Notice the words in bold. Artists “intentionally endow” their work with meaning to a high degree. In other words, they consciously enhance or purposefully enrich. There is intent married to action. For example, we call upon graphic designers to make posters for events — and not the artist. This is because the artist is comfortable only with the easel, but the designer is much more competent for this case of visual communication. With all the knowledge of printing, and paper types and technicalities, the designer almost seems like a genius. He works keeping in mind the printing techniques right from the start, he designs work that fits the psychological functions, and this makes him so much more valuable. After all, the form follows the function. The problem is that he treats readers as his consumers rather than his peers or pupils. This reads like a sales pitch. This is a book convincing the public that 'design is art', but not a book informing future designers what makes design that is art. Partial to Bitcoin? You can beam some bit-love my way: 197usDS6AsL9wDKxtGM6xaWjmR5ejgqem7 CANCEL MONTHLY SUPPORT

Design as Art - Bruno Munari - Google Books Design as Art - Bruno Munari - Google Books

He knows the means of effective design, and he applies this to get his job done well. He is the problem-solver, who does not resort to stylistic preconceptions, or absurd and false notions of dignity derived from pure art. In a sense — Copying nature’ is one thing and understanding nature is another. Copying nature can be simply a form of manual dexterity that does not help us to understand, for it shows us things just as we are accustomed to seeing them. But studying the structures of nature, observing the evolution of forms, can give everyone a better understanding of the world we live in.Bruno Munari (1907-1998), born in Milan, was the enfant terrible of Italian art and design for most of the twentieth century, contributing to many fields of both visual (paint, sculpture, film, industrial design, graphics) and non-visual arts (literature, poetry). He was twice awarded the Compasso d'Oro design prize for excellence in his field. I approached Munari's book with high expectations (since it's so highly rated), but ultimately found little of interest to latch on to. Bruno Munari in his Milan Office, 1988, photo ISISUF – Istituto Internazionale di Studi sul Futurismo. Design is focused on achieving solutions with measurable results, whereas art is more concerned with expressing ideas that may have more than one meaning. the proliferation of quotations: 'Concern yourself with things before they come into existence.’ (Tao Te-ching); ‘The greatest freedom comes from the greatest strictness.’ (Paul Valery); ‘To understand means to be capable of doing.’ (Goethe)

Bruno Munari’s Design as Art | Frieze

Don’t agree? Consider the centuries of repeatable practices, standardized tools, chemical reactions, and scientific discoveries owed to art. To the extent that there can be realities independent of the mind (the definition of objectivity), art is objective because it is process dependent.He cites Gorky in his introduction and also asks the reader to not hold too tightly to their conception of what art is and isn’t. Following that, the essays are grouped into five areas: Designers as stylists, Visual design, Graphics, Industrial Design, and Research. Instead, the emphasis now is on formal coherence — as seen in nature, like in the example of the leaf. The designer of course does not operate in nature, but within the orbit of industrial production, and therefore his projects will aim at a different kind of spontaneity, an industrial spontaneity based on simplicity and economy in construction. There are limits of how far simplicity of structure can be taken, and it is exciting to push things to these limits. What I appreciated about the essays, is that there are global references, about art and design in other countries, which is nice to have context about, as a creative person. Penguin published many handy and interesting little books like this around the 1970s which are really insightful and informative, by the likes of John Berger and Susan Sontag, and many others, covering many fields of art and culture in new (for the time at least) and refreshing ways.

Design as Art | Patrick Altair McDonald Design as Art | Patrick Altair McDonald

This unique form that the leaf has — its structure — is determined by the veins and capillaries which carry the sap. The leaf is beautiful, not because it is stylish, but because it is perfectly natural — it has been created in its exact form, by its exact function.In this book, I like the Munari's insight of 'wearing' best. He asks us to look at how objects become worn in their everyday use. Should we design objects on the sole merit of personal aesthetics and upon the Platonic plane of Ideal Geometry? Or should we design objects according to a limited sampling of user-needs study? Or as Munari suggests, should we design objects according to how it has been worn across time?

Bruno Munari on Design as a Bridge Between Art and Life

Again, we look to a Dutch artist, the master of light and painter of the Girl with a Pearl Earring, Johannes Vermeer. Vermeer lived during the middle part of the 17th century, experienced modest success as a painter, and died under a mountain of debt. Nearly two centuries after his death, however, Vermeer’s work was rediscovered, and his standing as one of the great painters of all time was cemented in the annals of art history. If you enjoyed Design as Art, you might like John Berger's Ways of Seeing, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. As someone learning 3D and 2D visual art and design and who specializes in science illustration there just isn't that much interest here. I'm not sure if this was intended for a Western audience, but some of the cultural issues he has with bamboo just aren't that relevant or generalizable to other aspects of design. None of these essays have principles that can be extracted and applied to other areas, they are basic musings that are as specialized as they are useless to inspiring design. They don't encourage further thought, they question nothing, they simply state observations. The majority of the book is saying 'it is this way *just because* it is'. Being told fast cars are a luxury as if we didn't know this before without critiquing it in any useful way seemed patronizing, pandering and pretentious. Maybe this is the stride of a designer, to simply identify consumer interests and provide a sellable solution, but there's just no self-awareness or detail to this here. It felt like he wanted you to think he knew what design was more than to encourage, inform or instruct readers. He refuses any depth, and so I just drew blanks. All of this said, most of the essays are light and accessible, but not as interesting, brave or complex as say John Berger's or Susan Sontag's essays on art. Clearly, Munari was writing in and for another period. That was a period spearheaded by designers-thinkers from the ranks of Nelson, Eames, Maldonado, Rittel, Bill, Aicher and Dreyfuss. These designers offer the insight that acute observation combined with thoughtful reflection of the material world is one of the most powerful forte of a designer. Design] is planning: the planning as objectively as possible of everything that goes to make up the surroundings and atmosphere in which men live today." (35)Art and design are inextricably combined. I consider design as a holistic endeavor which includes “art.” Design is both subjective and objective but should be primarily objective. Proper design objectivity is achieved by user research (defining the target user base, getting to know the product’s users, observing context of use), working through the essential steps of a user-centered design process (UCD) and user testing. As it is a collection of texts written at different times and occasions, no uniformity is to be expected, neither in the length nor in the depth of the chapters. The author ranges from observations on form, functions and materials to deeper reflections on language and the different perception of signs, accompanying the text with particularly effective examples.