Please leave your response in the form of a comment.
Is design something that connects to common or universal problems or is design a space for specific methodological or technical research? What does the expanding field of design mean to all of us? And what does Dewey's lack of distinction between fine and useful arts mean to us?
(50-200 words. Thoughtful responses please).
I think design can't be defined as a whole because everything is design. Genetics are design but just biological design. It is definitely good to have specialties but you should also be able to design everything.
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, companies don't expect you to be experts at one certain thing coming straight out of college but you should have strengths and focuses of interest. Having specialties or pointed out strengths are good for resumes but don't really need to be advertised. I think specialties almost help direct the designer in their own path.
I understand the difference between fine and useful arts. I feel like useful arts people have a 9-5 job and 'fine' artists are the typical starving artist eating paint and living in a studio with paint everywhere. Graphic designers can use a painting strength in a more useful way by applying their skills to a design instead of the classic method. The classic method being, making a painting and then trying to sell it.
I think that’s this could go both ways. Everything connects with design…except nature…but I guess that kind of does too. Anyway I think that design is expanding to the point were it touches everyday problems more than it ever has. So I think maybe having a broader design mindset with a few major focuses might be beneficial. It would give you the ability to work on more diverse projects.
ReplyDeleteDewey's lack of distinction between fine and useful arts just means that the line between thee two is fading away. There are many projects that could be categorized as both fine and useful art. This just means that a designer’s role has or is changing.
Now, more than ever, people are realizing that design is incredibly important. In terms of making anything beautiful and functional, you have to know your resources, as well as knowing a lot yourself. Design is universal. Everything from the medicine we take to the plastic bags that groceries come in are designed by someone. Creating the world we live in is mostly made by humans. Everything has to do with everything. You cannot design in a bubble anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe expanding field of design is a great thing for designers. Businesses are realizing that although there ways of getting around hiring a great designer, it is in their best interest to present with their best face forward. With that in mind, we have to present ourselves as people who are knowledgeable in a lot areas.
I believe fine art has always been in question, and probably always will be. What does jewelry do for us? What do I think this question is somewhat useless because the designer doesn't really have to answer to it. The fine line is blurred and I think it should be. Artists are meant to break rules, not walk on a straight, well-defined line.
I think that a designer's role isn't really limited to a specific area. I think that the collaboration of ideas, interests, values, etc. is how we use our design strategies to solve problems. I think that depending on the situation or design challenge that you are given, it helps to have a diverse knowledge in more than just a specific idea or interest that help you solve a problem. I think that I am drawn more towards the diverse aspect of graphic design because ideally I see myself in a more collaborative work environment after I'm done with school. So it's hard for me to categorize or make specifications for what I see graphic design as.
ReplyDeleteI feel like design is something that connects to common/universal problems because anything aside from nature has been designed. Specific methodological and technical research definitely has its place, but overall, design is universal and is needed in all aspects of our daily life.
ReplyDeleteThe expanding field of design is a good thing; it opens more doors for more people. At the same time industrial jobs are leaving our country and economy, whereas the field we are all going into is expanding, and that's exciting to me. Although this means there are more things to learn, it's easier to find a niche, and become an expert in that area while also becoming familiar with all other aspects of design. As our economy is becoming more of a consumer-based economy instead of an industrial, production-based economy, design in the area of advertising and branding is becoming increasingly important. There is an insatiable demand for more goods and services, packaging and competition.
The lack of distinction between fine arts and useful arts is confusing those that don't know the difference. If one person has a preconceived notion about fine arts as something that’s just pretty to look at, not serving an important function or use in the real world, that can be damaging to designers. Even though there is some overlap, there should really be a clear distinction between the two, because when I tell people I'm a graphic designer, they don't know exactly what that means.
