I'm Desiginer (The Artist vs. the Designer)

In response to Norman Potter's, "Is a Designer an Artist?":

The distinction between art and design interests me much less than the distinction between the artist and the designer. This semester I am taking FA 450, Senior Seminar. In this class, the students are split up into two sections, an art section and a design section. The art section focuses on learning to talk about their work in more constructive and poignant ways while becoming familiar with the step by step process of putting together an exhibition of work and collaborating with other working artists. The design section (from what I've heard. I can't say for sure as I am not in that section) focuses more on the technical aspects of getting a job in the design business while learning even more essential computer programs one might use as a professional designer besides the ones used in most of the design classes held at USC. All students on the first day of class are asked to decide right then and there: Are they an artist or are they a designer? And while, for me, the distinction between the two used to be very black and white, I see now that more and more the difference isn't always as clear, as more and more designers are working like artists while some artists are working like designers.

I'm going to be honest here and say that typically I've never given designers and what they do much serious thought or considered what they did are particularly artful in a significant way. This probably stems from three summers of experience interning and eventually working as an office assistant at a particulary high-stress advertizing company where nearly every designer everyday would come up to me and warn me to run while I still could. And yeah, I eventually ran. But the Potter article reminded me a little bit about what designers do and not only about how they can be different than artists, but how they can be similar. Designers typically are working to get someone else's vision across, instead of their own vision and no matter how great of a job they may have done, it's not uncommon that their client tells them to do it over again while an artist's first responsibility is to "the truth of his own vision." But that article also sites fine-artists as less dependent on discussion, agreement, letters and visits. And while I agree with a couple of those things, I find myself, in my work as a "fine-artist" relying heavily upon certain aspects of communication, particularly discussion and visits. I find visiting with people and discussing my progress, as well as making schedules and assigning myself deadlines, incredibly useful in my own art making practice. And I feel that I will continue to do those things even after I graduate and am no longer required to discuss or meet with artists and professors about my work or have set schedules and deadlines. And now that I'm seriously considering the ways in which, at least according to this article, designers work, I recognize similarities in the way I function as an artist and the way designers function in what they do. I never thought I would say it but I may have a little bit of designer in me after all.