getting into aesthetics
For some time, I more or less eschewed any concept of "things that look cool or nice". I guess I wanted to be a bit of a functional purist; the ultimate utilitarian, brutalist without really understanding what that meant. To this end, the aesthetic became the lack thereof. Computer background: idk, whatever the default is. Interior decoration: my whiteboard filled with scribbles from work. Clothing: cheap, plain, black. Whatever worked and was easiest.
When I was a teenager, like most normal people, I spent a lot of time picking out text editor themes I liked, customizing the fonts on my school assignments, and trying out different desktop environments in an effort to look cool. And at some point, it just faded. Maybe I got too busy? Maybe I decided (or at least rationalized) that it was actually cool to not care? I'm not really sure.
And I don't know what's changed now, but maybe there is in fact some value in aesthetics. Value beyond using clothing to signal my identity or putting art on the wall to show my social status. Value in the aesthetics that only I see: my text editor, my computer and phone backgrounds, my bedroom walls.
In my digital space, I have started to take this more seriously. For the past few weeks, I have been experimenting more with fonts. It makes me feel a bit childlike. I previously wrote about Commit Mono, and I'm working out how to start using it on my computer, as my programming font. I've been experimenting with different font choices for my computer's UI - I was wondering if I could use a serif font but ultimately gave up on that and settled on Nimbus Sans. I might change my long-form blog to use a serif font as well.
Lots to explore! The world of typographic is vast and I know nothing.
And now I'm left working what other forms of aesthetic opportunity I've overlooked. For some reason, photography seems appealing. Again, I basically know nothing.
If you post a reply on another blog or social media, or just want to chat, email me! christopher@cg505.com