feel refreshed, not cramped because it perfectly grips your form: the integrity.

This is the power of great design. It turns the ordinary (a chair) into extraordinary experiences and stories.

Now pull this theme out to the product or service a company provides. Today’s hottest digital disruptors, like Allbirds, Tea Drops, and Peloton, pay careful attention to every aesthetic detail, from their website to the unboxing experience, and of course, the product itself. 

The confidence that comes from sitting in that Eames chair is akin to knowing you are wearing cool, comfortable, environmentally friendly sneakers, drinking bagless, sustainable organic tea, or gracing your home with an artistic piece of workout equipment that uplifts your body, mind, and spirit. 

Smart designers know that everything from colors to shapes and typography tap into human psychology. The trick is to use that power for good by creating things that move the world forward.

Everyday Aesthetics Elevated

The best part about aesthetic integrity is that it’s not hard or expensive to introduce it into your everyday life. You can use these principles to turn mundane things, like a presentation, into beautiful, compelling works that tell a story that’s worth people’s time and attention. 

So, for example, I recently was chatting with a founder who was upset because a pitch to her board of directors fell flat. I asked why (usually my first question) and then asked to see the presentation.

Its fatal flaw was it had no aesthetic integrity. 

There was no story. No soul. There were countless bullet points, the fonts were all over the place, and every slide was packed to the brim with words or images. I felt like I was at the optometrist’s office, staring at an eye chart.

The product featured in the presentation improves patient quality of life through a lightweight, mobile-connected device that delivers a more measured medical dosage on the go. This is a major point of differentiation between the competition’s products, which are bulky, high-maintenance, and often don’t create a feedback loop between the patients and their medical practitioner. 

The fix was easy for me. First, I started with function. What was the story that needed to be told? What outcome did my client desire? 

From there, I thought about the key inputs, stories, and information necessary for a compelling narrative that delivers the desired result.

The good news is that it was a relatively easy fix. I just brought into play all the most basic communication and interface design rules — the things that UX and graphic designers use every day. 

First, I simplified the content, reducing many ideas down to the top five.

Then I decided to tell the story through a primary visual on each slide using the rule of thirds, which is a simple composition guideline. Basically, you make a grid with nine boxes and put the image on the grid. That makes it slightly off-center, so the eye is drawn to it.

I balanced each page by using ample white space and contrasting colors to emphasize the order of information. Higher contrast emphasizes more important information; lower contrast indicates lesser points. 

By introducing harmony and balance to the presentation, the relatively dry material became more vibrant and dynamic. It still had the same information, but this time served up with aesthetic integrity.

And what happened? 

The board loved the “new” pitch. The new presentation's pass-along value was elevated because it was now packed with the same heart and soul as the founder’s vision. It was human, and the tone of the product was now matched and consistent in the presentation. 

Just to be clear, what I did wasn’t about slapping on a fresh coat of paint to jazz up the presentation. There were good bones — solid information — to begin with, and my job was to use some human-centric design to make sure people could take it in. 

If it sounds simple, it is. That’s the beauty of aesthetic integrity: you don’t have to be an experienced designer to understand its principles. Once you can appreciate its importance, it changes how you look at everything. 

A famous design thinking example of this was when Airbnb skyrocketed their booking rates by elevating their listing photos' aesthetic integrity. In 2009, the platform’s founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia — both Rhode Island School of Design alums — realized the site wasn’t getting much traction in New York City, so they booked with 24 hosts to understand the issue. Once there, they discovered the pictures on the site, which were generally low-quality, shot on smartphones, didn’t properly showcase the listings. 

As Gebbia noted, “No one was booking because you couldn't see what you were paying for."

The fix? The two founders rented a $5,000 camera and set out to take as many professional-quality pictures of properties as possible. The result was that New York listings skyrocketed, with Airbnb’s revenue in the City doubling by the end of the month. 

In 2010, Airbnb launched its photography service, making it simple for hosts to hire a professional photographer to style and shoot their space. This empowers hosts to earn up to 40% more on their listing, and as Airbnb notes, “Payment comes from future bookings and is typically paid off with one or two nights.”

If you’re invested in the success of your business, then it’s easy to see the ROI of aesthetic integrity. And beyond that, the ability to see the world more harmoniously is, in my opinion, invaluable.

What’s your favorite example of aesthetic integrity? Hit me up in the comments — I can talk great design all day.