Design does not remain a static concept, but is typically concerned with improving our quality of life through the creation of objects of beauty, functional products or products that are both functional and have style or an aesthetic.
Design Distinctiveness in Art & Design
- Each aspect of art, craft and design can be taught in an individual context or as a blend of these aspects.
- Art and design projects, units or schemes of work will not always include design as an integral part. Design is positioned where and when appropriate as part of a creative, functional or applied process.
- Typically in art and design, pupils engage in creative activities intended for display in a gallery or as an installation. Through design, pupils may also focus on client led activities commissioned through a brief.
- The activities concerned with the creation of new design outcomes are sometimes considered as the product of a sequence of actions or process stages. The creative design process in art and design is less likely to comprise a linear set of stages, but often follows a more organic or itterative process that moves fluidly through design process activities, in an order that best meets the creative need of the designer.
- Design is therefore a way of thinking, as well as a behaviour or an approach to creating new ideas, new products or creative outcomes. How we define the scope of creative design activity is therefore open to interpretation or definition in relation to purpose. For example, the model illustrated below, shows Design Professor Richard Buchanan’s ‘four orders of design’, spanning from the tangible to the intangible. Although this model operates within problem solving contexts, it also spans the creation of products, experiences and transformations. In the art & design curriculum, we operate fluidly across the first three ‘orders’ of design, at multiple levels and in different ways: we create and use symbols, design creative products and explore interactions, although not always within a purely functional definition. In Art and Design, we rarely seek to design systems in the conventional sense, although constructed works, multi-media products and installations are all forms of a system.
Links and Resources
Design Week is an online design magazine
The Design Council is a charity and is recognised as a leading authority on the use of strategic design.They use design as a strategic tool to tackle major societal challenge, drive economic growth and innovation and improve the quality of the built environment. They address all areas of design to include product, service, user experience and design in the built environment. They are the UK governments adviser on design.
Design & Art Direction seeks to inspire a community of creative thinkers by celebrating and stimulating the best in design and advertising through the D&AD Professional Awards. As a membership organisation it offers a training programme and supports the next generation of creative talent to work towards a fairer and sustainable future.
The Design Museum is an independent charity devoted to raising understanding of today's designed world, which surrounds and affects everyone. Alongside temporary and permanent exhibitions it runs programmes for schools, colleges and universities, to include Design Ventura, which challenges students in years 9,10 and 11 to design a new product for the Design Museum Shop.
