Art vs. Design, This vs. That

"Ryan, do you want to be an artist?" Zaki (the teacher) asked.
"No, I want to be a designer!" He answered.

...and so the debate continued. Zaki tried to convince us that there were more similarities than differences. I was adamant that they were two very separate things.

To me, art is what you see at museums. Okay, so there's the pretty, Leonardo da Vinci and Monet type stuff, then there's the modern art. The stuff you look at and the first thought that comes to my mind is "What on earth were they thinking?" and the second thought is "Are they actually paid to do this?". Art isn't understood by all, those without the taste for it.

Whereas, design is practical. It solves problems, involves beauty. The word "design" implies that you did it with an end in mind, that you had a planned purpose. Design follows rules.

I think one reason why I was so adamant about this is because as this article puts it "Good art is a talent, good design is a skill". Me? I don't have the talent part. So it's pretty clear to me that while I can design stuff, I'm not an artist. What I have is skill.

Zaki's point was that (oops, my mind kinda drifted off at this part of the lesson)...you need to be both to be truly effective. We should have the thinking of an artist and the skills of a designer.

Okay, I think I settled on being 70% designer and 30% artist. Does that work? :)

Well, when all else fails, you turn to google. So, I googled and it seems like there are more articles that "Design is not art" rather than that "Art is not design". Does that mean that art is design but design is not art? This is getting complicating. Maybe Zaki was right...this is not worth debating.

Picture Credit: http://20px.com/blog/2013/06/05/the-fine-line-between-art-design/#.Uz7MBtz1u-g

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UPDATE:

I just read the following excerpt from an interview with Stefan Sagmeister in which he answered this question. Thought it was interesting!

Art and Design are two different things. As your work is very more art-orientated, what kind of problems you’re faced with in your everyday work for clients? Is this kind of art-design gap the reason why you came up with your sabbatical year?

I see all of our work as design work. Sometimes it comes close to the art world, sometimes it comes close to the product design world, sometimes it comes close to the film world, and at the end its all design. My favorite quote about the difference between art and design comes from Donald Judd: “Design has to work, Art does not.” 

- See more at: http://www.getaddictedto.com/stefan-sagmeister-interview/#sthash.ieBeS09m.dpuf