ar·ti·san noun \ˈär-tə-zən, -sən,

chiefly British ˌär-tə-ˈzan\

1 : a worker who practices a trade or handicraft : craftsperson 

2 : one that produces something (as cheese or wine) in limited quantities often using traditional methods 

Origin of ARTISAN: Middle French, from northern Italian dialect form of Tuscan artigiano, from arte art, from Latin art-, ars 

First known use: 1538

 art·ist noun \ˈär-tist\ 

1 a obsolete : one skilled or versed in learned arts b archaic : physician c archaic : artisan 1 

2 a : one who professes and practices an imaginative art b : a person skilled in one of the fine arts 

3 : a skilled performer; especially : artiste 4 : one who is adept at something First known use: circa 1507 

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary [accessed 01.12])

 Across the entire history of mankind there has been a very practical need to fashion objects, create signs, symbols and messages to be used in our everyday lives, whether it be for the purpose of survival, advancement, greater comfort or communication. At the same time, man has always had an aesthetic appreciation for form and visual beauty. Skilled hands used to shape or form something whole and complete from a collection of materials or elements; to create some kind of order out of chaos.  Every tool that has been crafted, from the bow and arrow to the satellite, has been tuned to the highest level of technical performance possible for the time, but it has also been shaped with an effort to include a degree pleasing symmetry, dynamism and aesthetic quality. Separating the two disciplines of art and design has long been a topic of rich debate. Initially it seems easy to cite examples that belong purely to one or the other, but I would like to argue that they are inseparable and most any one example of ‘art’ carries design characteristics or intent and examples of ‘design’ equally, always carry artistic qualities. 

TOOLS OF THE THE TRADE

 So what is design? According to Sir George Cox, former chairman of the Design Council, it is 

“... what links creativity and innovation. It shapes ideas to become practical and attractive propositions for users or customers. Design may be described as creativity deployed to a specific end.” 

Any object, any format, whether 2D, 3D, static, kinetic or otherwise that is made with some degree of functionality, can be considered design. This includes tools: everything from the knife or cup, through to the laser guided missile or CAT scan machine, they all have a practical application in assisting us, whether conveying food to our mouths, detecting illness or besting our enemies. In graphic terms, subway maps, menus, written language, signage, and so on can all also be considered tools of a sort. These things have a ‘job to do’, to assist us in our daily lives in ever increasing degrees of care and comfort. These tools are conceived of to resolve problems; somebody identifies a need and a comes up with a solution. Involved in all of this are the design professionals: architects, interior/product/graphic and multimedia and so on. Most of these roles have existed for thousands of years - albeit in increasingly more skilled and complex terms as time has gone on. Focusing on graphic design for now, the remit is to communicate information, a message or give a visual sign in a way that the intended audience can take onboard as easily, quickly and completely as possible. This could be to announce price reductions at a local furniture store or to carry a persuasive political agenda to sway public opinion, and anything else in between. 

Many tricks and creative devices are employed by the designer to keep the chosen format and content relevant and as tightly tuned to the intended audience and times as they can. It is worth noting here that design work is rarely carried out on a whim, it is commissioned - a designer, whatever their area, will be working to fulfill a contract or brief on behalf of a client (of course pro bono or ethical, community oriented pieces are produced, but nonetheless a brief is set with an intended party represented). This means that as a designer you are being asked to apply your specialist, or artisanal talents to an endeavor that has a predetermined desired outcome or result. Whether this is a commercial end, educational or otherwise, all graphic design jobs have a goal or end point in mind just as product designers have practical or physical needs to fulfill. The same is shared to one degree or another across the design professions. 

The Egyptian temples at Giza, skillfully crafted to convey a message of great power, influence and cultural sophistication of the pharaoh, also served as meeting places; their walls carrying tales of historical import, mythical and spiritual doctrines, even laws of the land in intricate and glyph pictographic writing. Establishing some of the lasting design principles; those of grid system, symmetry and repetition of form, the Egyptian artisans spent decades, centuries, perfecting skills that passed on through the rest of art and design history. By the time King Darius of the Persian empire was pressing his portrait onto the back of the first coins, a precedent was firmly established of the political propaganda that continues to this day - tribal crests and insignia, or logos, having already been around for some time now being carried around as constant reminders of their rulers face in the purses of every citizen. When the printing press arrived in the 15th century, knowledge and wisdom through literacy was democratised and the world would not be the same since. All of these examples are representative of significant practical and material efforts to serve a purpose, but we can also easily acknowledge the aesthetic results of these endeavors. 

The ornamental organic relief carving of the egyptian columns served no structural purpose; Darius’s head rather than that of a lion or other deity, and in such life-like rendering did more than imply financial value; the intricate differences and flourishes in early block typefaces in many cases might involve higher degrees of legibility, but more often than not intended to bring more character and life to an otherwise bland page of copy. As eras came and went, powers shifted, cultures evolved, we saw demands in terms of sophistication, complexity and taste in the aesthetics of all things. Clothing not only protects modesty and your body from the elements, a vast industry exists to serve our need to express ourselves through our choice of attire. The technology industry certainly shifts new products based on performance enhancements, but undeniably a large factor in consumer choice depends on the look and feel of the hardware - see Apple as a case in point, their incremental updates do not always carry a dramatic shift in functionality, but appeal to the aesthetic desirability of having the latest and sleekest piece of kit. It is incredibly difficult to identify a practical object, something designed, that does not also carry some degree of finesse or ornamentation. 