I feel design is both common and specific. I feel as designers we all need the basic knowledge of all fields like it is taught, meaning web, print, interactive, branding and more, but I feel if we don’t harness our focus and find something distinctive that we want to do we sort of become generic. I always look at the sports I played growing up, I could either be really good at one or two of them or be generic at a bunch, and I was everything to do with generic. I sort of think the same thing about design. Yes there are brilliant people out there that are great at everything they do, but the more time you can pour into one discipline, the better off you are going to be in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think the expanding field of design means a lot to all of us. I think it allows us to do a lot within the field, but it expects us to know a lot more information for the good and the bad. One perk that I tend to enjoy is that it really shows how designers are everywhere and are tackling so many different jobs and duties.
I think that the world if design has room for both universal problems AND specific research. Graphic design is in itself something that tackles universal problems in that it makes information look appealing, and sometimes easier to read. Yet in that same publication it will tackle a more specific point of view.
ReplyDeleteAs for what we discussed briefly in class about whether or not it’s better to be great at one thing, or mediocre in many things… I think it’s better to be ‘mediocre’ in many things. Who’s to say that your mediocre isn’t someone else’s fantastic?
The expanding field of design simply means that there is constantly going to be new things for us to learn and experiment. We aren’t forced to be knowledgeable in these things, but it’s great that we have the options to be inspired by them.
I didn’t quite fully understand the articles we had to read, but I definitely believe there should be a distinction between fine and useful arts. There are pieces that are simply beautiful to look at, and then there are pieces that tell us information. That is definitely a very distinct line, yet some pieces can be both at the same time.
I think that design is both common and specific. Design connects to universal problems because everything ever created has been done by a designer. Whenever new ideas are explored, only a designer can bring them to life. Design is everywhere, its universal.The expanding field of design is a great opportunity for designers to broaden their horizons. With booming of advertisement and branding, there is a higher demand for designers. If a designer chooses a specific field, they limit themselves to a specific idea, interest. Companies benefit from designers that work in a specific area of design, because they are experts and know how to do their job. At the same time, I believe a designer first of all is an artist and needs to broaden knowledge and explore creativity. Being successful in multiple areas not just design, is definitely beneficial. Being open minded, and striving to achieve as much as possible will help a designer think outside of the box. No longer there is a strong distinction between fine art and useful art. Most of design is useful, and even when an artist makes paintings, someone may consider them useful in interior design by decorating walls. The ability to paint is a useful tool for an artist to make money..therefore there is very thin line between useful art and fine art.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, design connects to a common problem that is connected to universal problems. These common designs lead to trends and world wide design. The design has to come from somewhere. It doesn't happen in a lab. It happens through the designer(s).
ReplyDeleteI believe that graphic design is expanding into many different fields because companies are getting smarter. They are picking up on the trend of design and want to be apart of it. These companies know what design can to for them. The problem…they don't understand the art of design. I strongly feel that incorporating those who are unfamiliar with your skill(s), gives them clarity.
I guess I'm kind of on the fence... Because the definition and need for Graphic Design is expanding into so many different areas and disciplines, I believe that we should know all of our options when designing. We should at least be introduced to what we can do with print, in construction of 3D forms and in the digital fourth dimension. We need to know, and need to know how to explain these different options to a client when we reach that point.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, we are all good at different things... whether it is organization, way-finding, typography, designing, etc. And in order to truly enjoy designing, or being a designer, we'll work in our strongest area(s). How else will we move forward in our careers? So I think the real question is how do we find the balance between focusing on our strengths and being generally knowledgeable in all areas?
In a world where design is expanding into a multi-faceted business and job, I could see how it would be easy for people to want designers to focus on a specific task or area in order to increase productivity. However, I believe that if a designer focuses on a specific area, they are leaving a wealth of knowledge behind that could only build on their creativity and ability to solve problems, do research, and design. I see this all too well at my current internship. My supervisor and co-worker are given print-media and web-media separately and anything that overflows is given to me. I feel that through this process and based on the knowledge each of us has… that myself and my supervisor are much better off. She has knowledge of web-related media but primarily works with print as do I. My co-worker has little knowledge of designing for print, but is fantastic at designing for web. This creates a rift in the strength of our team, I feel, because we can’t all multitask and use the skill-set from one area to build on the other.
