There is beauty in something well-made. The fine fit of a tailored suit. The delicate stitching of a vibrant rug. The mechanical elegance of a well-tuned watch, ticking silently. The same aesthetic laws that govern these objects – and innumerable others – apply to the business world, too. There is such a thing as a beautiful, elegant business. Not only in those aspects that might meet the eye – the palpable product, gilded logo, or savvy marketing copy – but in those that don’t: the contours of a business model, the architecture of information flows, the fiber and color of culture. For those willing to look, to study with an appreciative eye, even the seeming mundanity of a B2B SaaS product can possess a kind of aesthetic grace.

Mario Gabriele • Modern Meditations: Danny Rimer

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Sari Azout • Moodboard

"Be guided by beauty. I really mean that. I think pretty much everything I've done has had an aesthetic component—at least to me. Now, you might think, "Building a company that's trading bonds? What's so aesthetic about that?" What's aesthetic about it is doing it right. Getting the right kind of people, and approaching the problem, and doing it ri... See more

3-2-1: The key to great relationships, the will to achieve, and beauty as a guiding principle

Great design is when you design for others to feel, to experience with their senses, perhaps even to be pleasantly surprised–a joyful experience. This joyfulness converts always into goodwill, warm memories and, if you are so inclined, cash. Some of the most successful recent businesses were founded by designers–adopting their practices could be th

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“If Stripe is a monstrously successful business, but what we make isn’t beautiful, and Stripe doesn’t embody a culture of incredibly exacting craftsmanship, I’ll be much less happy. I think the returns to both of those things in the world are really high. I think even beyond the pecuniary or financial returns, the world’s just uglier than it needs

While I was making Sparkle’s website, I realized that this working definition of “quality” wasn’t enough in this new context. A magical experience would show, not tell. It would give you the sense of living in the future and seeing the future happen before your eyes. It required something the people at Every have written a lot about: It required ta... See more

Matter

Like many writers before me, I tend to lean on vague hand-waving when the need to define taste, or rather, good taste, arises. A common trope is to use the phrase US Supreme Court justice Stewart famously gave to describe obscenity, a similarly hard-to-describe bedfellow of taste, in 1964: “I know it when I see it.” In design, good taste can be kno... See more

Sari Azout • Moodboard

Sari Azout • Moodboard

3-2-1: The key to great relationships, the will to achieve, and beauty as a guiding principle

3-2-1: The key to great relationships, the will to achieve, and beauty as a guiding principle

Alan Moore • Do Design: Why Beauty Is Key to Everything

Matter

Elizabeth Goodspeed on the Importance of Taste – And How to Acquire It