#toomanyatonce

[just-a-strawman]

Question of the Week 13

Q: What distinguishes visual art from design? What distinguishes visual art from craft?

A: Design has been called “a method of human expression that follows a system of highly developed procedures in order to imbue objects, performances, and experiences with significance,” or in other words, a structured method of putting meaning to things (Art versus Design, Toptal).

Tate.com calls craft “a form of making which generally produces an object that has a function,” or a trade wherein one makes objects to be used first and foremost.

What hasn’t been included in those quoted definitions are near-identical statements that the line between craft, design, and fine art are all blurry. All three integrate similar components, but follow different methodologies. Most sculptures will not make good chairs, and the geometric compositions of abstraction break most tenets of design. However, all three are united in one aspect: mutual reliance.

Design requires a portion of raw creativity present in fine art in order to apply the its tenets to the outside world. Fine art often uses tenets of design as a foundation of communicating its messages; even breaking rules are still acknowledging they exist. Craft integrates both the creativity of fine art and the rigidness of design into its functional needs. One needs creativity to find a new solution to an old problem, and one needs that structure of design to create a practical object. Both fine art and design serve a purpose of some kind, which makes them reliant on the concept of a ‘craft’ to function.

I would argue that craft, design, and fine art find their origin from the same stuff, and rather than remain distinct, create their individual identities in their divergent goals.