What is Design?

What is Design? Many say it’s art. To me, it’s more and sometimes, it’s better. To simplify, Design is art with a function.

I look around and I see design everywhere: the symbols on my keyboard, the graphics on my computer, and the computer itself. The list could be infinite. The design of these items adds to it’s function. Many of the symbols on keyboards have become synonymous with the functions the key provides. There is design in a simple pair of scissors. The handle is designed so that it can be held effectively. Design helps society improve. Design tries to create new ideas. Design is a necessity.

Is Design a noun or a verb? As said in class, it is both. It can be the act of designing, imagining or it can a product of design, an image from your imagination. It’s something elusive that almost can’t be defined. It’s the past and present; it the known and unknown. Although the definition may be elusive, design itself is simple. It’s function. To start designing, one must ask what we want the design to do. With no function there cannot be design. That is why I say design is more than art. Art has become somewhat useless. It may have a point but almost no function. Modern art may show a critique on society or a point of view of some kind but it doesn’t function in a sense that it is need. It’s extra. There may be design in art, but it is not design.