Design & art

There's a fundamental misunderstanding of what design sets to accomplish. Scrolling design-focused forums, you get the sense that design and art are viewed as interchangeable ideologies. We've somehow formed the belief that design, like art, can exist for its own sake without any consideration for function or purpose.

By all accounts from great designers, this aesthete view of design is a misguided dogma.

Design can absolutely be a work of art. But unlike, say, a painting, a logo design derives its beauty from function.

Art may live without any justification. It is art, and its purpose is simply to exist.

Design, however, must prove it is worthy of existence by demonstrating a functional ability. If design fails to meet this threshold, it is neither art nor design. It is noise.