I recently bumped into Knoi Vinh post mentioning this Mike Essl’s initiative. My first answer was NO, and when I saw the 63% for YES, I knew I was wrong. I got mistaken by my own thoughts. Let me explain.
Recently I was thinking about people sometimes mistaking art for web design and this is why I answered NO (graphic design is not art). Graphic design is definitely art as part of it is pure art (at least it should be). Graphic design does not equal art as it is much more.
Some people mistake web design (and graphic design) for art, artists amongst them. I am a grid-believer (yes, grids are good), but I am not against ornamentation – you can find ornamented sites that communicate the content to their audiences.
For me this is what differs web and graphic design from art. Web and graphic design is about communicating information (the content) by (visual) planning, to an audience. Art may be about communicating information to an audience, but it is mainly about the artist’s voice. Web design is about the voice of the content.
9.
13 Links Para Melhorar o Design do Seu Blog
[...] 13 – Para finalizar, um conceito que lhe será muito útil quando for trabalhar com design: “Web and graphic design is about communicating information (the content) by (visual) planning, to an audience.” Mistaking art for web design [...]
8.
Scotia Systems
Nice conclusion – until I read this post I’d have agreed that web design and art could be considered the same thing – however I guess it depends on the site in question. Any site for a business can be considered marketing – and as you say a voice for the content. However could a personal site be considered a voice for the artist?
7.
creativeherb
when I do art, I don’t have to worry about the message being communicated clearly at all. On the other hand, many undisciplined designers think they can sacrifice clear communication for the sake of art. I even feel that it is irresponsible sometimes for the designers to trick uneducated clients with fancy visuals.
6.
Piotr Godek
Aja, should you find that contest again, do put a link here
5.
Aja
someone did a contest a while ago, and i can’t for the life of me remember who it was, that tasked graphic designers with designing a poster that explained what graphic design really is. a lot of them really nailed it on the head, lacing their copy with words like “communication”, “usability”, and yes, even “grid”. they managed to list clear differences in the definition of artist as opposed to graphic artist, while at the same time expressing without pretension that graphic art encapsulates so many nuances that an artist may not have to cater to. we are the marketing team, the copy writers, the usability task masters, with a little bit of artist thrown in on top to keep us from going completely and totally mad.
other “graphic artists” slapped down a stock photo of a rainbow and started blathering in huge courier new waves about how “graphic design is like… my everything, dude.” but hey, we can’t all be geniuses.
4.
benjamin
TRUE
3.
Piotr Godek
Benjamin,
I definitely agree
Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear enough. I said “Graphic design is definitely art as part of it is pure art (at least it should be” and I meant that creating graphic and web design is creating art, but NOT ONLY.
Part of web/graphic design is the artist’s voice (art) and part of it is the voice of the content (strictly design).
My point was to say that it takes MORE to design for the web (or any other medium) than to create art.
2.
benjamin
Like anything presented for visual digestion, there is a lot of gray area around this issue. I would like to see graphic/web design treated more as an art. I do agree with the comments above. And I need to point out that there was a time when photography was disputed as an art form.
If we list cave paintings, hieroglyphics in Egyptian temples, illuminated manuscripts, and performance posters by Lautrec and Mucha in art history books, then we are getting screwed by not including our craft as well.
I think that there has been a recent trend to look at “art” as just emotive stuff that an emotional person makes, where in fact the history of Art has many more years under its belt as a medium for conveying ideas, selling ideas and doing so in a visually attractive and easy to understand way.
So, I vote “yes,” graphic design is art. It’s in our roots. Let’s not forget that the artist voice was largely based on commissions up until the Impressionists.
Our work should be put in museums and covered in text books as well. The only reason that this hasn’t happened is because scholarly fossils and stupid millionaires rule the art world.
And I guess that I would like to say that graphic design isn’t an art just for the sake of not being at the mercy of these clowns. But the proof is in the pudding. We are getting ripped off. Art for the sake of art is a recent phenomenon in the entire history of art. Graphic design was Mother Art’s first child. Cave paintings and blogs hold hands over thousands of years. Same shit different medium.
1.
Rafferty Pendery
I ran across your post and definitely agree. I think some people do not have the differences between the two well defined in their own heads. Good explanation.