The difference between Designers and Artists
For quite a while, the topic of the difference between artists and designers have been floating around in my head. I don’t remember exactly what started the idea, of why there should even be a difference, but here is my short take on the topic.
It is entirely possible to be both a designer and an artist. Personally I believe there is a difference and it boils down purpose. Artists create for the purpose of expression and emotion. They create new and different ways to express an idea. A designer uses preexisting conventions and norms to convey an idea.
On the web a designer will be the one to decided to use tabs as the main navigation, with secondary navigation down the left side and auxiliary content in the right side bar. An artist might decide to make the navigation the limbs of a tree that comes in from the bottom right corner of the page and the secondary navigation the leaves of that branch. The artist is trying to convey and idea using the tree, where the designer is using the convention of tabs so web users will already know what to do.
Innovation belongs to the artists. Usability belongs to the designers. A bit of both makes for good web people.
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