Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The design of art, the art of design? AKA: crossing the streams.

I stumbled into the design program here from an artistic illustration background, so I'm constantly walking a fine line between the two disciplines. Half the time I feel like I'm cheating with my design projects because I make such heavy use of whatever illustrative abilities I have, instead of doing something else that is nebulously yet stubbornly defined in my clouded mind as being "design." As a result, I'm always thinking about how to categorize the various works I produce. Is it art? Is it design? Both? Neither? (...actually, if the answer is "neither", I should probably send that unholy abomination to the Recycle Bin.)

The most common distinction between art and design is in design's more commercial viability, but this essay introduces another distinction based on what the end products of each discipline is supposed to do for the audience:

The audiences for art and design expect different things. The audience for art wants to look at the artwork or listen to the composition--perhaps to contemplate and reflect, perhaps to be transported by the power of the aesthetic experience or the scene portrayed--whereas a design's audience wants to use the information to find their subway station or select a product.

Design may indeed arrest the attention and engage the emotions of a viewer, but at some point, as Beatrice Warde said, the goblet of design must become transparent, allowing viewers to gather the intended information, rather than to be absorbed by the designer's layout.

Art draws attention to itself deliberately. Its very form is the means to intensify our perception. If a visitor to the Sistine Chapel marvels at the economy of the scene of God separating the light from the dark, she is responding to the Michelangelo's conception, his artistic free creation. But if she is moved by the Last Judgment because of the profound theological truth it expresses, she is responding to the Pope's purpose. That is, she treats it as information design, as an illustration of doctrine. [emphasis mine]

To put it another way, art is like the actors and setpieces on stage in a theater, while design would be more like the folks doing all the backstage and technical work like lighting and sound. You're supposed to pay more attention to the actors than to the stuff that's backstage. Likewise, art is meant to attract attention to itself, while design should be seamless and invisible (like a ninja!).

The distinction between art and design seems rather clear, but it's also obviously not, since I just admitted in the first paragraph that I constantly abuse my fine arts sensibilities in a lot of the design projects that I do. There's a lot of interplay between the two disciplines -- if you're good at one of them, you can carry over some of those skills into the other. But a good artist is not automatically going to be a good designer, and vice versa. So one of the things I'm interested in exploring with my capstone project this quarter is seeing if I can produce something that looks equally illustrative/artistic and designer-ish.

In short, I'm going to cross the streams.



(By the way, this is Stephanie, since it's probably not immediately obvious from this name. Or maybe it is, since looking over the list of contributors on the sidebar, this is the only "who the eff?"-inducing name on the list.)

16 comments:

  1. I'm right there with you Stephanie. I too am a Visual artist disguised as a graphic designer and have difficulty finding where one ends and the other begins. I think its a great asset however, and that 'that line' should be thrown out the window sometimes to make way for some really kick butt work that incorporates both visual art and graphic design!

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  2. I too struggle with this stephanie. I am an illustrator at heart and work hard to incorporate Typography into my work as something more than secondary (Hi Dolores). I read something in a Chip Kidd book where he quotes his professor Lanny Somese (sic?) He says something to the effect that one cannot arrive at the solution of a design problem with a preconceived notion of how to approach it. I try to let the project dictate how I work it. But, yes, I still find I push toward illustration as a solution.

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  3. I agree: Art and Design are very intertwined but also very different. Both aim to catch the viewer's attention and get a message across. However, you make an excellent point that a good artist is not necessarily a good designer. In my opinion, an artist designs for himself, whereas a designer usually has an intended audience or client.

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  4. Hey, more power to ya if you can combine the two. I think illustration still plays a major role in design today and can be very beautiful. One of my favorite pieces that I've made is mostly illustration. I think it's good to hang onto your analogue skills and interpret them into our digital world. Keep drawing, keep designing, keep crossing streams.

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  5. I find myself doing the same, and feel that there is nothing wrong with illustration and design coinciding with each other. I think that illustration is something that is unique to each individual person because like our fingerprints on our fingers, our own illustration is something that is ours and is unique to us. A lot of design is found and used from things that are already set up in the computer such as type. Illustration and even handwriting of our own is what makes our own work different from others because it is our own unique style.

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  6. It is interesting that the Art and Design aspects of graphic design don't always mix. I try to incorporate illustration into my work as well, and when that happens I feel it automatically gets that "art" feel; whereas, if I'm designing a flyer or ad, I try to stay away from the illustration aspect to get that "professional" design feel for viewers.

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  7. Good effort in trying to distinguish between the two. Its always hard to try and find a separation between them because of their strong similarities yet strong differences. But your theory on execution versus "the message" is legit.

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  8. I did NOT come from an illustration background (I'm pretty good at tracing, that's about it!) so I am always impressed by other designers who can use illustration to their advantage. Go for it! I am a photographer, so I use my pictures - if you are an illustrator, why NOT use illustration? Design can only get better by using all of your skills!

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  9. Illustration and Design can be merged together to create beautiful works. I also agree that having both skills is so useful and when you can do both, more power to you!

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  10. It is great to hold onto both skills. I tend to lean on both most of the time, because in order to design logos, I do my best to make thumbnail sketches of all the possible designs and then turn to the computer to design them digitally. At times, I think my illustrations are better than my digital design.

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  11. I often use an abundance of collage and hand rendered elements in my work, and it seems as of late that I can't help it! I feel that these components are very appealing if executed in a tasteful manner. Adding new elements into a design can be very compelling and inspirational. Never hurts to add in supplementary illustration or decorative elements to create a nice edge or distinctive quality.

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  12. I think its more of a taste thing. Some people arent drawn to the several styles of illustration (or just illustration all together). Like you stated before its about trying to get people to like your stuff but if people aren't attracted to illustration which we both have a passion for then we cant really do about it. But I do think if one of the goals of a piece is to make someone like it and it is illustration and shown to someone who doesn't have an appeal for it but they end up liking it or being convinced by it, then yay! all the more versatile.

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  13. I like a piece best when it's both. I hope to incorporate more illustration into my future work... I'm a big supporter of the "type as image" argument, but the average person will remember a drawing longer than good typography.

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  14. I think, like Shanna said, sometimes we should not focus on the line, but the fact that you should intersect disciplines. We have talked a lot on the blog or in class about having a range of interests, the same should be true with our skill sets.

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  15. I also like pieces that are both and I love Type as image as well but mostly I like balance.

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  16. I agree that the line between art and design is becoming increasingly fizzy. However, don't let that slow you down from using skills from both disciplines in an attempt to produce better results.

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