This is a sort of appendage to my last post - Design 101.
In a few conversations stemming from that post, I’ve had a couple people ask me what I’m expressing in my designs. I didn’t want to go that specific in the last post, because I didn’t want to impose my expressions on anyone else. Everyone is different, and everyone has a knack for expressing certain things better than others. The important thing is that you are expressing something - anything.
But, it might be helpful for some to get an idea of what some other designers express. So here’s the deal: I’m going to share mine, and then YOU have to post your’s below in the comments 
Here’s me:
When I learned the important lesson that good design, like art, HAS to be an expression, I made a pact with myself: NEVER again will I make a design that isn’t an expression of my life. Whether the subject matter is weather, bingo or airplanes I will infuse the design with personal relevance and reflection. Then it is expression, and not just a picture. I made this vow and I have always stuck to it. Since then (in varying degrees) all of my designs have been a retelling of my own life through art.
So what are the bullet items in my life that are constantly oozing out into my designs?
- Community - we are social creatures.
- A love of life; people.
- Freedom and Independence to be ME.
- The importance of change; dynamism; new experience.
- The connectedness of every thing & every idea: holism.
- Harmony between everything: in a perfect world, the kind that I want to see and will always work to achieve, NOTHING should suffer at the hands of something/someone else.
- On top of these, anything else that is currently on my mind.
Now its your turn: what does your design or your art express? POST A COMMENT BELOW!
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Tags: art, design, express, life, question, self
June 14th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
[...] What does your design express? This is a sort of appendage to my last post - Design 101. In a few conversations stemming from that post, I’ve had a couple people ask me what I’m expressing in my designs. I didn’t want to go that specific in the last post, … [...]
June 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am
greetings,
my art has been expressing the sheer happiness and is reflecting the good point at which I am in my life right now, lately I have let go of perceived notions of what my art has to look like and I am pleasing my own soul with it, but always with the intent to connect the emotion I felt when creating each piece with its viewer, in a positive and deep way. I am also freeing the ties that medium has had on my creativity, working freely from paint and graphic arts to textiles and fabrics, clay , beads..whatever stokes my imagination. For the first time in my 15 year art journey, I am having a lot of fun!
Best Wishes to all you fellow artists for finding a place in your world to truly create what is you.
& Happy Spring Everyone!!!
georgia sakura
http://georgiasakura.blogspot.com - Art/Poetry Blog
http://gSakura.etsy.com - Studio Sakura
http://sushiandjapanesemarket.com - Our Japanese Market
http://stores.ebay.com/Hand-Made-Fair-Trade-Global-Gifts - My Fair Trade Gallery
June 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Good words, Georgia!
June 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I like to express clean lines and organized designs because these are just a couple of things that I value.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
My art and design seeks to glorify God first and foremost, and my photography often expresses a lot of what I am learning about or am interested in at the moment. Oh, and great site Alex!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Wow.. hmm. Very interesting
I don’t think I have one thing I like to express, generally when I do my photography I dont go out and say “I plan to make this statement” with my art. Its generally very spontaneous (unless its a specific photoshoot I had with a model I planned beforehand, like this one I did with an asian girl in a tea party theme, that actually came to me in a dream..LOL)
What I do with my regular art is go out into the world and find things that stir up something. When you see art or something beautiful or sad, I take the picture so I may share it with others, to see thier reaction. I think alot of my art has a more macabre feel to it. Something along the lines of being more on the dark side. Its a way for me to vent my feelings that I can’t express in words. Its kind of like letting my alter ego out.
I’m generally a very happy outgoing social person but when I take pictures its a way for me to let out the side of me I have a hard time letting out verbally, hence why some of my art has the slight macabre twist. People don’t expect it.
Thats what I try to express. My innermost feelings. The ones most people shove back. Wheter its sadness, death, or just something to lift up God when your feeling blue.
