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Artist, Designer, or Hack?
A user by the name of 'Call me Jason' has asked a question in the forums and this question seems to have gotten a rise out of the Drawar Community. He asks what's the point of being a designer? This is a valid question and one that I'm sure many of you have asked yourself before. However, I think there is an even more fundamental question that you need to ask yourself first and that is are you an artist, a designer, or a hack?
The Artist
The artist is the individual who loves to get caught up in their work. They do it for their own satisfaction and at the end of the day they want the world to fawn over their creation. If the work they have created isn't beautiful then there is no point in doing it.
The problem with artists is that they have no concern of the user. They think that because what they have created looks good that the user will appreciate it. They don't follow a task-focused or user-focused methodology because they leave with the idea that anything that is beautiful is good.
An artist on their own is a dangerous person for the reason given above. I'm sure if you team them up with an IA/UX expert a wonderful site can come from it, but to create beautiful things simply for the sake of beauty is not the path to success.
The Designer
The designer understands that he is there to do one thing and that is to solve problems. Rarely is there any glory in solving problems. You might spend 240 hours building a website only to watch users spend the five minutes needed on it and leave. It shouldn't sting because if they leave completing the tasks they came to do then you have done your job and that is the satisfaction a designer gets.
At times there is praise for their work, but that is usually from other designers. Their best work is the stuff that goes unnoticed. Their best work gets out of the way and lets the user do what they need to do without complications. The invisible doesn't get recognized because it is never seen (thank you Captain Obvious).
What is so hard for people to grasp about designers is their love for solving problems. People tend to think that designers like to create beautiful things (the artist), but they really want to create beautiful solutions. These people are very rare.
The Hack
The majority of the industry. I was pointed to an article this week that compared doctors to designers. I think the gist of the article was that nobody would tell a doctor how to do their job so why do people think they can tell designers how to do theirs? I laughed at how outrageous this comparison was because in no way are these two professions related. Doctors have to go through rigorous schooling and after that still can't be called doctors until they pass multiple examinations along with working 3-4 more years as a lowly intern. When a doctor says, "I have been doing this for 7 years," they really mean it. When a 'designer' says that it could mean they designed 5 sites in that time period while taking 6 month breaks in between.
There is no barrier of entry to web design. If you have access to a computer you can become a 'designer'. People like to complain that the industry is too crowded when in reality the low level aspect of the industry is crowded. The hacks are fighting each other in trying to win clients. The upper-tier designers usually don't have this issue because they have earned the right to be there. Hacks feel a sense of entitlement that they have yet to earn.
There are certain designers held up in high-esteem for very good reason. If people give Doug Bowman praise for his work it's because he has been doing this long enough to show the blood, sweat and tears behind it all along with doing it consistently. One great design doesn't make you a designer or give you the right for recognition.
I created my first website in 2002. Eight years later I don't go around parading myself as a designer. Why?
- There is a difference between knowing something and doing something. I know design, but applying it is another story. (Editor's Note: See most of the hypocritical web design blogs today.)
- I have never done it consistently. I haven't put the work in to deserve to be considered a designer.
Hacks expect to get designer-type money because they know how to put a website together and consider it unfair when it doesn't work out that way. Hacks consider their design education to be spending 30 minutes a day reading a Photoshop tutorial about bevels. Hacks look at a design and worry more about how a visual effect was done over why it was done. Usually hacks spend more time trying to be artists than designers.
Be Honest With Yourself
Which category do you put yourself under? If you don't like the idea of being a hack because you really do care about design, then let's just say there are different levels of designer and you are a novice. You have to be honest with yourself though and understand the perspective you are taking with your work. It's unfair for an artist to get mad at users who can't use their beautiful looking site just as much as it is unfair for hacks to get mad at another hack for undercutting them on price.
You don't think doctors don't have patients that look up their symptoms online and try to tell the doctor what they have? I'm sure auto-mechanics have never encountered a know-it-all telling them exactly what is wrong with their car. Some people have a right to say they are trained and have years of experience in the field so you should let them do their job, while others just don't. Sure it sucks to be a designer, getting paid to do what you love and then having someone say they don't like what you have produced. It comes with the territory.
