I, Design (Part 2)
PART 2
Image 1 – The Bauhaus School
As the ranks of designers began to swell, latent emotions stemming from the search for true identity began to coalesce into heated discussion.
Artists and designers began arguing over the classification of their works and only after a series of vigorous debate, did they accede to a happy consensus. Where Art was often for Art’s sake, Design was clear and defined, with a specific purpose to fulfil. Art is defined by the Artist whereas Design is defined by the client. If the work was for commercial purposes, Designers were not to question the purpose itself, as long as they had achieved the desired effect of the work.
Then one day, a strange thing happened. A designer (or an artist) hung his finished masterpiece in a gallery. It consisted of strokes and splotches that he had created through pure randomness and he even had trouble recognizing his handiwork. He claimed that the work was created for the sake of the work itself and as he hung the masterpiece he uttered a single phrase.
He stepped back to look at his work and said, “It is finished.”
It is rumoured that no sooner had the words left his lips, the universe ended for an infinite amount of time. Then it continued. You see if he had painted for the sake of painting, hasn’t he painted the painting for a clearly defined purpose through the process of chaos? Was the work considered as Art or Design if the Artist was the client himself?
Some preposterous designers even postulated that Art had never even existed, as during its inception, Artists were always commissioned in the first place. Even if an artist woke up in an odd mood and decided to paint just “because”, he was still fulfilling a specific purpose.
Image 2 - No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock
Then again what if the artist was possessed by some unknowable entity that unintentionally caused him to imagine random flashes of colour in his mind and when he woke from his trance, he completely forgot about his misadventure? During his possession was he an artist or a designer? Was he merely expressing a symbolic pattern of innate impulses or was there a clearly defined purpose that had been fulfilled by the artist for the entity that “employed” him?
If this sounds ridiculous to you then ask yourself, have you ever had a flash of inspiration where a moment of pure clarity and genius sparks a chain of cognition, allowing you to solve a problem/create a new style/conceptualise a new look in an instant? Did you put the idea there or was it already present, waiting to transcend the confines of your mind and enter our reality through your hands? Maybe you were momentarily possessed by a dream demon that wanted you to carry out its will. Then again maybe not, becausethat would be ridiculous.
By the way, how did you wake up this morning? Did you physically choose to wake up or did it choose to happen to you? Is there any actual original artist?
I guess it’s better to leave some things to the experts and before we fall into a never-ending rabbit hole of what ifs, let us allow our blissful ignorance to take control for the time being so that we can carry on with our lives. Regardless of labels both artists and designers have to agree that both Art and Design are an integral part of being human just as our need to find order in chaos, or how beauty seems to have mutual characteristics and familiarities.
Image 3 – The Golden Spirals
Simply put, we will probably never find out if we can actually create anything truly original, but as designers, at least we get paid for it.
APPENDIX
Image 1 - Staatliches Bauhaus (help·info), was a school in Germanythat combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.
The Bauhaus had a major impact on art and architecture trends in Western Europe, the United States, Canada and Israel (particularly in White City, Tel Aviv) in the decades following its demise, as many of the artists involved fled, or were exiled, by the Nazi regime.
Source – Wikipedia.org
Image 2 - No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, an American painter known for his contributions to the abstract expressionist movement.
It currently holds the record as the painting with the highest price ever paid for it at at US$140 million in 2006.
Jackson Pollock’s “Splatter” paintings have often been considered the expression of true “art”.
One may assume his art does not convey a message based on the obvious differences between an advertisement poster and the mere possibility of an abstract message of a Jackson Pollock painting.
One may speculate that Pollock, when painting, worked more intuitively than would a graphic artist, when consciously designing a poster.
However, Mark Getlein suggests the principles of design are “almost instinctive”, “built-in”, “natural”, and part of “our sense of ‘rightness’.”[10]Pollock, as a trained artist, may have utilized design whether conscious or not.
Image 3 - Approximate and true golden spirals: the green spiral is made from quarter-circles tangent to the interior of each square, while the red spiral is a golden spiral, a special type of logarithmic spiral. Overlapping portions appear yellow. The length of the side of a larger square to the next smaller square is in the golden ratio.
Source – Wikipedia.org
Recent articles
- Disney Star Wars Mash-Up Ads are Back!17 May 2012
- Working Jams: Music For the Daily Grind16 May 2012
- We Want This – Ingenious UI Idea For Dragging Files From Your Phone To Computer14 May 2012
- New App on the Block! – Say Goodbye To IKEA Mini Pencils08 May 2012
- Lickable Wallpaper in London Elevator04 May 2012
Recent comments
- propecia shedding on Max Payne 3 - More Cynical Noir Action Hero Battling Drug Lords And Fighting The Demons Within!
- cialis uk on Max Payne 3 - More Cynical Noir Action Hero Battling Drug Lords And Fighting The Demons Within!
- bbs followup message online post propecia on Max Payne 3 - More Cynical Noir Action Hero Battling Drug Lords And Fighting The Demons Within!
- stacjiv on Max Payne 3 - More Cynical Noir Action Hero Battling Drug Lords And Fighting The Demons Within!
- slimona on Max Payne 3 - More Cynical Noir Action Hero Battling Drug Lords And Fighting The Demons Within!
07.11.11 at 1:27 pmPetey Leethanks for sharing this klonwedge! new & upcoming artists like me need to know these technicalities and why they work. there are pros and cons to signing with both major labels and also taking the independent route. alright peace!
Hey Chuck, Sorry to hear you’re at the end of the line but if your an artist I hope you don’t give up on your work. We have such great aristtic minds out there that we cannot afford to lose even one. If I can help please let me know and I will see what I can do. More importantly hang in there.
Ted – that is great! I’m finding that some of the exercises, including the morning pages, are great during difficult times. I’m probably going to come back to them over and over again.I just realized I am a week behind and not sure how that happened! My latest post is .Dianes last blog post..
Funny week. When I checked in last week, I mentioned feeling disconnected, so I was glad to see this week being about connection. I didn’t think that this week’s exercises were that useful, but I do have to say that I am feeling much more connected again, and much more positive about my creative pursuits. Weird.
Yeah, very true, design is the new rock and roll. Graphic designers have for a long while influenced our popular culture, shaping our visual landscape and helping define the image of cool cultural heros. In recent years these people that may have once taken a back stage have become to share the centre stage. Now it is the time of the web geeks and designers, animators and film makers. The thing is that these creatives are so good at creating ‘image’ that they turn their skills to their own benefit – so now those frustrated wanna be rockstars are going to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame!The Design Charts is a perfect example of our living in an age of instant online gratification and celebrityism – but I am still much more a fan of site as an indication of interesting new sites.
07.11.11 at 1:27 pmPetey Leethanks for sharing this knowledge! new & upcoming artists like me need to know these technicalities and why they work. there are pros and cons to signing with both major labels and also taking the independent route. alright peace!
Hi Jaxon,I really liked the oil painting as well. When you went home, I had a feel and it really tickled my paws.Thanks for your great comment.Keep reading and commenting.From Coco.
The titles of both holga shots are ‘i Pass You By’ and ‘You Pass Me By’ – referencing the static vs. the dynamic. In this case the images reference death of love in a relationship. Interestingly, in the limited edition ‘Verve’ magazine, Henri Cartier-Bresson has a similar image of a seagull – that gave me chills when I saw it.Love your holga.Cheers,Andrew Wilkinson
Hey Chuck, Sorry to hear you’re at the end of the line but if your an artist I hope you don’t give up on your work. We have such great artistic minds out there that we cannot afford to lose even one. If I can help please let me know and I will see what I can do. More importantly hang in there.