What we can learn from the Arts: Leveraging the Power of Aesthetics for Businesses

Written by Spencer Lee Boya

What is aesthetics and why does it matter in business? As the business world becomes increasingly homogenised, it is imperative for a business to ‘differentiate’ itself to survive, especially in its early stages. And one of the first things that comes to mind when we talk about differentiation in a business-oriented sense is branding.

Business scholars have reflected on the subject of branding for a long time and well-established scholars, such as Kevin Lane Keller or Jean-Noel Kapferer, continue to detail its importance; how it captures customer value, creates association, and serves as a leverage point. When asked about what exactly branding is, business gurus such as Kevin Lane Keller, David A. Aaker, Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong and countless more tell you that a brand is a name, a term, a symbol, a design, or even a combination of these things.

But this line of questioning and these answers are misleading and, ultimately, unhelpful. The real questions are, how do I come up with a name that differentiates me from the crowd? How do I instruct my marketing team to provide me with a ‘design’? What is the best symbol to represent my company?

Unfortunately, business scholarship rarely answers these questions, because the business gurus simply do not know the answers.

Aesthetics

In the past, aesthetics, as a branch of philosophical study, was usually tied to the Arts. Thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and Benedetto Croce defined ‘aesthetics’ as something related to the theory of art and the study of beauty. However, as Professor James Shelley from the University of Auburn puts it, ‘[t]he term Aesthetics has come to be used to designate, among other things, a kind of object, a kind of judgement, and a kind of value’. In its essence, aesthetics today has become an experience and judgement after perceiving various semiotics of signs. Andrew Klevan from Oxford University suggests that aesthetics is best described as a cluster of interrelated meanings, and rightfully so.

To illustrate this, let's take an example.

Imagine a man turning up for a job interview dressed in a suit with trousers that are too long and baggy, a tie which is untidily detached from his collar, a pocket square folded in an odd shape and a suit jacket that is too tight with its sleeves too long, covering his hand completely.

Many interviewers might not be impressed. But why?

If you know the basics of classic menswear (and certainly if you considered yourself a menswear enthusiast), you would note how ill-fitting this suit is. You would have made this judgement because you spotted rookie mistakes, which often denote a kind of ‘messiness’. Even if, however, you do not have expert menswear knowledge, it is likely that you might still consider the person ‘not well put together’ or even ‘messy’.

Being ‘Messy’, and ‘Not well put together’ are active aesthetic judgements, whether based on expert knowledge or just a general feeling. Throughout life, people come to associate certain semiotic signals with the judgements ‘Messy’ and ‘Not well put together’. As a consequence, people often consciously or unconsciously make aesthetic judgements based off the semiotic signs that they perceive.

Most of the time, these assessments may seem reasonable and straightforward, but it can be problematic when you make a judgement (such as ‘this is a messy person’) without understanding the intricacies of what exactly denoted the meaning. Our aesthetic judgements are, in fact, far more complex than this, and that is where it gets interesting.

Coherence

Let’s take a look at a different example, Karl Lagerfeld – one of the most celebrated and influential fashion icons to have ever lived.

At the 2023 Met Gala, Lagerfeld was pictured in baggy trousers, an ill-fitting suit jacket, and a tie knot detached from his collar (similar though not identical to the image here).

The question is, would most people’s first impression be that of a poorly dressed or ‘not well put together’ person?

Likely not, but why?

Some may argue the context itself makes the difference, but there are, in fact, intricate details and visual symmetries in the way Lagerfeld puts together the pieces of clothing. These create an (almost) unnoticeable “coherence” which can subtly influence people’s perceptions.

If you look closely at images of Lagerfeld from different events you can find various ways in which he fits these otherwise ‘messy’ elements. You can find consistent usage of triangular shapes in his ensemble (like the collar in this image) and, if you pay close attention, you will find that his pocket squares are often cleanly folded with 2 triangular corners put in harmonious dialogue with his peak lapel suit jacket.

At the 2023 Met Gala, Lagerfeld’s glittering piece of isosceles triangular silverware, attached to his tie, shared a nearly identical angle size with his Victorian-styled point collar, and the blade of his tie resembled an enlarged version of these triangular motifs. In fact, the gap between his tie knot made a perfect equilateral triangle. In photos in which he appears alongside Kate Bosworth you can notice how his ‘baggy’ trousers join the last of his shoes, and how his ‘ill-fitting’ jacket drapes perfectly to form a neat and tidy silhouette.

In theory, the ‘messy’ interviewee and Lagerfeld make identical ‘menswear mistakes’ but one is considered ‘not well put together’ and the other is not. The context is not all that makes the difference. The secret lies in the “coherence” of the individual aesthetic elements, the way they have been carefully curated and, ultimately, the meaning they denote.

We need to look more closely at the ‘cluster of interrelated meanings’, and the perceptions which it can prompt, to understand how different elements work together to generate coherence. Why? Because when something is coherent, it becomes convincing.

As the semiotician and musicologist Philip Tagg astutely pointed out, the morphemes ‘We’, ‘Wii’, ‘Oui’, and ‘Weeee’ sounds the same, are pronounced in the same way, but they do not denote the same meanings. Understanding aesthetics properly is about understanding the coherence of meaning. This can be a powerful tool for entrepreneurs.

Takeaway

When you are developing a brand, a marketing campaign, or even company culture, it is critical to notice how isolated pieces of meaning come together to form an overall aesthetic. For example, from a superficial level, if your company offers therapeutic consultation services, you probably would not want to have pirate flags in your practice. This may seem like common sense, but it gets more complicated as you explore how aesthetic elements translate in different forms, and how that comes together to form a coherent aesthetic experience. For example, denoting energy in your athletics brand can take the form of using colours such as orange and red, but it can also take the form of having sharp edges and incorporating a sense of motion in your logo design. This can then be translated into the drinks that you serve at an event (Red Bull or Caramel Latte), or how you design your team-building activities (tug of war or nail salon visit).

For businesses, understanding how aesthetics work can become very useful when building a coherent and convincing organisation.

Spencer Lee Boya

Spencer is a Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Entrepreneur reading Entrepreneurial Studies as the ESG Scholar at King’s College, Cambridge. He currently runs The Social Canvas Projects, a social enterprise aimed at Reimagining the Power of the Creative Arts in Driving Social Change through interdisciplinary project-based collaboration. As a Multi-Disciplinary Artist, he is a classically trained pianist, conductor and composer, and has composed extensively for film, concert and theatre music. Aside from music, he studied extensively the Cinematic Arts and Classic, Sartorial Mens Fashion and has been a member of the E-Lab since January 2024.