I love taking pictures with my digital camera.

I used to take a lot of pictures using film but I never felt the freedom I do with digital. There just isn’t anything that quite matches the nearly infinite number of opportunities to capture a moment in time like a 4 GB disk. This digital freedom has allowed me to be much more playful and experimental in my picture taking. The photograph above, for example, which turned out much better than I had imagined, is one shot taken at the Exploritorium, a fantastic science museum in the City, inside a three-sided structure of mirrors.

As I write this, I’m asking myself, what does this have to do with design?’ Good question. My dictionary defines design as: To conceive and plan out in the mind. Well, that doesn’t exactly apply to what I do because my work  relies a lot on playful discovery. Not knowing ahead of time how something is going to turn out, is what makes the process  of looking so much fun. The definition continues with the importance of devising a plan as an integral part of the process. Reaching a stated or intended goal, if you will.

Okay, I guess my goal with this blog, is to explore the creation of ideas that can then serve another purpose. Like my bold color statement blog. Looking at what could be and what has be done before, is either worthy of repeating, a generator of new possibilities, or a lighted pathway to a new direction; away from the original starting point.

Maybe what I’m doing should be called art but design is art but, according to my dictionary, art with a plan. I think about all the amazing painters, Picasso, for example. His art really challenged the way we see the world and no one, that I know of, would dispute the fact that his work is art but, knowing something about him, seeing his sketchbooks on display in Paris, I am 100% confident that much of his work began with a plan, a purpose and with intention. Is art and design the same thing? Is art always design but design isn’t always art? I would agree with that statement. I’m probably getting carried away with all of this. It’s fun to talk about though, even if the conversation is just with me. I guess my intentions are more design than art because it’s through this creative process that I figure out what I’m thinking, what I like and then I look for ways to satisfy that thought or desire.

I apologize for this rambling blog. If you have any ideas or thoughts on the subject of design vs. art, I’d love to hear them. Leave a comment for me and I’ll surely write you back.

Until tomorrow, I remain your,

Design Detective,

Karen

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