I know that isn't what you want to hear because you feel empowered with the fact you are now a designer. Unfortunately for you, the world probably thinks otherwise. Best keep at it.
This article was a bit different than what you usually see right? That is what Drawar is all about. It's not about being different, it's about helping all of us dig deeper into what web design really represents. It thrives off its members contributions so if you like what you see consider becoming a Plus Member or Drawar Friend.
44 Comments
"Hacks consider their design education to be spending 30 minutes a day reading a Photoshop tutorial about bevels. Hacks look at a design and worry more about how a visual effect was done over why it was done. Usually hacks spend more time trying to be artists than designers."
I'd have to admit that I am guilty of all that. Despite this I'm learning that the path to design enlightenment heads towards usability/user experience. I strive to be a better designer everyday but in some ways I'll always be a hack because I never had any formal training. Is formal training necessary to be a true designer?
If you can read books you can get most of the exact same education you could in design school I'm certain. To be a true designer practice being one.
Yikes! Quite the debate. Interesting definitions.
Though I agree with much of what you say for 'Hack', does seem like a rant... especially when comparing how many words you used to describe it vs. the other two, lol! I feel some of your pain here, though.
It's one thing to be a popular designer like Bowman & Co., but I think a lot of us have done this enough to chuckle and walk away from clients who under-value or under-appreciate our skill. Let the 'designers' who look at list posts on Web Designer Depot fight over those clients.
AnonymousThanks for the write-up. It inspired some re-thinking about my place in the industry.
I got into design originally in "artist" mode, but I think I've shifted my priorities in a better direction since. While I don't think I'm at the level of a true designer yet, what's helped me reach some fleeting moments of glory thus far has been working with other professionals who consistently push me and each other to become better problem solvers. Now the first thought is "can we make it work better" rather than "can we make it look better."
A good mentor or a team is an invaluable resource, but as you said, real designers are unfortunately a rare find.
This is a comparable argument with many professions - I trained as an engineer, which took a degree, a masters, and some pretty broadening - but intense - experience for 7 years, before sitting an oral board. Technicians need to go to college for 2-3 years and sit a variety of professional exams throughout their careers. Both engineers and technicians have to be natural problem solvers. However, professional engineers try to see the bigger picture, whilst technicians have a narrower view but have significant expertise in their field. On any significant project, engineers, technicians (and the semi-skilled workers...) all need each other for success in delivering a great solution.
I feel the same about web design and development. There are some superb sites have been achieved by 'hacks' - these are people with fantastic skills in a few narrower areas, and managed to solve a particular problem - usually by re-using solutions that other people have posted on the web, supplemented by their own particular skillset. The better sites are ones that have been carefully designed by a team who are aware of all the components that constitute a great online user experience (user analysis, colour, typography, IA, code development etc). Such a team would have a visionary designer, leading, inspiring and mentoring some skilled 'hacks'.
I see no reason why we can't adopt the 'web technician' moniker.'Hacks' is a little derogatory and 'technician' seems quite applicable in many ways.
I've drifted into web development in the past 10 years - still see myself as a developer, rather than a designer. Although I think I have the right problem solving skills, not sure I could call myself a designer, as that always seems associated to Design graduates. Maybe I'm a bit old now to go to art school... but if I could find the right 'technicians' or 'artists' to work with...?
I have to believe I would be a combination of the three, I admit, I spend quite a bit of my day reading tutorials I don't even do the examples for (that's changing), and I haven't really created what I would consider a "good" design.
My problem is that I've never been the greatest artist (don't ask me to draw something and scan it). Even as my skills increase I doubt any of my designs will be graphically heavy (i'll most likely look to focus on minimalist designs). Ah! I've had today's Ah-Ha! moment.
