Beauty is better made
Aesthetic disgust and how to push through it
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”
–Kahlil Gibran
The designer strives for perfection. Symmetry, balance, harmony: utopia.
Utopia literally means “no place,” and symmetry is a myth.
The truth of the world is chaos and viscera. The trees grown askew in fallow soil. The broadsheet dripping with grief.
This asymmetry isn’t the problem. What you call “ugly” is everything you resist. Confusion. Uncertainty. Imbalance.
Cross-examine your resistance.
You might not have beef with the universe.
Those superlatives might be pure corn syrup.
–Turn complaints into observations, June 5, 2025
Next time aesthetic disgust scrinches your nose, think about what you already find beautiful. You may have recovered beauty in domains where others see none. So reverse it. Push through the recoil. Rotate the frame.
Rotation is the designer’s actual work. Change the frame, not the world. You step into the mirror and Consider how you might change.
You read a book more than once, you bring your adversary closer, you change the plane of conception, and you and turn the impossible into routine.
All potential lies in what appears ugly. Beauty is better made not found. You are not swiping your way to a match. You are what you design; what you design is you.