So having explained what I think Art is I also want to talk a little about design.
Design is very obviously allied to Art – they’re often mentioned in the same breath as a subject of study, and that’s not really terribly surprising – it’s more or less the same range of techniques and materials that they draw on. There is no discipline in one that does not have a corresponding one in the other. If we proceed from my definition of Art as at attempt on the part of the creator to communicate something inside them, then it follows that a reasonable definition of Design is an attempt to communicate something that is not inside the creator. (I nearly used the word “extrinsic” there, and then I thought of an old Fry and Laurie sketch, and backed away at speed.)
Design, more than Art these days, is the language of our culture. It’s where people are actually paid money to work out how to get ideas across, to push values and yeah, products. Art is generally looked on as the “purer” of the two, (theoretically) unsoiled as it is by filthy lucre, but one might also argue that it’s in design that we find most innovation these days, as people and brands compete to be heard over the increasing noise. (There’s obviously the counter-argument to be made about corporate conservatism and people sticking with an idea that works, but one only has to look at any sort of design retrospective to see that things do change.)
It occurs to me though, is that for all the designers I’ve met who have made Art in their spare time, I’ve met the same number of designers who don’t really seem to have any urge to create for themselves outside of work. They enjoy the science of communicating, but they don’t seem to have anything to say themselves. I personally don’t understand this – I’m hugely interested in design because I think it’ll make me a better artist (in so far as I make any claims to be one). I could come up with half a dozen reasons why this should be so – lack of confidence in their own ideas and opinions, simply being left creatively tired by work, unwillingness to do for free what they can earn money doing, all sorts of things. It doesn’t really matter why it should be. And I’m not yet too terribly disheartened by it. I think it illustrates that the fundamental human urge is to communicate, even if one has nothing to say.
Which explains small talk, I guess.
On a related note: I am heartened to see the D&AD are now offering an option for people who aren’t professional designers to join up, and it’s something I intend to do later in the year.
[...] There’s been a lot of stuff about Art in this meme. There’s been precious little about Design in it. I like design, and back in the early days of this iteration of this blog, I spent a short while explaining what I think its relationship to Art is. [...]