Fine art vs Graphic design

SHOULD EITHER FINE ART OF GRAPHIC DESIGN BE ASSIGNED MORE VALUE? ELIZABETH TYRER, LEVEL 4 GRAPHIC DESIGN.

Fine art and graphic design are two creative industries 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, 2009: 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 Benjamin states ‘the presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity’ (Benjamin, 2005) 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 argument is based on their function and 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 aesthetically pleasing - 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.

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.

Milton Glaser, the designer responsible for the iconic ‘I Heart NY’ and many other respected works in Graphics, has addressed this issue 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… ‘ Here, Milton Glaser is clearly talking about the idea of the distinction being subjective. The idea of high and low art only serves to create a divide, and is not of any real worth because the argument of the subject has never fulfilled a true purpose. He continues on, ‘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). His views demonstrate an incredibly rational approach to the argument. There is absolutely no need to distinguish and divide so intensely, there are talented people working in all arenas of the creative industry, and in critiquing an image, of any sort, 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.

Within fine art, the skills 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 depiction of Financial Fools Day at the Bank of England. The large scale of the work, paired with the sombre, monochromatic palette, dramatises a scene of intense protest, creating a sense of the viewer’s involvement, urging them to view this as if it were an important moment in history. The composition of the image, centred around the large statue, cleverly leads viewers to feel as if they are crowding around the main hub of the protest, again asking for their involvement in the viewing of the image, and also with the issue being protested. The immaculate detail of the painting has been designed to create a sense of realism, which is key to the impact it has, and it acts as a platform to display Middleton’s immense technical ability. The craft involved in depicting this scene so meticulously is an example of how affecting 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.

British Road Signage, for example, created from 1957-1967 by designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, takes incredible skill to create. The ambitious project they undertook meant they were responsible for the redesign of all road signage in Britain. The designs they created were incredibly successful. The motorway signage included design considerations such as being readable from a distance, which was fulfilled by the large scale of the text used, and the sleek, sans serif typeface employed. The modern typeface chosen also meant that the design would not look dated years on. Another consideration was the fact that they must be readable and understandable to all British and foreign users of the roads, which meant employing universally recognisable signs and symbols, displaying an incredible awareness of semiotics. The signs and symbols they created were skilfully simple and recognisable, and half a century on, the designs are still successful and effective.

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

1. Ian Jackson. (2010). John Moores Painting Prize 2010 - Shortlist. Available: http://www.artinliverpool. com/?p=13316. Last accessed 21st January 2012.

2.Unknown. (2006). Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. Available: http://designmuseum.org/design/jock-kinneir-margaret-calvert. Last accessed 21st January 2012.