Asks this thoughtful opinion piece in the Financial Times, well worth the read. Here's a snippet,
Design is not art. We visit galleries to see inspirational works too expensive or impractical for us to have at home. We visit museums to gaze at artefacts of great cultural value that we would otherwise not have access to. These are aged, authentic objects made into pseudoreligious relics for an atheistic, materialistic age, placed on pedestals. Design is the diametric opposite of art. It is about making the ordinary useful, affordable and beautiful; it is interactive.
Good design should be for the masses. If it fails to become a mass-produced object, if it fails to be affordable or if it sacrifices function for appearance, it has effectively failed as a design and, arguably, become art. This is the modernist position.
What a difference a single word makes! He doesn't mean "design is not art"; he means "design is not fine art". "Fine Art" denotes art for expression's sake, not art for problem solving and usability, which is what design is.
I don't agree with his definition of art. What he means is that design is not self-expression. Design cannot be divorced from art, but it does differ from self-expressive art in the way he described. Design is about serving people, using knowledge of cause-and-effect to direct the development of products, services, and interfaces to achieve desired effects with the least undesirable side-effects.
I hate it when people debate the meaning of 'art'. Art comes from 'artifice' and is the root of 'artificial'; it is something done by someone to make a statement or to achieve an effect, even if the effect is decoration. A tree standing in the woods or a cloud in the sky is not art in and of itself, but the decision to photograph it or reproduce it in sculpture is. The prior is natural, the second is artificial and an expression, produced by someone's intent. In as much as design is produced and motivated by someone's intent, it can be regarded as art.
Design *can* be defined as art - BUT ONLY if it also focuses on making these 'inspirational works' and 'artifacts of great cultural value' affordable & attainable to all.
We are in a world of Emotional Design now. "I buy it because I love it" is what the mass want. Form follows function is out. Form follows emotion is in. Design is art and it will always be art. Why do we need to go to the museums to look at inspirations or culture? The artists themselves look at our human societies for inspirations. Why designers fail to do that?
Anything can be consider to be art, design and art are somewhat linked together but there are some hard to explain difference between the two depending on each person's point of view but nevertheless the two tend to go hand in hand. but a designer who is able to design or redesign a product that can be mass produced, affordable and fuctional with good appearance is most admirable
design for the 'real world' Is art!
the perversion of the definition of art is always as rampant. Art is not something you buy hoping it will rise in value...
Art is as the Merriam-Webster says "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination"
This can and is anything with the finger print of a human being.
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I hate it when people debate the meaning of 'art'. Art comes from 'artifice' and is the root of 'artificial'; it is something done by someone to make a statement or to achieve an effect, even if the effect is decoration. A tree standing in the woods or a cloud in the sky is not art in and of itself, but the decision to photograph it or reproduce it in sculpture is. The prior is natural, the second is artificial and an expression, produced by someone's intent. In as much as design is produced and motivated by someone's intent, it can be regarded as art.
the perversion of the definition of art is always as rampant. Art is not something you buy hoping it will rise in value...
Art is as the Merriam-Webster says "the conscious use of skill and creative imagination"
This can and is anything with the finger print of a human being.