Fine art and graphic design are two creative fields with a long standing rivalry. The relationship between the two is complicated, due to their history, and their influence within a socio-cultural context. Both belong to the same industry, yet each have an awareness of their importance which aims to belittle the other's worth. But should either field be assigned more value?
Fine art and Graphic Design on paper, are polar opposites. Fine art serves no practical purpose, whilst Graphic Design is all about it. Fine art's foremost aim is to create something of beauty and personal meaning, and Graphic Design, whilst not lacking in aesthetics, is primarily concerned with communicating something successfully. Fine art is considered to be 'high art' - something belonging to the cultural elite whilst Graphic Design is generally considered as 'low or popular art' due to the fact that is distributed on a mass scale, and appreciated by a more 'common' audience.
Of course, these are the crudest descriptions, and in fact, it is far less black and white when you explore further into both fields.
In fact, before industrialisation took place in the early nineteenth century, 'the names of certain graphic artists and illustrators… were well known to their audiences….but as steam powered mechanical means of reproduction brought images into widespread circulation, a cultural change took place.'(Drucker, McVarish, year, p.134) This seems to suggest that in the 1800's there was no such divide between fine art and graphic design, and as opposed to the anonymity of modern graphic design, they were actually celebrated in a similar manner to fine artists, and their work was as covetable as a painting or a sculpture. This also credits the creation of means of mass reproduction with the cultural divide that has evolved. So what is so wrong with a piece of work being a part of many as opposed to a limited edition? If a design is mass produced, it immediately loses a sense of it's creation, whereas with fine art, if you are viewing the original in a gallery , then the craft involved in it's creation is evident and, as Walter Benjamins states 'the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity' (Benjamins, 2005. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, [online] Available at: Marxists/http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm [Accessed 19th January 2012])
Whilst there is usually only one production of a work of art, giving it an aura of being special and authentic, unless you possess the original of a piece of graphic design, it immediately loses a sense of it's original quality.
It is also easy to shrug off the amount of work that has gone into something mass produced, particularly in a digital era, where the means to create a piece of graphic design are easily accessible to a wide audience.
Another grey area in fine art and graphic design is the idea of their function or purpose, or lack thereof.
Some say that fine art is based simply on aesthetics and nothing else, but Howard Risatti argues ' it seems to me that what the fine arts do, as a group, is"communicate"…but when I use the term communicate, I mean it in the general sense that something is transmitted from the object to the beholder; whether this something is as ineffable as a feeling…or as tangible as hard quantifiable information' (Rissatti, 2007, p.97 ) So, in this way, fine art and graphic design are being placed in a similar category. Fine art is not simply about making something pretty to look at - with movements such as social realism, for example, serious issues were being addressed through the medium of painting, such as social and racial injustice. They are of invaluable significance because they are creating an awareness, and in doing so in a visual, figurative manner, it becomes more affecting.
Does this form of communication then, become more important than what is communicated through graphic design?
In many cases, what graphic design must communicate, through no fault of it's own, is everyday information necessary for us to function in life. Signage is the best example of necessary graphic design - without it we would be lost. Just because it is not conveying something deep or historical should not belittle it, as something like a road sign is one of the most useful pieces of design somebody could come across. Graphic design is everywhere, so to deny it's importance is to say that you are capable of living without it, which is of course impossible and ridiculous.
Of course, when talking about matters concerning design, skill is, or should be, one of the greatest factors in discerning the quality and worth of something. And it is here where it becomes tricky to argue for either side more strongly, as both fields have produced both outstanding works, and also questionable works that lack quality.
This is something that has Milton Glaser, the designer responsible for the iconic 'I Heart NY' and many other respected works in Graphics, addressed in an interview, when questioned about his views on the subject.
'When does ‘high art’ meet ‘low art?’ At this encounter is everything above the line ‘art’ and everything below ‘non-art’? What shall we call the material below the line craft, applied art, commercial art, decoration? Who invented this question? Who is served by the distinction? Does it matter? The search for ‘high art’ is a theological issue… I have a modest proposal; why don’t we discard the word ‘art’ and replace it with the word ‘work?’ Those objects made with care and extraordinary talent we can call ‘great work’, those deserving special attention, but not breathtaking, we call ‘good work’. Honest, appropriately made objects without special distinction we name ‘work’ alone. And what remains deserves the title ‘bad work’. One simple fact encourages me in this proposal; we value a good rug, a beautiful book, or a good poster over any bad painting.' (Unspecified. (2005). Commercial Art Interview. Available: http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/mg_index.html. [Last accessed 21st Jan 2012.])
The skills needed for fine art are generally not acquired so much as inherent - particularly in British culture, as a school child, painting and drawing is taught from an early age, and it is often from there that people develop a love and a talent for art and design.
Nicholas Middleton's work Protest, 2009, is a photorealist painting that demonstrates immense technical ability. The craft involved in depicting this scene so meticulously is an example of how great and valuable fine art can be.
This is not to say that graphic design isn't a talent people are born with, but to become a successful designer, skills must be cultivated and built upon, and are often derived from having an
interest and affinity with art.
For example, something like the British Road Signage, created from 1957-1967 by designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, takes incredible skill to create, and there are many elements to take into consideration. It must be readable from a distance and be able to be understood by both native and foreign travellers, so typography has to be employed correctly, universally recognisable symbols are required to be created, and an understanding of grids and layouts is required. The fundamental principles of both practices are the same, and so, as Milton Glaser says, it is unfair to discriminate against works of equal quality, simply because of their choice of format.
To conclude, whilst both fields have contributed to and are significant to society, neither should be assigned a greater value, and instead, should be allowed to co-exist, dispensing of the ego, and focusing on developing and nurturing a rich culture of talented artists and designers.
Bibliography
1.Drucker, J. and McVarish, E. (2009) Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide, New Jersey, Pearson Education Inc.
2.(Benjamins, 2005. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, [online] Available at: Marxists/http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm [Accessed 19th January 2012])
3.Howard Rissati (2007). A Theory of Craft: Function and Aesthetic Expression. America: The University of North Carolina Press. 97.
4.Unspecified. (2005). Commercial Art Interview. Available: http://miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/mg_index.html. [Last accessed 21st Jan 2012.])
Images taken from
Unknown. (2006). Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. Available: http://designmuseum.org/design/jock-kinneir-margaret-calvert. Last accessed 21st January 2012.
Ian Jackson. (2010). John Moores Painting Prize 2010 - Shortlist. Available: http://www.artinliverpool.com/?p=13316. Last accessed 21st January 2012.
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