Sunday, August 30, 2009

Art Vs Design

Art, by itself, I don't think is functional. Art is something that speaks to the human spirit - it makes you feel empowered, or happy, or scared, or like you're living in the future, or whatever else. If art was functional, that aspect would be lost; art would just become a means to an end. Art can be entertainment or experiences - I have no problem saying movies, games, theater, etc. are all very much art. As such, art is a pretty broad term.

Design, however, is a much less broad term. First off, design absolutely is functional. Second, I'd say design can only be applied to tangible or interactive objects; theater can be art but theater can't be design, unless you use a very broad and abstracted definition of the term. Design is the creative use of the techniques and concepts given to you to reach a given goal - such as painting a fire alarm red to make it extra-noticeable, making a chair curvy and covering it in velvet to make it seem more organic, or increasing the font size on part of a website to make people pay more attention to it.

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