Is Art Necessary?

Think Carefully…Art Is Everywhere!

Is art necessary? I mean, really necessary? It’s everywhere, you know. I can hear you now…”Art is everywhere? Whaddya mean art is everywhere?” Yes, it is. Put down your latte, which is in a cup that an artist designed and bear with me a moment. Stop for a minute and look around you. I’m sure you’ll see any number of things and people. Do you realize that everything you see required an artist at some point in its creation?

Take the people walking around you. No, I’m not talking about the people themselves, but what they’re wearing. Clothing, fashion, jewelry, purses, shoes, briefcases. Fashion designers at work. Is it raining? If so, those umbrellas needed an artist to create their design. Are you sitting in or near a building? Every structure required an architect, which is another form of an artist trained in technical design to create structurally sound buildings. Are there cars on the street? What about bicycles, motorcycles, trains? Transportation designers.

@maxime_px www.behance.net/MRCDesign

Are you sitting at a table in a chair? Are you reading this blog on your laptop? When you go home and take a shower to get ready for bed, is your shampoo in a bottle? Your toothpaste in a tube of some sort? How about your hand soap? Household appliances, cell phones, those disposable plastic containers you store leftovers in, tools, nuts and bolts, the machines used to make these things… product design and industrial design. You starting to get my drift here?

Jon Osborne – Senior Lead Industrial & Product Design Engineer www.coroflot.com/StreetDemonsDesigns

Spencer Nugent – Product Designer www.spencernugent.com

The fact of the matter is that most people don’t think very highly of artists or creative types. You don’t really make a serious living creating art unless you work for Disney or are extremely lucky and happen to be insanely famous like, Warhol, right? But the truth is completely the opposite. It really does take an artist at some point in the creation of everything. Even your local park or golf course. Landscape engineers. Geniuses at sculpting a landscape so that it’s beautiful, economical, and these days as water efficient as possible. And do you think that manufacturers of various products don’t think much of their packaging designers? On the contrary! They know that packaging sells. Put a high-end product, such as your shampoo and conditioner in an ugly package or container and sales are guaranteed to go down.

So the question remains…is art necessary? Well, no. I suppose not. Not to extent that we have it anyway. I mean, I guess we could just have one basic design for everything (which would by the way, still require at least one artist for that first and only design). But as human beings, we have preferences. We like things that reflect who we are. So yes, I guess we could have just one car design, one house design, one bottle design for every type of liquid, one table design, one type of chair, one clothing style, etc. all in the same nondescript boring shade of grey. How long could we stand it before we went absolutely crazy as a species? Just picturing a world like that reminds me of something out of The Twilight Zone. Seriously. Think about it. Why are there a gazillion different doorknobs or handles, an endless array of water faucets, doorbells, sports bottles, furniture, flower pots, house models, car designs, shoes, etc., etc., etc.? The answer is simple. Because we, as human beings, want variety. We want things that are interesting or unique and reflect the essence of who we are as individuals.

Okay, so you can pick up your latte and enjoy now. I hope you have come away from this post with a new appreciation for artists as a whole. Yes, some of us do the kind of art most think about… drawing, painting, and sculpting, and such. Others create designs that are functional. And while the myriad of designs might not be absolutely necessary in the strict definition of the word, we do appreciate the variety. That much is proven. So, go ahead and express your individuality…and don’t forget to thank an artist!