Design Versus Art

By Josh Orum | 10 Oct 2005 | Updated 2 Mar 2008

Andy Rutledge responds to Milton Glazer’s essay at AIGA with this comparison of art and design:

Art involves no responsibility to anyone other than the artist’s ideas, ideals, vision and purpose. Design, on the other hand, involves a responsibility to everyone and everything other than those things. For example: to the client’s needs, the client’s aims, the client’s expectation of result, the clients’ customers’ expectations, needs and concerns, …even to the public at-large.

Within the design community, I’m surprised by how many people don’t get this distinction - or they think that art is the higher purpose. I think that’s silly - design is awesome! Design serves the common good; art frequently serves a single person. Design creates value, design makes lives easier, better and more enjoyable. Hooray design!

Hey! This wasn’t written by a dirty hippie! It was written by Josh Orum, who does awesome work at Loud Dog, a boutique design firm in San Francisco that designs identities, websites, and marketing material.

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