Schönheit und Ästhetik ist schwer zu definieren und jeder versteht eventuell etwas ein wenig anderes darunter – aber es gibt in jedem Fall bestimmte Punkte, auf die sich die meisten einigen können.

Marty Neumeier hat sich die Mühe gemacht, aus dem Standpunkt des Designers diese Frage zu erläutern.

Er hat dabei einige sehr interessante Aspekte beleuchtet, die ich hier mit seinem Einverständnis wiedergeben möchte.

dt.Übersetzung folgt…

Using aesthetics, we learn to separate the authentic from the fake, the pure from the polluted, the courageous from the timid. In short, we develop good taste.  

Good taste is the promise and the payoff of aesthetics. And like beauty, good taste can’t be bought. It’s not a manual you can memorize or an attitude you can adopt. It’s not a synonym for snobbishness because snobbishness isn’t good taste. Good taste has long been considered a quality that existed mostly in the eye of the beholder.

The Romans had a saying for: “De gustibus non est disputandum” or about taste, there’s no argument, but this isn’t completely true. Well, there’s a wide range of what might be considered good taste. It doesn’t stretch on forever. There’s such a thing as a bad taste too, and most of us know it when we see it.

What the birthday cake model of aesthetics allows, is the coexistence of personal associations (the eye of the beholder) with formal qualities (the eye of the educated beholder).

The education of the eye and other senses is what separates those with good taste from those with ordinary or bad taste. This is not snobbishness. It’s a recognition that you have to work to develop good taste and it’s mostly in the area of understanding formal principles. Psychologist Howard Gardner writes about it in his book, “Beauty and goodness reframed” All young people will acquire and exhibit aesthetic preferences, but only those who are exposed to a range of works of art, who observe how these works of art are produced, who understand something about the artist behind the works, and who encounter thoughtful discussion of issues of craft and taste are likely to develop an aesthetic sense that goes beyond schlock or transcends what happens to be most popular among peers at the moment.

In other words, good taste is learned through conscious effort.