To be honest, every time I sit down to create a design I think I've been a bit to worried about how it will look, and how people will receive it. Maybe it would be good for me to simply let go, and create a design that I like, and almost "forget" everyone else (of course that wouldn't be a day to day practice). I'll write up a few blog posts, get a few icons together, and really look to shape the design around the content, instead of simply imaging in my mind what the content will look like, and design first.
You are very right that the market is oversaturated with poor quality designers (I consider myself a "aspiring designer/developer"). If someone is looking to get noticed they need to stop reading 500 ways to make your designs. look like everyone elses, and start inventing 500 ways their designs can stand out from the rest.
Rounded Corners? Scew EM!-ZigZags FTW! Graidients? Take a picture of a tree trunk and nail your content onto that baby! "Hi, I'm ralphpoo, and I design websites"? Make unicorns cry rainbows on your home page with your portfolio smack dab at the top. (Oh god, I just made fun of my Finance's favorite cat, someone send me a coffin).
Interest article per usual Scrivs, I'm going to go write my will now.
"If you can read books you can get most of the exact same education you could in design school I'm certain. To be a true designer practice being one"
I strongly disagree with this comment. Unless someone has a very strong sense of self discipline and motivation (i know they exist) its almost unrealistic to get the same amount of education from books as a BFA in graphic design would get you.
There's something to be said for all those late night hours put in at the studio, all the intense class critiques and graphic design history classes that you go through to get a BFA.
*oops posted comment too soon*
All those years that I spent in school = good practice at this designer thing
Glad you pointed this out Niki as when I was writing the comment I wanted to stick in a piece about experience being the best teacher. As you mention a lot of what you learn doesn't come from the books, but the experiences in school. I do think you can emulate those experiences outside of school, but it is definitely more difficult. The school environment definitely provides easier access to it.
By no means was I trying to devalue proper design schooling and when I say you can get it from a book it takes a lot more discipline than it would inside of school. Books smarts + experience = education, not one or the other.
AnonymousScrivs, I didn't read the article that compares doctors to designers, however, I made that comparison in the forums in terms of passion for the job. Would you say that's not a fair comparison about doctors being passionate about their job? The same way designers are passionate?
Passion is passion, no matter what job or industry we are talking about. The happiest people are the ones that are passionate about what they do because at that point it stops becoming a job and becomes something else entirely. I can roll with that comparison.
I disagree with school representing progression in a design career—it gives you the tools to begin learning. Schools vary in their capability to motivate and develop young talent in to designers.
To quote Kanye West: "a lot of people graduate but they still stupid" [sic]
The majority of design school graduates fall in the 'hacks' category still.
To develop as a designer you need to be in the field doing your thing. School gets you ready for an internship—it gives you the basic tools—but it isn't practice. Assignments are fake problems for the aspiring designer to solve, but there are no consequences to how well you provide solutions, no one's job and livelihood at stake in the outcome.
Perhaps I'm just bitter because I spent a lot of money on school—when I learned faster and more from using books and resources online. The test of a designer's skill is when presented with a real problem, whether they can succeed in solving it.
You learn how to learn in school, and develop basic social skills. That's about it. Most schools these days can't keep their curriculum up to date with industry standard. The reason is because doing so is very costly.
To me as a designer, you're a constant tinkerer. You see things differently. You observe why things the way they are. You have to constantly learn on yourself. If you're not passionate about this field, then change career.
As for the design community, let's play a game:
Think of the names of five well known web designers you admire. Now, mentally picture their work. I don't mean their blogs, or their famed design firms, or the conferences they throw. What do you see? Have you actually seen their work ever?
There was a time when artists and designers were admired because their body of work. They weren't be defined by their fan-base, writings, or employers. Social media is making that distinction harder and harder.
There was a time when artists and designers were admired because their body of work. They weren't be defined by their fan-base, writings, or employers. Social media is making that distinction harder and harder.
It becomes a case of whoever can scream the loudest is the only that is heard until eventually we will all be screaming and therefore nobody will be heard. A lot of the great ones don't play the social media game because they are...wait for it...designing. I do hope that a balance can be reached though and maybe it will be achieved with the newer generation of designers.
