Art and Design are not mediums. They are two different relationships, one with yourself, one with another person.
Most creative people never learn the difference. Poets, artists, filmmakers, designers: they spend their whole lives being stuck, and this is why.
Artists fail when they try to serve. Designers fail when they try to express. Each is doing the other's work.
The world has narrowed the words. Art became painting and music. Design became interiors and graphics. The real difference existed long before art and design became industries.
So the only question that matters is this: Who did you make it for?
Make it for yourself, and it is Art. The new dish on a quiet Sunday. The rangoli at your doorstep. The photograph of your child, caught mid-leap.
Make it for another, and it is Design. The shelf lowered so your father reaches his books. The email rewritten so your peer closes the enquiry. The idea you hand a friend who is stuck.
You were never required to be an Artist to make Art, nor a Designer to make Design. Humanity practiced both for eons. We named them, separated them, sold them as industries.
We are all Artistic Designers by birth. It is our natural state.
Art and Design were only ever borrowed names.
Underneath, it is always Self-Love and Empathy.
Underneath, it is always Self-Love and Empathy.
— SCD Balaji
