On Creating Things Aesthetic

by Leonard Koren

This is a pared-down, demystified overview of the mental operations involved with creating things aesthetic, i.e., art, design, and the like. It is a disarmingly clearheaded and unsentimental look at the creative process by an eminent creator. The book’s photographs and design serve as an example of what the creative process, at its most sophisticated, can yield.   

Genres: Design

80 pages, Paperback

Published April 2, 2024

Reviews

[Emily Carlin]

if i squint one way, tiresome and overwrought. if i squint the other way, brilliant and life-affirming.

[Leah Weyandt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Note: Unlike gods who can create something-ness out of nothingness, human creators can only combine, reconfigure, strip down, extend, or otherwise alter and/or respond to things that already exist. Human creators, however, often do this in remarkably clever ways.”

A nice companion piece Jeff Tweedy’s “How to Write One Song” and Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.”

[Brent Morales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quick read. An essay about the creative process. As a designer I found the section on copying really interesting. You can’t really create “new” fashion. So copying and perfecting your ideal fashion is in many cases even better. No one really wants anything “new”, we want familiar yet different.

[Ian Wong · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a decent breakdown here of aspects of the creative process, but – at least to me – it all stays quite surface level, and a major question is left unanswered – what exactly IS 'aesthetic'? There's some hint at the meaning of that by the paragraphs at the end about how older works of art and architecture still hold some power, but it segues into what feels like an implicit prejudice against 'newer' works of art that isn't fully justified – especially since more modern works of art are cited as positive examples, such as Piero Manzoni's, uh, faecal work. The question of exactly what art should achieve, I think, needs to be dealt with or at least explored in much further depth to give more substance to the justification of why the steps given in the first half of the book actually *are* powerful ways of 'creating things aesthetic'.

[Ekin Balcioglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant book from a brilliant human!

[Francie McQuarrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

New to me

[August Bourré · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing even remotely new here, but I do think there is value in just saying it in plain language.

[Alelorrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Things aesthetic = things with pronounced poetically resonant qualities"

Interesting short read, beautifully edited