I've found an easier test: You aren't a designer until you can easily turn down work. A hack takes anything thrown at them, a designer has enough thrown at them that they can be choosy.
What about designers with no experience? Like Scrivs said, since I don't feel I'm a hack, I do consider myself a novice. But even so, I haven't done more than a couple design jobs outside of my own stuff, so yes I would take any job I can get just to learn the business and become more comfortable as a designer. So, I think your test is flawed clark.
AnonymousI would say I started out as a hack, but was luck to have a great designer some me the ropes...or will I always be a hack?
Wow this article is timed all too well. I just attended a lecture by Ben Van Dyke who creates work that most people throw into the bucket of "art" but he vehemently describes as design. Very interesting lecture.
I'm surprised that no one in the discussion has questioned your definition of an artist Scrivs. I think this debate is incredibly interesting, but the definition you've set up for artists is incredibly off base, especially after all of the advancements of the 20th century.
"The artist is the individual who loves to get caught up in their work."
I don't really think that applies to any group over another. It certaintly does not set artists apart from designers. I absolutely love my work, and I consider myself a designer and not an artist.
"They do it for their own satisfaction and at the end of the day they want the world to fawn over their creation. If the work they have created isn’t beautiful then there is no point in doing it."
Maybe in the Renaissance (although I don't even think so then...) but definitely not in the modern or contemporary art world. People like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Dubuffet"Jean Dubuffet's Art Burt, or Willem de Kooning's woman series were not "beautiful" but they are definitely artworks and artists. (And those are both pretty mild exampels) If you want something more extreme, look up Viennese Actionism [NSFW!]. Art is about a way of thinking, like Math and Science, and not about creating a pretty picture. (The people who are only about creating a pretty picture are the hacks of the art world.)
"The problem with artists is that they have no concern of the user. They think that because what they have created looks good that the user will appreciate it. They don’t follow a task-focused or user-focused methodology because they leave with the idea that anything that is beautiful is good."
Again not true. Art has always had direct relations to the viewer, and in the 20th century these interactions have become more pronounced. A good example of this would be Richard Serra's Titled Arc (1981). He took a space that was traversed daily by hundreds of people and installed a huge wall right down the middle of it. An action that is without question in dialogue with the user of the space. (Of course they didn't like that very much...)
So while I find this discussion in general to be very interesting, I don't think your definition of artist is a valid place to start.
All that being said, I consider myself a designer and not an artist.
Shit wish there was an edit button...
That should read: "Works like Jean Dubuffet's Art Brut..."
@Ian Storm Taylor, I disagree with your last criticism. Whether or not an artwork is interactive, the artist doesn't create it to be useful. It's an end in itself. Isn't that a defining characteristic of art?
As for the original definitions of "hack" and "designer" offered in the article, it seems to be saying that a designer is the real deal and the hack is just playing at it, and therefore that the problem is the lack of professionalization (in comparison with medicine).
The thing is, I actually like the fact that web design and development isn't presided over by institutions and regulations, though doubtless that's what will happen. My education was in civil engineering but its deeply established, professionalized character was what made me look for something else.
Leonardo was an artist and a designer, but he was also a hack. He contributed greatly to medicine but he didn't have 7 years' training in it.
AnonymousI know I didn't stutter or write the article to which you refer in a tribal clicking language. Paraphrasing one part of the article does the message and the people commenting upon it in this forum a disservice.
Without casting dispersions upon your ability to comprehend the article in it's entirety, the comparison was not to do with schooling or training, it was the ridiculous belief that everyone has a design sense and the correlation between professions, and any profession (plumbers were also a part of the comparison) in which people feel the price, work and payment are up for negotiation to the point where people feel no qualms about asking for it to be done gratis (for many different and ridiculous reasons.
What other profession is subject to such negotiations and allows it? What other profession feels helpless and without avenues for collection when payment is not made? You would be surprised at the amount of freelancers who don't know their rights and the difference between small claims, civil court and a collection agency.
