Designers can be Artists too
There has always persisted the popular belief that inside every designer there was a frustrated artist screaming to get out. So with every brochure or annual report concept designers would strive for perfection on an artistic level as much as a design level. With this many would say goes the 'ego' of the artist and their ownership of their creation as 'art' rather than merely 'design'. Print design has in particular spawned this attitude, with magazine designers such as David Carson who create designs more influenced by Collage Art than any traditional interest in content or readability. Here the designers personality was paramount.
With web designers this artistic need has risen even more to the
fore in recent years. Many designers frustrated with the limitations
of commercial design and having to relate to a clients wishes have
formed themselves into design communities where the only client is
themselves and where anything goes. 'Personal projects' and
'personal work' are in many cases what get many web designers out of
bed in the morning rather than the growing marketing heavy design
speak that has infiltrated the world of web design.
Only a year or two ago there wasn't a web design marketeer to be seen. Web designers dealt with clients face to face and could lead their designs from concept to final product without the slightest mention of 'usability engineering', 'banner ad restrictions' ' online branding' or any other rule and regulation that influenced the web designers creation. And while most designers welcome the respect their talents are now rewarded with in commercial terms, they also feel the need to put their underused creative energies elsewhere.
Websites such as Born Magazine, Word and Shift among others, see writers and designers collaborating in magazine style communities
with fresh content that is typically not of a mainstream nature. Here the
designer and the writer get to showcase their talents on an equal footing
to an audience that is also drawn from these communities.
Other more visual orientated communities such as The Remedi Project or Invertebrae showcase interactive projects and ideas where designers push into more artistic than design areas. Individual designers such as Matt Owens also use their own website to showcase these experiments along with their regular commercial portfolio of designs.
An important trait of these art/design websites is to add affiliate
links to other like minded designers and 'hybrid' project websites.
In this way the community becomes a potent network of creativity
inside the more regulated world of web design, without the over
competitive edge usually associated with commercial web design companies.
So while many print designers struggle on to express themselves through their commercial projects, especially those in companies with a more conservative client base, web designers seem to have naturally discovered alternative routes not afforded to print designers. Whether these can be seen as 'design' or 'art' means little to the designers. It affords the builders of the increasingly commercial web the freedom to express themselves in a way only the web itself has provided.