On its surface, the title may seem deceptive. Design is art, right? Isn’t it the usage and application of art to solve a problem? Is not design just a subset of the spectrum that covers “art”? When simply seen, making that assumption isn’t wrong. Design is a subset of art. However, just dubbing it “applied art” would be doing the principles it stands on an injustice. The scope of design and art, by their very nature, differ. One wishes to create for the sake of creation. On the other hand, the other wishes to create for a purpose.
Across the millennia that span human evolution, art has existed. From the era of the Neanderthal with cave drawings to the present day, art has always coexisted. While there have been a variety of interpretations of art, it still predominantly stands as a creative outlet to produce aesthetically pleasing creations. Art’s appeal lies in the creativity that it permits its user to indulge in, removing any restrictions on what they can or cannot create, and allowing them to create quite literally anything. Amusingly, design in some form has even preceded art. While the earliest known records of art are found 80,000 years before the 21st century, the first signs of design as a principle to create a solution to a problem are found even before that. So much so, as the first evidence of design lies as much as 2.4 million years before now.
In practice, design differs from art not only in objective but also methodology. While art aims to inhibit any restrictions, design applies more, curtailing itself to the realm of practicality and effectiveness. In practice, design is not confined solely to aesthetics, albeit they do play a role. It uses psychology to understand a problem. It applies the sciences to logistically and technically create solutions. It uses math to understand the demographics and spread of the problem, and accordingly targets the required areas. Admittedly, while these principles were not entirely applicable to the era of the Australopithecus, it does apply in modern design. This doesn’t mean to say that art isn’t used in it, however. Art with its creative approach allows for the creation of solutions otherwise not considered. It allows a solution to take a refined shape, creating both an aesthetic and functional appeal.
In a sense, design is art. Its usage of aesthetical elements and creative outlooks places it within a limited ambit of art. Art is also a design. The creation of art, in some form or the other, utilizes the principles of design through both planning and understanding. While an artist works primarily on an indescribable instinct, a designer follows a methodical procedure. An artist focuses on form, while a designer would prioritize function. To summarise, design is and is not art. While this is subject to perspective, the principles of design combined with its need for creativity place it in a status of limbo, unable to move in either direction from the grey area it finds itself in.
