I was recently thinking over my current mode of employment and wondering how it is that this job fits me, even though have no background in design or art. Basically, I was curious how a kid who used to laugh at people who took art history classes ended up being the resident “artist” at work. Turns out there is more to it than finding an excuse to abuse the office dress code.
What fires me up about the fuzzy line between art and design is the process of distilling and capturing the essence of something. It is a discovery on so many levels. It is taking something hidden but important and making it known in a way that is readily available to all. It is allowing people to live and work more effectively because of new knowlege.
It is about more than pure efficiancy, and more than process optimization and more than profit-making.
It is overcoming darkness through light; overcoming ineficiancy in the name of liberating the soul from the bondage of needless repitition or confusion; overcoming wasteful and damaging ignorance through increasing access to insight; overcoming inhuman homogenaity with empowered, directed originality.
There is a weight of the darkness of the world that oppresses the human spirit. Design and art and communication all aliviate this. I may not be able to take the weight of handling a gun in defense of others or being there day in and day out to care for those with special needs, but I can bring art, and all it’s value, to the masses.