Perhaps it's best if readers decided for themselves (as with the 30+ positive responses on the site, over 300 retweets and several other blogs with similar numerous positive responses)...
http://processedidentity.com/article/that-dirty-word-creative/
Enjoy!
Feisty, I like it. If you feel helpless when payment is made then your contracts weren't written up properly. Work performed is work performed. There are plenty of other professions that fall under the same category. Photographers, landscapers, etc. If a freelancer doesn't understand their right who's problem is that?
I'm one of the first people that tweeted your article and said it was excellent, I just didn't agree with that one point. Glad to see you have some spunk though and love the name. Keep up the great work.
AnonymousI was thinking of changing my name to Feisty Schneider or Speider Feisty, but those are my kids' names.
It's not funny how art schools and colleges turn out "designers" without any business training at all (when I went to the School of Visual Arts, you had to show a portfolio not only to get into the school, but also to get into some classes -- the teachers, who were working professionals didn't want to waste time with the "never-will-bes," and that was 80% of the students). I used to do a dog and pony show for graduating seniors at NYC art schools, giving them a crash course on contracts, business forms, professional practices and legal issues. Inevitably, there would be a handful of students who would run to the dean, in tears, because no one told them it would be so hard to be a designer. What happened? The schools stopped asking me to speak. Better no professional training than complaining students who might say art school was a waste of money.
If I hear one more designer tell me they are in trouble because the client didn't pay or stretched out the one-week job into a month or demands all rights, but they never issued a contract, or never got a percentage upfront (usually because they thought it would make the client mad), I'm going to go postal (several steps beyond "feisty"). This is one of the reasons people don't respect design as a profession -- the players are pushed around by the threat of not getting work.
Personally, I enjoy repeating "no thank you" to ridiculously low fees offered by businesses. They tell me they can hire an art student if I don't take it. I still turn them down but leave them by imparting that if they think it's expensive to hire a professional, wait until they see how expensive it is to hire an amateur.
Thanks for the kudos and retweet!
It's almost a case of if it seems to be too good to be true then it usually is. I need to make some money what can I do? Oh I can tell someone that I can build their website for them and they will give me money. Let me just go buy a book on HTML and poof I'm done. If anything the business side, the side that everyone seems to hate is the most important part of being a designer unless you actually have a corporate gig.
I know landscapers that run their own business that understand the importance of tying up all of your legal ties than designers who do expensive jobs for top name clients.
Sad to hear that schools are reluctant to offer a real world view to designers. Especially since for many it's a dream job when they are little, they simply see themselves as being able to create anything and get paid for it.
@jamalrob Here is what I wrote directly after reading your response, but I've since changed my opinion:
No, I completely disagree. The work of is absolutely not the end in itself. I was just listening to a TED talk where the speaker said that "science is a process", and the same goes for art. The piece created is part of the process; it is part of a dialogue. One of my teachers used to forbid students from saying the "final piece" because it instilled the idea that when you finish working on something you've reached the end. If you're searching for an ending—a beautiful ending—you're not an artist, you are a decorator. Sure, artwork is not meant to be physically useful for the viewer, but you are only using one aspect of useful in that case. Is promoting thought not useful?
But I actually disagree slightly with my response. Art can be about dialogue. The reason I made the less inclusive statement at first was because I am usually only interested in art that makes that dialogue, but it definitely doesn't have to.
I like John Maeda's idea that "Designers believe audiences are important. Artists think audiences are optional." I think it sums it up nicely. But either way, I completely disagree with the idea of art being solely about the end product; it remains a process and a way of thinking.
Another one of Maeda's simplifications that is interesting: "Design is about making solutions. Art is about making questions."
Whether or not you are asking those questions of yourself or presenting them to an audience does not matter.
Anonymous"The hacks are fighting each other in trying to win clients. The upper-tier designers usually don’t have this issue because they have earned the right to be there. Hacks feel a sense of entitlement that they have yet to earn."
And so many people in the design industry wonder why they're referred to as elitist snobs.
