The Spellbinding Influence of Aesthetics on Luxury

Imagine seeing a gorgeous sunset down at the beach and completely falling in love with the hues, the tones and the sheer beauty of it all; and then seeing the same rich hues and tones on a hoodie at your favourite clothing store. There couldn’t be better day than that, could there?

Humans, inherently, are designed in a way that everything we do is a way to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Even simple acts such as eating good food or coming across a bush with pretty flowers give us immense pleasure. If looked at it this way, we’re quite simple beings. All we need from life is for it to be beautiful; for it to be something to look at, something to admire and to smile bashfully at. And product designers are more than aware of this fact.

Say you want to buy a Ferrari. (Don’t worry; you’re a millionaire in this example.) The salesman at the showroom tells you all about the advanced features of the car, the excellent mileage and the insane horsepower the engine possesses. You’re very impressed, so you step outside to take a look at the car- and it looks like one ugly oblong piece of metal. The salesman asks you what the matter is when he sees the ashen expression on your face, but you just shake your head, thank him and get the hell out of there. ( With a very empty chequebook, if I might add).

What do you think happened out there? That car was still the perfect beast, just like the salesman had described. But one look at it, and you couldn’t bear the thought of spending all that money on it. To put it simply- its looks did no justice to its quality. If a product claims to be the best in its class, it has to look it too. Only a half-baked brand will provide the quality, not the beauty and vice-versa. Because at a surface level, you buy what you see. Especially when it comes to luxury, you don’t buy what you think the product could do for you, or what it ostensibly claims to be. You pour all that money because you believe that beautiful product will satisfy your desire, that every time you look at it, it will provide you with a sense of peace and contentment.

Therefore luxury, at its simplest, could very well translate to beauty, and an overall experience that is aesthetically pleasing to the mind and the senses. Every luxury brand should focus on the aesthetic quotient of a product in order to cater to customers’ inherent expectations from the product. And these expectations should not just be met, but exceeded. Every single time. And if a brand is really, really good at establishing those aesthetic standards, customers could never be disappointed. Since the brand has already become a benchmark, anything additional could only make the customer happier. And happier. Say for example, that you buy the latest iPhone, expecting it to possess certain much-loved, but already well-known, Applesque features. So, you go the same store, and behold the same smooth white box with the suave embossing, and you internally squeal with pleasure, once again. But it never gets old, because you resonate with that vibe, that design, that feel. You love all of that about the brand, and you go back to it, time and again, because you know it won’t ever disappoint, and the consistent aesthetics pull you in like a tidal wave. But this was all pre-planned, and it only became possible because the designers at Apple know how to work the textures, the colours, the tones and the packaging of their products to make sure that customers remain fixated. This is all in the senses, and knowing which aspect in a product can appeal to which particular sense in the customer is of prime importance.

To reinforce the significance of aesthetics in the world of luxury, here are a couple of brands that are doing an exemplary job at winning customers’ hearts though the power and beauty of their aesthetic products:

Anthropologie

American brand Anthropologie is a complete boho-chic paradise with its beautiful, earthy and hip store ensembles that could magnetically pull anyone in. Their products range from clothing and jewelry to handcrafted show pieces, and everything looks just so wholesome, rich and gorgeous. Now that’s some serious aesthetics they have going on there!

Zara

This Spanish clothing brand has been totally rocking the charts for quite a few years now. Most of their success and fan following is mainly owing to their incredibly classy, aesthetic and sophisticated brand image. The stores are très chic and contemporary, and their collections contain some of the most suave and snazzy pieces out there.

Typo

Australian stationery and gifting brand Typo is perhaps one of the most ingenious brands out there. The stores have a rich, woodsy theme and the products are incredibly unique, eccentric and quite affordable. Just step inside a Typo store and you’ll be floored!

You see, no matter what product a brand sells, and what country it is from, everybody speaks the language of beauty, and aesthetics hold an international appeal.