While diving into Design and Art by Alex Coles, I, for the first time, discovered a difference between design and art. Both fall under the same realm of creativity, but serve different purposes. Design serves to satisfy some sort of exigence; it fulfills a need to solve a problem or function as tool. Design can have artistic appeals but in the creation of the product, art might distract from the importance of a well developed function. Art on the other hand, can be uncontrolled and unplanned with means to manipulate ideas rather than the tactile issues around it. Both however can be easily influenced by its surroundings in the present or the past.
I view myself as the artist. Seldom am I looking to design a solution to common life problems, but I find myself working for others to create a product in graphic design. I’ll listen to their needs and combine it with my artistic wants to design a solution to their problem in advertising. I more often create art out of the blue with no real purpose besides putting my thoughts out into the world creatively. As I found stated in “Good Design: What is it for?”, art should be less for the appeal to all and more for the satisfaction of the artist. This idea is one I can support because of the heavy hand of business I often see trying to manipulate art to their advantage, profiting off of the copying and distortion of pre-made ideas by artists who only made art for themselves or by artists who created art with intense influence by commanding orders. Art is for the artist, whoever else sees it is only there to interpret.