ReplyDeleteThe expanding field of design means that we have more competition than ever before in our field. To me, that would mean being as multi-skilled as possible to shine through the stack of resumes in the creative director’s office. But being multi-skilled would demand being good at those skills, not just so-so. The lack of distinction between fine and useful arts means we have more ground to cover. Not only are we expected to design from a fine arts mindset, but we are designing for useful purposes most of the time. Marrying all of this together is a task, but I believe that not having one specific focus area can help with all of it.
I believe that design is meant to be experimental and to solve common problems. Designers strive to find new and innovative ways to display information. Although cultures differ around the world design can help bring people to a mutual understanding. Airports, for example, now use commonplace pictograms to direct people to locations throughout the terminals.
ReplyDeleteBy expanding the field of design we are now required to have more knowledge of certain programs. I do think that expanding the field of design will benefit designers. Even if they have a small bit of knowledge in an area such as coding for web design, this puts them ahead of other designers because they will be able to make smarter decisions. The person who has more expertise will be able to creating a better working website because they will combine their knowledge of coding to their knowledge of web design.
I believe that a lot of people have a difficult time understanding the difference between fine arts and useful arts. There really should be a distinction between the two. While both of these art forms are pleasing to look at only the useful arts is giving the person information.
I think that design connects to common or universal problems, but also is a space for specific methodological or technical research. Design is everywhere, which makes it universal. However, some problems need to be researched and specific designs need to be created. Also, some people have better skills in different areas of design versus the skills of another person.
ReplyDeleteThe field of design is expanding because we are all required to know more and technology keeps growing. With that, we need to be able to keep up. You can't just stick to what you know, design is a field that you are always learning new things in order to be the best designer you can be.
I think that there definitely is a difference between fine and useful arts. I think that graphic design can be both, but it is a useful art because design should communicate something. As for fine art, the artist may be the only one who really knows what their work means, and the viewer may just appreciate it's beauty as an artwork. Graphic design can also be interpreted in different ways by different viewers, but there is usually something specific trying to be communicated to an audience.
I feel that designers are able to choose which direction they want their research and designs to go depending on the job at hand. For me personally I think I’d want to design for a universal problem because it won’t hold me down from any ideas that arise. Rather than sticking to a specific topic, I’d be able to expand ideas from other ideas, which creates even better ideas. Kind of like a never-ending staircase, designers start at the bottom, and ideas build off other ideas, and lead you up the stairs.
ReplyDeleteThe expanding field of design means that design is become more relevant in society, which is exciting because we have the opportunity to influence the way society thinks and understands our designs and the reasoning behind them.
The distinction between fine arts and useful arts to artists is a completely different definition than that of the community. The community may understand fine art as being something you’d hang up in an art gallery. They might think that designers should be able to create useful arts as well as incorporating fine art.
I think that the expanding field of design has created the ability for designers to become experts at a smaller number of tasks and has given us the ability to focus on specific disciplines, rather than knowing a little about a lot of various different things. While I do believe that designers need to understand how different production techniques work, and need to be aware of their boundaries and limitations while working, I think that as the design world continues to grow and evolve it is allowing designers to narrow their focus. Things like web design are continuously evolving, and by the time you graduate from school, the things you learned in your introduction to web design class are no longer relevant. Allowing designers to be focused on something specific, web as an example, allows them to follow the new trends, and keep up with evolving technologies, such as mobile web, and become more valuable to employers and/or future employers.
ReplyDeleteI believe design is an expanding field that is becoming harder to define. On one hand, design can answer common or universal problems such as the environment, wayfinding, and education. But it may also be used to conduct technical research and work hand in hand with science/technology. Dewey may have had difficulty making a distinction between fine and useful art because design is successful only when it is integrated with many different fields of communication. Design is largely becoming a tool most useful for communicating than for simply expressing/experimenting, but it is hard to completely disregard one or the other.
ReplyDelete