Good design is relative. Always has been; always will be.
Love the part about designers being problem solvers. I heard a quote somewhere very similar to what you wrote:
"The best technique is that which goes unnoticed."
I'd like to think I am truly a designer, but with the ability to speak hack, artist and corporate languages.
Anonymous@NikiBrown (http://www.drawar.com/articles/artist-designer-or-hack/160/#comment-661)
All those years in school are crappy practice at the designer thing! You simply cannot compare a school / college project to a client project! Never ever think that...
Anonymousman, you rock! your articles inspire me to keep signing design feeds because I am so tired of "500 best ways to do something" kind of post! and the popularity of these posts is impressive precisely because everyone is a designer today! a high scholl kid downloads a wp theme, get some free icons, a nice pic after some photoshop filter, put thousands of plugins on it and start selling.... and what scares me is that this guy really believes he is a designer!
@Ian Storm Taylor, we're going off-topic here, but hey...
It's no use pretending that the post 1950s art, which hasn't undergone the test of time, is the only art there is, no matter what the art schools tell you. Just because the establishment, big-money fashion at the moment is concept art doesn't mean that beauty won't make a re-appearance. Looking at art history (or have they stopped teaching that in art school?) that would be very unlikely.
If you're searching for an ending—a beautiful ending—you're not an artist, you are a decorator.
Well, Michelangelo was a decorator.
Perhaps it's just me, but the end of the first paragraph gives me the vibe that you're still talking about a designer--not an artist. I say that because of the "joining the tech expert" mention.
If Design is meant to satisfy a purpose then how can graphic design, web design, and the related such be classified as "art"--something unbound by the necessity to sell, and for creative expression.
We've unfortunately adapted a generalist's outlook on what "gallery artists" are capable of. For marketing, PR, and great interpersonal skills can lead to great, big, and regular checks for these artists.
Everyone starts as a "Hack", who doesn't learn by following what others have done before them and experimenting?
Although I'm no "Artist" I certainly have some of the pitfalls(Qualities??), and I've always been creative (mostly within the realms of programming and technology related things. I'm a perfectionist for starters, and if its not 100% finished or perfect in my eyes, then I won't be finished. E.g. a beta web application I'm working on at the moment could be released in beta stage soon, and I'd love to get people using it, but the fact is I know that I wont do that until its finished. I just can't bring myself to open up something that has "Not implemented yet" or "This will be different in the final version".
On the other hand I have some of the qualities of a designer, I love solving problems, and producing the most elegant and efficient way of solving that problem is so exciting for me.
I definitely started as what you define as a "hack", but I truly think I'm learning more and more about design, and experimenting myself with ideas and concept and I hope that i can think of myself as a "designer in training" rather than a "hack" any-more.
I don't agree that all designers "don't care" if the user spends five minutes on the site without consciously "noticing" their "great" design (if in-fact it is a great piece of design). Perhaps it's me but I hate it when people don't notice the great bit of UI design I implemented and they now take for granted, perhaps that's more of my inner "Artist" coming though though!
Some controversial statements in this Drawar though ;).
Why do we always compare the web design to other industries? Has it ever occurred that building websites requires a completely different process than any other job? It's not exactly the same as an architect, doctor, rocket scientist, or any other profession. Web design is web design.
@Joshua Amen!
AnonymousI'm on the fence about your article. What I used to tell my design students is that design is the perfect merger between art and communication. You cannot has a good, compelling design without both aesthetic beauty, and a CLEAR communication of a specific visual message. It is the ultimate expression of form and function.
A piece of art communicated different things to different people. A design communicates the same message to different people.
Visual effects or not, formal education or not. These things are all irrelevant. If you meet the above criteria you are a good designer.
In fact I know at least one person named Canadian Designer of the Year who never completed school.
Also whether a designer seeks praise for their work or not does not categorize them as an artist. Personalities are personalities. Show me your book, I'll tell you if you are a designer.