ART IS ART 

What is art? Having wrestled with this question for a while, and watched others lose hair and spit feathers over it, I would like to add my two penny’s worth. There are two sides to this, one, what can be defined as a piece of art, in and of itself, and two, how to deal with the idea of perception. The first point involves a number of factors. An individual gathers together materials and organises them together in a manner that pleases, or at least satisfies their urge to do so. This in turn may be figurative or abstract, it may involve paint and canvas, bronze, clay, animal entrails, an array of pixels, but whatever the medium or format, a conscious human decision has been made to create this piece of work, no matter how course, crude or apparently random their use of said materials. At the root of it, there was an instinct, a motivation or calling to set out to make it, the results may not always be defined as beautiful, but, I would argue, there has been a reason, a spark, an influence to trigger the particular form that comes out of this process. So, out of this I would argue that there is intent inherent in a piece of art work and that work may have an overt agenda to play out, or it may stand for a sign of the times, a manifestation of the human psyche - at that point I leave it alone for fear of disappearing off down a well trodden road of lofty definitionsand counter definitions. 

Cerebral, emotional and metaphysical experience, in a sense are very much a function. In fact the human mind requires stimulus; whether pure distraction, entertainment, shock, delight and so on, just as much as it requires educational growth or pure information geared toward making progress through life. All of the aesthetic pleasures enjoyed through art serve a fundamental purpose in humanity, feeding our soul, enriching our experience and appreciation for the world around us and everything in it. 

The second definer mentioned above, that of perception, is relevant because it is often said that art is art because someone, often the artist, has defined it as such. There are many ways art makes its way into realms of widespread acceptance, i.e. the institutionalzation of art as defined by galleries, critics and the like, but really, thats just opinion and weighty recognition. Ultimately, for my purposes here, I would argue that art is commonly regarded as differing from design in that it exists more for its own sake rather than having a responsibility to communicate an agenda. But this is where I raise a contentious point; no art is created without some glimmer of communication, as in there is always a mood, a tone, a cultural or stylistic and certainly emotional content at play. The very fact this work has been seen publicly is to allow others to share in this experience, as in to be the recipient of this message. To that end, art serves a purpose and it carries value, meaning, or message as much as 'design' does. 

So, while it is true that design tends to always have a purpose, some non-commissioned graphic work, for example street art, seem to be created for the pleasure of creation, certainly not for profit. BUT nonetheless this still carries an agenda, even if it is just to entertain or decorate - this would fall under some kind of community service at the very least :) In the case of culture jamming, from the now high profile likes of Banksy, there is obviously quite an oblique political or social comment in play; graffiti being an ancient form of civil protest and public display of dissent. An artist may argue against their work having any kind of meaning or purpose, but that's unlikely, it would be to my mind, an exercise in denying its value, any relevance or that it exists at all. 

WHATS THE MEANING OF ALL THIS? 

David McCandless, writer and designer, specializes in data visualisation, otherwise known as info-graphics. At the end of 2010 he locked horns with Neville Brody - lord of the D&AD, bastard child of the Swiss Style and deconstructivism. BBC Newsnight was showcasing McCandless’ latest info-graphics -commissioned to explain some of the socio-economic patterns across the world, and the issue was this: 'did these visual ways of representing hard data really help people get to grips with the serious information being conveyed?' Lord Brody said NO. 

His argument was that, in part the serious nature of the information was somehow cheapened or dumbed down (but in a pretty way), so it lost some of its gravitas but also that the ‘beauty’ in the compositions really just distracted altogether and it would be admired for its aesthetics rather than making any real impact. I could see his point, but it was kind of ironic that some of his own most notable early design contributions include distorted and diffused typography that, while I think look awesome, definitely interfere with legibility... a guys entitled to change his mind I suppose. 

Sometimes heavy data, or comparative information can be a little hard to digest when presented in raw form, you have to really care to want to maintain focus and come away with the bigger picture, so, by presenting this ‘bigger picture’ as A BIG PICTURE takes a great deal of effort out and, if done effectively will transmit meaning in a much shorter time frame with hopefully a more dramatic immediate impact. Mr McCandless definitely held to this logic, and if you look at his work there is compelling evidence. Being too clever clever, and certainly putting form over function is not a good way to behave as a designer, but I found this area of design represented a perfect example of how the arena of art; prioritising creative expression and pure aesthetics, and that of design with its need to carry effective functionality, merge perfectly. 

The question that remains: Can design be considered design if it is executed without any of the earlier mentioned apparent functional ends attached to it? Or does that then become art? Can art be considered art if it is not purely decorative or aesthetic.... does it then veer into design territory? 

From the examples discussed above, I hope to have made clear that this question is not actually relevant. That in fact the two disciplines are joined at the hip. Art in the classical sense (pick a movement), was certainly commissioned, it certainly carried content and agenda; whether religious, political or otherwise. In modern times art is sometimes cynically generated to follow an in-demand trend and taste, therefore targeting a consumer, for profit. ‘True art’ - if such a thing exists, may be generated altruistically, but as stated, there will still be some meaningful purpose to it, purposes that tend to overlap with those that a designer typically works with. The terms artist and artisan to me share too much to be completely separated from one another. Non-commissioned design does not become art or lose any of the elements that allow it to carry a functional purpose, just that that purpose will exist for personal creative agenda. But this fact that both art and design can be seen to communicate messages and have a functional role to play in our lives for me confirms, while this effort to maintain distinct boundaries will keep rolling on, it is maybe worth accepting that more unites than divides the two. It may just be a massive semantic runaround.

So art is art, design is design, art is design and design.. is art. 

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