I love it when people say plainly and clearly what has been ambiguously bouncing around in my head, slightly beyond my ability to structure and articulate. This is how I felt when I read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things and C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity (for those who only know Lewis from the Narnia series, I strongly recommend looking up some of his grown-up books - The Great Divorce is a good place to start).
I had this feeling again today, when I read an article by Adam Greenfield in this week's double issue of web-design-weekly A List Apart. Adam explores and contrasts the art and science of design as problem solving against the art of style as expression. Without shitting on anyone, he draws a line between the designer and the stylist.
The article, The Bathing Ape Has No Clothes: and Other Notes on the Distinction Between Style and Design expresses, better than I could myself, how I feel about design. Design and style are not mutually exclusive, but they are different.
Also worth a look, dicovered via v-2.org (warning - this site breaks your Back button), a site by the author of the aforementioned article, Gasoline Signs: corporate identity in the real world.
Comments
Adam - December 10, 2001 2:54 am
Thanks, Steven.
That's some mighty high praise; I am honored and humbled (and would have been, even if you hadn't mentioned my name alongside those of Don Norman and C.S. Lewis.) "I'm not worthy!"
Anyway, thanks for the kind support. It's that kind of shoutout that keeps me going.
All my best,
a.
J - December 10, 2001 10:01 am
Keep your pants on Steve.