Art and Design Are as Comparable as Apples
and Oranges
Have you
ever gone to a website and been just blown away by the imagery? Did it wow you
in all of its feature rich glory? Were you so taken by it that you destroyed
your laptop trying to nail it to the wall? (We hope not.)
So then
surely you remember what that website was advertising or promoting, right?
There’s a
good chance that you said no. And if you did, then the website designer failed.
At least in terms
of designing a website.
According to Mark O’Brien at printmag.com, “designing a website with the primary goal of demonstrating
creativity is akin to an architect designing a demo house with the sole intent
of showing how many different styles she can design.”
We can
imagine that end product would be an amazing house - the likes of which would
make excellent fodder for a tome on the psychology of Dr. Seuss. But it
wouldn’t be a very livable dwelling. A design fail.
Here’s the
deal.
Design is not art.
Even if a
designer went to an “art school” to get his or her degree - which many of them
did. Design is neither better nor worse than art. It simply ISN’T art. So
what’s the difference? Graphic designer Alex Trochut put it this way:
• Design is solving a problem. Art is
raising a question.
• Design is conclusive. Art is an
open debate.
• Design is the mind looking for
solutions. Art is the voice of the soul.
• Design needs a collective
acceptance. Art only needs an inner approval.
• Design is an act of empathy. Art is
an act of freedom.
In a
nutshell, design focuses on problem-solving and functionality. This is an
important distinction. And it’s one we fully comprehend at LeDuc Creative.
Our designers approach web design with some
key questions in mind:
•
What problem am I solving for the client?
•
How will the typical site user respond to the way I arrange the
elements of the design?
•
How can I ensure that the viewer will have a positive response?
•
Who is the website’s target audience?
•
What are the technical parameters and strategic nuances of the
assignment?
•
How can I make this a highly usable site where people will stick
around?
•
Will my hands shake too much if I opt for
that sixth cup of coffee?
Effective designers are first and foremost
problem-solvers.
The
87-year-old graphic design legend Milton Glaser gave the best definition of the practice of design
when he said, “design is the process of going from an existing
condition to a preferred one.” Well said, Milt.
Successful
designers have the inherent understanding that to design is to make people’s
lives better in ways they don’t necessarily see or appreciate, but without
which they would
be lost.
Simply put, designers use their mathematical
left brains to create work that resembles something from their artistic right
brains.
Or they’re
sorcerers. That’s a possibility too.
Either way,
the fearless designers at LeDuc Creative love to get to the bare bones of what
makes a design work well. Long before they get geeked about colors, images and
fonts, they start with an overview of the client’s goals.
So if it’s successful website design you
want, turn to LeDuc Creative.
Whether your
focus is on incentivizing buyers, making checkout easier, having a mobile ready
design, up selling users on related products, re-marketing to past visitors who
haven’t yet purchased or any other number of goals you envision, the designers
at LeDuc Creative can help you realize those goals. (And if you’ve got any
luck, they’ll teach you to ballroom dance. Bad luck, that is.)
At LeDuc Creative, we know that the main
difference between art and design is that art asks questions, while design
answers them.
Our website
designers have answers and solutions for you.
So our
question is, how can we help?
