as much as I like to uphold the idea that graphic designers are artists, delicate & sensitive & creative - who wouldn't want that special brand of celebrity?! - I am as of yet undecided.
graphic design weds itself to public opinion. this is an inherent process, the organic result of commerce - clients, work, publication, and the like. often the designer caters to his or her own aesthetic taste, and not the needs of the client, transforming graphic design from a service to a vehicle for artistic expression...
I realize this is a vast, controversial subject, but regardless I pose a question: is graphic design art or is graphic design a commercial skill? are both mutually exclusive? or interdependent?
can you have one (art) with out the other (science)?
is graphic design an art or a client dependent service?
image: logic + emotion blog.
12 comments:
Definitely an art. Although you often tailor it to your client's liking, it's still art. If the client's desires are radically different from yours or in your opinion ruin the piece, I think it's still art, albeit bad art.
Historically both - graphic designers have made their living as artists and commercially ...
I suppose one's training would depend on where they trained ... for example: in my university, graphic design was part of the art & design dept and had more of an artistic focus; at other schools perhaps it is housed within a communications or business or other department.
Great graphic...hmm...I think a bit of both too. Graphic design does take talent and can be used in an express form like art.
I think it's both actually. It can be used for art and it can be used for client dependent services.
:-)
I guess the question is what is art? and that, my friends, is not a question I have the energy or the time to grapple with at the moment.
Sonrie, great point, I never thought of it that way! I always think the way Stormiekim & please sir do, looking at it from the end result - never from the beginning.
very interesting.
well, i think both, because it requires skill, but also that creative inspiration. kind of the whole question of when does something that is a "craft" (sewing, for example), become "art?" i think when you add that little bit of you, that little bit of inspiration, anything you practice can become an art, if that makes sense...
I think that if your making something for someone else...unless they give you instructions like "infuse your personality into it" it should be less about you and more about them : science. BUT then again,gd effectively conveys an idea in a new way- art! but... i think too many graphic designers ignore the desires of who they are working for and become art snobs........which is dumb because think of all the great artists who did commissioned work. and if i created something everyone loved but i hated, id still be happy- its always an accomplishment to satisfy tastes even if they're not your own.like baking a cake your allergic to. miss you sissy. soooo many finals. sorry sooo jumbled.
You go to ART school to become a professional artist, graphic designer and designer... so are they not all the same!!!
ART can be many things to many people!
And don't we all have different sides to create a whole!
Love the graphics!
Hmm...I suppose one could argue that something created not only for profit but also within varying degrees of specifications made by a client, it can't be art.
Then again...the Mona Lisa, David, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...all commissioned pieces. I don't think there's anyone who would deny those are works of art. So, there goes that theory.
Well...that's confusing too because now a net has been cast so wide that John Lennon and the guy who composed the "Bust a Nut" Cornuts jingle could both be classified as artists in the same field. I guess that theory doesn't work either.
I guess my answer is if you create something that made you feel a certain way and/or made someone else feel a certain way, it's art. The answer is in everybodys' own individual head. I can call something art or I can call something shit whether or it falls within the much-debated standards of the day or meets whatever arbitrary criteria established or whether it doesn't...and you can have the exact opposite opinion and it's just as valid.
So...if you wanna know if Graphic Design is art, you will have to ask each and every individual's opinion on each and every piece ever created.
Well...I guess that clears that up!
All of this is why I don't call myself an artist or a graphic designer. I have chosen the title "illustrator", I illustrate the stories inside my mind, and with direction I am happy to help others illustrate the stories inside theirs.
Of course, I reserve the right to change or modify my title at any time.
Graphic design isn't art because for something to be art, it needs no purpose other than itself. Sure graphic design is about aesthetics, but beyond that it is visual problem solving & communication. It is about having boundries put on you & cleverly getting around them. That is why I don't think that graphic design is art, I think it's something more.
What matters, to me at least, at the end of the day is that I am going to work in a creative field. As long as I am not in a colorless grid of an office stuck in a cube somewhere putting together spreadsheets of the company's quarterly earnings then I haven't given up anything.
steven,
it's interesting that you say graphic design isn't an art, "it is something more," when most would believe "art" is the more and "problem-based" is the less.... does that make sense?
here here to the non-cubical life!
so happy to see you on here!
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