Author
Ed Merritt
This was something someone said to me recently that got me thinking about the differences between art and design.
They’re both creative fields so I can understand making that connection but as it happens I’m not particularly good at drawing. Mostly because I don’t practice, and that’s because it’s not generally required for my work.
I always have a sketchbook on my desk but I use it to record and explore ideas, layouts and relationships between shapes, they exist as visual notes that won’t mean much to anyone but me.
So what is the difference?
Art I see as a form of expression, trying to convey a personal perspective.
Design, at least from my perspective as a digital designer, is about solving specific problems for a client. Something looking good is often a byproduct of really understanding a problem and solving it well. Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles for good design were written in the 70s and for me still offer the best way to critique my own decisions as I work.
And this division – art on one side, design on the other – made sense in my head, but unfortunately there are a number of creative fields that don’t fit neatly into either box. So I’ve added a third catch-all category…
Fashion, craft, and decoration
Craftsmanship I see as the focus on materials and tools. We can all admire the experience and expertise it takes to master working with wood, leather or metal, but you might not call an expert welder either a designer or an artist. Or a model maker creating an incredibly detailed and accurate representation of a thing at a tiny scale. It can look really impressive, show a great understanding of materials, but if it neither solves a problem or expresses an opinion I struggle to fit it into either art or design.
I don’t know much about fashion, as anyone who knows me will attest, but it’s clear from a glimpse at any catwalk that it’s not led by function. This year’s skirts or wallpaper designs generally don’t work any better than those available last year. Fashion is visual but fleeting, can it be good design if it doesn’t last the test of time?
Maybe all of these are about using tools and materials to create something new, just to push the boundaries of what can be done.
So how does all this apply to digital?
Twenty-something years ago when I started, designers and front-end developers were one and the same. Back-end developers had very little interest in how information was presented to the user so all of that fell to the designer.
Thankfully digital design and development is split into multiple roles now. But, that said, I think every designer has a slightly different balance of skills and interests. Some have an understanding of code which can result in designs which are lighter on resources and easier to build. Some lean more towards an interest in human behaviour, perhaps focusing on user experience and accessibility. Some are more digital craftspeople, pushing what’s possible with the tools in ways no-one has thought of.
Conclusion
Maybe all design includes some self expression and no two designers will ever create exactly the same solution to a problem and the only difference is the person creating it. Or in other words, maybe that difference is the artistic side of design; the designer’s personality, if you like.