Art vs. Design

Growing up I always considered myself an artist. I loved to draw, to create. As a kid we would play "Jobs" and while my friends were office workers I always had a sign shop. I'd make signs for birthday parties - taking great care while meticulously hand lettering each character. During high school I took a "commercial art" class which taught us what a pantone color was. In college my major was "advertising art," and now, over 13 years later, the term for what I do has changed to "graphic design."

Personally, I think the change is for the better. To me, art is something someone creates for themselves - whether it's the process or the end result - there is no judge. While art has a message, graphic design is used solely to communicate a message or elicit a specific response. That's not to say designers cannot also be artists. They can. But there are very specific things that usually have to happen in order to create an effective piece of graphic design, a couple of which include: developing a design brief and brainstorming. Those items certainly don't have to occur in creating a piece of art.

Design is about more than how it looks; it's about communication.
At least that's how I see it. How about you?

Here is another article on the topic of art vs. design that I found very interesting:
http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design

What do you think?