I'm going to start from the beginning. I'm with Ian on this about the value of art/artists. Art has been around for millennia, while web design is still in diapers. Art is personal and cultural expression. I somewhat agree with Scrivs in that artists create beautiful work for their own satisfaction, but it's way more complicated than that. Have you met an artist? The artists (usually) rely on their audience for some satisfaction, as does the audience. And much of the time the art is not "beautiful" by everyone's standards. But I think that is part of the function of art. To break standards and borders and boundaries and expectations, which is something web design can certainly learn. And what about all the illustrators and photographers?? They create art that is invaluable to designers. A good website can be made awesome and unique with great illustration and photography.
I'd like to think that I'm a designer. Although I've only been building websites for about a year, so I'm probably still graduating out of my hack phase. Which brings me to what snorkers said about hacks as just untrained amatuers working within very specialized skillsets. They are like the lowly interns working furiously like chickens running around with their heads cut off until they can become full-fledged doctor designers. I'll admit, I do this sometimes too. I did graduate with a BFA in graphic design, but there is only so much an education can do. Experience is really what is needed, and unfortunately it is hard to gain these days. Maybe that is the responsibility of the professionals? The big-time designers need to give a hand to the intern hacks and be mentors.
I actually came into the design field as an artist, but I decided to do graphics so that I could actually get a job and earn money for what I do, and I love it. So, part of me is still an artist who makes work that asks questions and makes the audience wonder, but I'm mostly aspiring designer who tries to solve the questions and keep the audience from wondering.
There's so much more to say, but I'll shut up.
@jamalrob Ah whatever they just read over us anyways. Too interesting to stop.
It's no use pretending that the post 1950s art, which hasn't undergone the test of time, is the only art there is, no matter what the art schools tell you.
And there is no use defining a contemporary artist (because that is what is being discussed in this thread is it not?) in the ideologies that defined art over two centuries ago. I don't know where you drew the 1950 line from. The dialogue I'm talking about in art goes back earlier than that. Manet's Olympia to Gaugin's Spirit of the Dead to Matisse's Blue Nude: that was a discussion. And that was all before World War One.
"The test of time..." Sorry but if we waited for everything to withstand the test of time before responding to it, we wouldn't be anywhere.
Also, I'm not sure why you would feel the need to make your art history comment... I would have assumed that me referencing dates and links in the first place might show you that I'm not just pulling things out of my ass. Contrary to what you might believe, art from the 1950/60/70s is art history too.
@Ian Storm Taylor, touché!
Yeah fair enough, my last comment was mostly facile. However, the reason I mentioned the test of time was that you seemed to be judging all art on the basis of post-modernist tastes. I was especially annoyed by your dismissive "you're not an artist, you are a decorator" comment, which smelled to me of art-school prejudice.
@jamalrob You do have a point. I tend to lean towards narrowing the definition of artist rather than expanding it. While some might see this as being elitist or prejudice, I see it as more of a reaction against the other extreme. I'd rather not have art be a bucket for anything to be dumped into (which is how it is often used today, and often to justify poorly executed ideas) because then the term becomes useless (and leads to the kinds of definitions set up in this article).
There is an "art" to any process whether creating a website, building furniture, sweeping a floor or anything else. It is finding the natural flow of a process that achieves a specific goal.
If you are good at something than you are an artist in that you practice an artform. I find it helpful to consider things outside of visual art and "fine arts". There is too much elitist nonsense that often comes with it.
I have a great mechanic that fixes my car. He is an artist in every sense. He lives and breathes his work and has exhaustive knowledge in the field (no pun intended). Is he less deserving of the term artist than others? His chosen field and many (any?) others can be brought to the level of "fine art".
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Hey, I was going to say you can't be a designer because you haven't thought about letting 'the user do what they need to do without complications.', but I can't now as it seems you've sorted out this issue with commenting through Chrome!
Have you thought abut creating some sort of app where people answer questions about themselves and are given scores like Designer (level 2) or Hack (level 99)? You'd have to come up with a more positive name than 'hack' though, or everyone would be lying their backsides off.