Art Versus Design

When industrial design first began, it was targeted towards mass-manufactured products heavily emphasizing usability and functionality. In contrary, art remained to be the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements that appeals to the human senses. In recent years however, as design continues to evolve, many designers have begun to create emotional provoking objects that are highly visual, and sometimes are limitedly produced.

During class on Wednesday many works of contemporary designers were shown. Rather than emphasizing on functionality, these works have either deliver personal expressions or provoked emotions. One that especially intrigued me was the work of Tokujin Yoshioka.



Many of Yoshioka’s works involved experimental processes and often portray elements in nature. Clouds, for example, was an installation that established by countless numbers of fibers hanging from the ceiling over the entire exhibition space. The transparent fibers created a cloudy atmosphere and are imitation of a natural phenomenon.



Yoshioka’s Venus Chair is another example where a chair is created by first making a skeleton using a sponge-like polymer elastomer then soaking the entire piece in a tank full of solution for crystals to form. The crystals will grow according to the law of nature, and therefore each chair is unique and cannot be replicated.









In an interview Yoshioka talked about his hope to establish a connection between human memories and the law of nature. Yoshioka believes that in the future design will focus more on designing for emotions rather than for form, and nature will become the essential source for these inspirations.

Considering the uniqueness and the almost un-replicatable nature of his work, the characteristics of Yoshioka's working process seems to make him more of an artist than a designer. In reading the responses of his work, people also have a pre-judgment of whether it can be “refined enough” to be considered “design.” Many commented on the un-realistic factors of his Venus chair, and questioned how this can be called “design” if the product is beautiful but could be extremely painful to sit on? Is design merely an art under the constraint of having to be perfectly functional?

It seems as there is a predetermined distinction between art and design. People tend to see a piece of art as only to serve an aesthetic purpose, to be more highly conceptual and conveys a high emotaionl quality. Although partially agreeing with such statement, I question whether design may achieve the same quality while still maintain its functionality. Is it necessary to determine whether a work is considered an art or a design?

The boundary between art and design is slowly merging. From the case study of Tokujin Yoshioka's work it is obvious to see that both artists and designers are creating things from both spectrums. I believe that soon, there should be no more distinction. From the design point of view, the functionalism and aesthetic values will merge and this collaboration and will further our understanding of how this collaboration could be useful to the world.