Form + Content

The term aesthetics concerns our senses and our responses to an object. If something is aesthetically pleasing to you, it is pleasurable. Whatever the actual object in question, those studying aesthetics seek to understand why some things arouse positive reactions whereas others arouse negative ones. Why are we drawn to certain objects and repelled by others? The very question of how and why aesthetic experiences are created is itself also a subject of aesthetics
Form + Content mainly are to do with our visionary senses being; colour, shape, pattern, line, texture visual weight, balance, scale and a sense of movement.

A website that i feel has good aesthetics being a graphic designer is the designers republic. Mainly a typographical website that allows your to expolre the content and not merely read whats on the page. It has aspects of simplicity, minimalism (large forms), yet follows a simple structure and modern colour scheme. It's hard to grasp the simplicity so have a look at it.

On the other hand, changing minds is a blog/ website that i beleive to have bad aesthetics. As blog about bad website design, it has large areas of white space with text (a sensory overload) too much in my opinion. A website has the possibility to create unlimited number of pages, something changing minds fails to do. In it's defence though, it's an informative website and thats simply where it stops, but there is always the question of form vs. content?
With the aesthetics of my own blog, i have changed templates 5 or 6 times trying to find the balance between the elements i have added on page and the layout of the original templates. I settled with 'rounders' for it's legability between posts and sidebar (being a clear distinction). I decided to use subdued colours where no colour dominantes over another. For me they feel more fixed to the screen than white on black or brighter colours. In terms of typography, i have intentionally made limited differences between heading, post, date, sidebar, etc. There are subtle changes in the tone where dominent aspects are in a darker tone.
Websites i feel a good connection between aesthetics and content are taged under aesthetics in my flickr account with a description of why. My favourite being tree hugger. It shows a real connection between the content, layout and chosen colours.