This is the Difference Between Art and Design: a blog post that talks about the difference.
Design is making something useful. I don’t mean it has to be pretty, just that it’s meant to accomplish something. It can be as simple as making a chair or a spoon, or as complicated as planning a space mission. To design something is to see a problem, then figure out how to solve it.
Thing-making is what artists do. The key thing about art is that there is no purpose except expressing the artist’s feelings, which you can’t do until you’ve made some kind of thing. The thing doesn’t have to be pretty, or useful, or anything else. It can be an ugly old sock with paint smeared on it; what matters is that the artist felt strongly about something when they were making it, and now you do too.
A designer solves problems; an artist creates them.
Hi, I’m Sam Cornwell, a designer and the creative director of Intercom. In this post I wanted to talk about a distinction I’ve found really helpful in my work: that between art and design.
Art is important. It provides meaning, it transports us to other times, it makes us feel things we’d never otherwise feel. Design is important too. It helps us get stuff done, track better, be more efficient and live better lives. The two are both vital to human progress but there’s a difference between them that’s been misunderstood for a long time and has even changed over time as the tools and techniques of each have evolved.
So what is that difference?
It’s a question of audience. Art is designed for an audience of one; design is designed for an audience of many.
Art is about intent; design is about impact.
Art occurs when it could only have been made by one person in the world at that time, using whatever tools they had available to them. Design occurs when it could only have been made by many people in the world at different times using different tools and processes.
By this definition, most “art” today isn’t actually art because it was more likely than not made with intent by many people
Design is the process of intentionally arranging elements to achieve a desired outcome.
Art is the process of creating something with a primary focus on aesthetics, not function. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, is there still art? Yes, if someone intended for it to be art and created it for that purpose. If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, is there still design? No, if someone intended for it to be designed as a bridge but nature took its course and the tree ended up being used as a home.
Characteristics of Design:
1) It’s intentional
2) It’s purposeful
3) It’s systematic
4) It has a set of guiding principles
Characteristics of Art:
1) It’s unintentional (although artists may intend their work to be perceived as art)
2) It’s aesthetic (it’s more about how things look than how they work or what they do). Aesthetics is concerned with feeling, emotions, sensations. Art often doesn’t have much functionality.
3) There are no set rules. You don’t have to follow any guidelines or structure. The artist has complete freedom on how they create their piece. In
Art and design are often used interchangeably in our culture, but they are actually very different. Design is all about solving problems, and artists create things that have no practical purpose.
Art and design have been linked in people’s minds for centuries, but really it’s only recently that art has become a design field.
Art is an abstract representation of physical reality. Art can be realistic or abstract. Design is the creation of abstract representations. Design is the process of creating abstract representations of physical reality into a form that can be used by humans to better interpret the world in which they live.
Tone:matter-of-fact
In the art world, you are expected to be creative and innovative. You want to make your own mark and be unique, even if it doesn’t always succeed. In the design world, you are expected to be practical and problem solve. You want to make something that works. Design is usually an incremental process. You take an existing solution and improve it or make it cheaper or easier in some way.
In the art world, you are trying to get attention and come up with new ways of thinking about things. In the design world, your job is more often to sell things that work well and make them better for people who actually use them every day.
Art is driven by creativity; design is driven by utility.
Art is a response to an existing problem. Design is a search for a problem.
Artists respond to questions. Designers ask questions. Artists are driven by the world around them and their response to it. Designers are driven by their own imagination and creativity, and their desire to change the world.
Artists work from within the culture they have been raised in, addressing its problems and fulfilling its needs. Designers work from without, looking at cultures across time and space and imagining ways to improve on them.
Designers create new things while artists work with what already exists.
Designers want to change the world; artists just want to leave their mark on it.
