Design Is Not Art

Design is not art, but art can be found in good design. Van Gogh was a famous artist, one of his most well known paintings pictured here is not a solution to client’s needs, it is a self expression of an amazing mind. It is his vision of a star light night as seen in his mind. Those of us who are graphic designers know that design is about 80% solving problems which is then followed by aesthetics. In good design, form and function complement each other and each contributes to the strength of the over all design. Garr Reynolds, in his article on DesignTAXI, states as one of his 10 points about design; “Think Communication not Decoration”. I love this idea and emphasis on communication, we as designers help communicate a message, the message of our clients, be it direct or indirect.

When I first meet a client and find out what it is they are looking to communicate, I help them picture how that will look to them. Often client’s have no clue how to communicate their message and it is up to us the designer to put on our marketing hats and come up with a solution. At the beginning of this month a life insurance company hired me on as contracted internet marketing specialist. They know that the typical print mail marketing campaigns are not working and understand that the new areas of social networking are where they need to be. Here is where I am wearing both my design hat and business marketing hat to help achieve the goals of this company. For most of us design comes easy but it is the business side of research and marketing that are a scary area for us or lack of time to do so.

So let’s get out out there and expand our ideas of what design is and how we can better our selves on solving problems and not just making things look pretty.