The pursuit of elegance
Robert Adams, Along Interstate 25, 1974
It is rarely talked about in the development and evaluation of strategy (such is its impoverished lexicon) but for strategy to do its work - to bring others along and to have maximum impact in the world - it needs to be not merely ‘simple’, but elegant. We can make something simple and still ship something ugly. Or stupid. Or inefficient. Or devoid of intent. Or lacking in taste. But elegance… elegance is and works differently.
It’s a weird word for us marketing and brand folk, so it helps to step out of our world and begin with stepping into that of the artist. Because when we listen to artists what emerges is a search to achieve a sense of what they might call ‘rightness’, that sense of getting things to fit and work together seamlessly. As the art historian Gombrich puts it, “It is only when we understand what [the artist] means by that modest little word ‘right’ that we begin to understand what artists are really after… Once [the artist] has succeeded we all feel that he has achieved something to which nothing could be added, something which is right – and example of perfection in our very imperfect world.”
Elegance is not about mere aesthetics. It’s about choice and rightness. And it’s about achieving fit. The work of the famous American landscape photograper Robert Adams is a good example of this pursuit in action. For some fifty years, Adams has been photographing the landscapes of the Western state of the US landscapes, documenting the influence modern culture has had as it encroaches on and colonises these vast spaces. Listen to how Adams characterises what makes for a great picture: “The notable thing, it seems to me, about great pictures is that everything fits. There is nothing extraneous. There is nothing too much, too little, and everything within that frame relates. Nothing is isolated. The reason that becomes so moving is that the artist finally says that the form that he or she has found in that frame is analogous to form in life. The coherence within that frame points to a wider coherence in life as a whole. Why is that important? I think art is the sworn enemy of nihilism. And nihilism is a great downward tug that we all feel.”
Adams’ words also point to one of the deep satisfactions of experiencing rightness and coherence - it speaks to and satisfies our natural human instinct to prefer order and pattern to chaos. Elegance holds chaos at bay, and in doing so it renders things persuasive.
The scientific community instinctively reaches for and understands the persuasive potency of elegance. The physicist Robert March for example, has argued that “The search for truth is not simply a matter of discovering facts. You must also understand their significance and then persuade others that your way of looking at them is valid. It is always easier to persuade people to believe in something new when they find it beautiful, especially if it runs counter to their established beliefs.” Scientists too, have to gain attention, sell their ideas, and persuade people.
Elegance doesn’t just render things satisfying and persuasive. It is also a source of power. Elegance creates power because its is born of choice and judgement, of selecting from the vast array of options and arranging only what is needed into something seamless, simple, coherent and purposeful. Scientists, designers, engineers, and technologists understand that the pursuit of elegant solutions makes them more powerful. They understand that it leads them towards toward stronger and more useful machines.
In engineering, the pursuit of elegance is perhaps exemplified by the Roman arch. This architectural innovation solved the fundamental problem of spanning large distances while bearing heavy loads, using the simple principle that curved structures can transform vertical forces into compressive forces along the arch's curve. The elegance of this solution lies in how it works with, rather than against, natural forces - achieving strength with minimal material.
Not only are elegant solutions stronger, they are often more reliable because they have fewer components that can fail. They're typically more efficient, using fewer resources to achieve their goals. They're usually easier to understand and maintain. Consider how for example, simple algorithms are easier to capture in software, easier to programme correctly, understand, and improve upon. Or consider how mRNA vaccines elegantly use the body's own protein-making machinery rather than introducing foreign agents. These solutions are powerful precisely because of their simplicity and efficiency.
The implications for us as marketers, brand-builders, and communicators would seem to be clear. To do its work strategy needs be coherent - it is the art of deploying finite resources for maximum effect after all. It needs to be persuasive if it is to engage the belief, enthusiasm, and resources of others to make it a reality. It should have as few moving parts as possible to reduce the risk of failure. And it needs to be compressed and memorable so people do not have to work out what it means or what to do, and there is no room for misunderstanding or subjective interpretation. David Gelernter, the professor of computer science at Yale University, talked about ‘machine beauty’ as the key to deveoping powerful software. We should be seeking ‘strategic elegance’. Because elegance makes strategy more powerful.