5 Reasons Art and Design are the Same
Art and design are usually distinguished as completely separate endeavors. They share a few of the same characteristics including creativity, emotional communication, and symbolic meaning.
I had this conversation with my mentor Ashish Yadav, who is a supervisor at designerrs academy and runs a start-up connecting music students to teachers.
What is the difference between design and art? We talked about these topics in relation to music, design, art, and really anything creative. Designers generally separate design from art but are they really separate?
His argument was that art and design are the same because everything is constructed in some way to achieve value. They both take a lot of time to get good at. They are both personal and built around emotion.
Both designers and artists are also famously slow at producing things that laymen say could be done in 5 minutes.
How long do you think it took to design the Japanese flag?
If you were the emperor of Japan in 1868, how much time would you want to be dedicated to the Japanese flag?
Everything about this very simple design, involving only a red dot, was carefully constructed to carry meaning and be recognizable. It is the perfect red dot.
The color has looked good since 1860. It represents a rising sun and the dot takes the perfect amount of space for the dot to be as recognizable and visually appealing as possible. It also relates to the country's history with minimalist philosophy which has influenced art and design across the world.
1. They’re worth a lot or they’re worth nothing
Some dots are really expensive. Damien Hirst has made around 1,400 spot paintings throughout his career. Some of his paintings are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The majority of artists can’t sell their paintings for $5. That is just the reality. In the design world, there are designers making anything from $5 an hour to $5,000,000 a logo.
2. They’re both difficult endeavors
Creative work is extremely difficult. Getting paid at all is an insane effort and it's a lot harder to take criticism than non-creative work. Both design and art are personal efforts. If design and art weren’t the same, then 70% of designers wouldn’t quit in their first 5 years.
There is also a reason people undergo these risks. Because of how personal it is, any success also feels that much better. That is why I think Damien Hirst's paintings aren’t over-valued.
He spent 30 years specializing in dots. That is a serious amount of commitment and risk involved to produce just dots. These are probably the best dots human eyes have ever seen.
3. Creators are overlooked
They are definitely priced differently. I think that is the root resentment that causes designers to want the distinction. Design also carries meaning (I’d argue that often it carries more) but it is overlooked because it is practical and commercial.
I think that is the real reason the distinction is made, and why designers think they should be paid more and appreciated for their work.
You could argue that self-expression has to be emotional to be art. Design is made to elicit emotional responses in viewers so they understand brand identity and what they’re trying to communicate on a package, website, etc. Both things are based on emotion but one requires a designer to take their emotion out of it.
In both cases, designers and artists are accused of being impractical and self-obsessed. They are both accused of not operating in the real world. They are both regularly disrespected by people that oftentimes have a very similar work process with a different output.
4. The process is similar
Artists are generally free to follow whatever process they want while designers usually follow an industry standard that follows stages of research, ideation, and then creation. Many artists follow a similar creative process. In the case of music, they are often forced to.
There are also plenty of designers who don’t follow the design process. That is especially common in freelance work where clients don’t have a background in design.
Getting feedback for creative work always feels personal even though in the case of design your work shouldn’t be personal. That is why I’m so appreciative of my mentor Anurag Maheshwari for grilling me for almost 4 months straight. I got so much better at design largely because I learned how to take feedback with no emotion. (I took a lot).
I put a poll on a project “medium rare” or “well done”. Getting “medium-rare” responses didn’t feel great. Still, life goes on. Anurag said it was well done so that is all that matters.
5. An Image is worth 1,000 words
Design isn't just very difficult work, it also pays off for the company.
If you argue that the market has a fair way to determine prices, then I’d say there is a reason the art market has outperformed the S&P 500 for over 20 years.
Companies that follow the design process generate 32% more revenue, and 56% more shareholder returns on average. (Mckinsey, 2018).
CPA Ron Baker argues there is no such thing as intrinsic value. Value is inherently subjective, and as a result, so is price.
“If we found out gold was carcinogenic, tomorrow it’s value would be nothing”.
-Ron Baker
Prices are also built on costs which even in the case of a computer, there is a subjective value. Apple makes beautiful computers with intuitive interfaces that lead many customers to happily pay twice as much or more for products that competitors sell with similar technical specifications.
Part of that may be the associated social status with apple products, but that itself is intertwined with the design of the devices and their interfaces.
A designer may choose to work on apple products for their minimalism and how that is conducive to a designer's workflow.
Is that a logical way to justify spending twice as much for the same hardware? Maybe, but it is also subjective. The market (a collective of humans) will never be objective. Art and design are both practices of objectifying the subjective nature of the human experience.
Key Differences
These are some of the differences that came to my mind. Overall, how similar or different do you think art and design are? Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message.
- Art can be shrouded in mystery and that can contribute to its value, as with the Mona Lisa. Design needs to be as transparent as possible.
- The valuation of art has a generally higher disparity.
- Artists are generally under less management.
- Art is a form of self-expression, design is supposed to express the characteristics of a brand or product.
- Design is sometimes billed hourly.
Follow me for future articles or find me on Instagram to see more of my art: bot_stu