-Tay
June 17th, 2008 at 3:23 am
hmmm. so. here is my comment you wanted alex:
first, i have to say im a little skeptical of your “making a pact” to always express your life in art. i suppose it could be helpful if you need direction and focus like that, but i think for me the two are inseparable. however, if i were to put too much of an imposing requirement or too conscious of a focus i would be restricting both myself and the art. Dana Gioia (the chairman of the national endowment for the arts, and a poet - http://www.danagioia.net/) said in a lecture i recently attended, that many times it is the art that chooses us, we do not choose the art. this means that at times we are just the vehicle or an avenue of expression. as a result i cannot always read my life into my art, but let the lives of others, or the message of the art be expressed through me.
second, the former aside, i do think that i seek to have a specific message in my art (although i think sometimes that doesnt always line up with the message of the work). in my work i seek primarily two things:
1. to express beauty (one of my core values)
2. to express story (an important redemptive tool)
however, being an idealist, the majority of my work falls short of those two criteria and probably will for the remainder of my life, such is my lot. and yet, there is hope. my high standard does not prevent other people being impacted by my work, and that is my prayer.
sarah
June 26th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Frank: Yeah : neatness is huge in this new information age. Design is so much more that just visuals; it is use too. There is SOOO much information out there today; we need sharp lines, organized layouts, and just general design neatness to get through it all easily and quickly. Thanks for the thoughts!
WILL: Thanks dude!!! I hope the summer is going well for you — thanks for the comments, bro.
June 26th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Taylor —
Awesome comments. They really describe your photography (which is incredible). Sometimes the most beautiful artistic expression is whatever can’t be expressed some other way…
-Alex
June 26th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Sarah -
Thanks for commenting
I think we agree more than you suppose. I do think, though, that there is a way to separate; a way to be untrue to whatever Taylor described above as her “innermost feelings” that couldn’t be “express[ed] in words.” That’s to NOT go with the flow, but instead force something. That’s to NOT let the art choose you, and instead attempt to choose it yourself. I agree with Mr. Gioia whole-heartedly on this: it ceases to be art if it is not allowed to guide the expression. Perhaps my “pact” was more of a surrender to finally participating in real art, rather than merely imitating it as I had before.
As for your “themes” of expression, whatever you think you lack, you’re doing wonderfully. You’re always comunicating and inspiring — just never stop striving for more
-A
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Okay, so I’ve thought about this for a while, and this idea I have of what my art “should” express is in constant revision. For right now, this is my answer.
What does my art express? That’s a difficult question, in my opinion. My art simply expresses what the subject or object “is.” It’s not so much of an expression, but an observation and invitation to the viewer to look, and perceive. The play of light and shadow, the turn of form, this is what my art is about. For now, I feel that is all I can do, content based art is not my thing….yet. I prefer to let the inherent beauty of the object, for all things have some beauty, be the main focus. Here are some bullet point themes of my art:
-reality, or realities (after all, what is a painting, but a collection of observed instances of time, all meshed to form a single eternal average of instances?)
-dichotomy and harmony and the interplay of the two
-understanding and portrayal of the beauty of the subject.
-m
July 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Fascinating topic, My art is incredibly hemmed in with other peoples ideas(Lighting Design). I strive to read a script with as little idea of where I am going with the design. The art comes after I take into account what the author, the Director and the Scenic Designer want. I tell the same story everyone else is telling emphasizing the moments in their work that speak to me with beautiful or jarring lighting. I hope my work is, expressing the story, and making connections the audience made not have made. The only thing I’m expressing are ideas already in the performance emphasized according to my life experience.
Happy creating!
July 6th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Meredith — finally!
But that was a beautiful comment. To be so passionate about the “other” or the object, and what its ontology entails that you can’t help but express it in your creation is an amazing thing. Honorable perhaps. Your art is the kind that gives us all encouragement and permission to be ourselves and let that affect others as brilliantly as possible.
Craig: Your art, like Meredith’s, is incredibly honoring its subject: the story as originally conceived. I’m sure your attention to the author’s intentions show, and DO connect the audience to those intentions in a way that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise! Thanks for the comment, and for your art