Design as Art: Bruno Munari (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Information

Bowers is a brand designer and illustrator who believes that art encompasses many creative disciplines, design being one, and therefore design is art.

Design as Art by Bruno Munari | Goodreads

Much like art, the concept of aesthetics is a complicated field of philosophical thought and cannot be reduced to the designer stereotype that it means “making things look pretty.” Forse esiste un centro dove, a furia di visioni coatte di Amici, XFactor, Isola dei famosi, C’è posta per te, come il drugo Alex potrei disintossicarmi…. ma solo scriverlo qui mi terrorizza. And, “How are the foundational beliefs by which we make aesthetic judgments influenced by time, culture, and life experience?” Notice the words in bold. Artists “intentionally endow” their work with meaning to a high degree. In other words, they consciously enhance or purposefully enrich. There is intent married to action. Having laid down this crucial understanding, Bruno Munari goes on to explain the intricacies of visual design, through shapes of words, symbols and signs, and colours, of industrial design, through micro-art and spontaneous art forms, of research design, and of machines designed as theoretical reconstructions of totally imaginary objects.Designers love to make sweeping assumptions in regard to aesthetics, so allow me to construct a safeguard. Bruno Munari, ‘Works 1930–1996’, 2018, installation view, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York. Courtesy: Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Handles are for lifting. Balls are for throwing or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction needed. Art and all its disciplines, including design, require a mix of objectivity and subjectivity. Of course, there will be designers who roll their eyes and declare, “Art is purely subjective. It can mean different things to different people.” The obvious counterpoint? “Same with design!”

Design as Art | Book Review - RTF | Rethinking Bruno Munari: Design as Art | Book Review - RTF | Rethinking

However, a small percentage of subjectivity does come into play—aesthetics play a role, and this is perhaps where emotional design happens. This is the step where the designer’s sensibility, “art,” and subjectivity is brought to the forefront. Great designers “dress up” or “put a facade” on the underlying functional design to create something that works on all emotional levels—visceral, behavioral, and reflective—to deliver a product with amazing UX.Each topic area covers a bunch of sub-topics. Some stuff I skipped or skimmed, some stuff I was genuinely interested in, I read all the way through.

Design as Art (Bruno Munari) - [PDF Document] Design as Art (Bruno Munari) - [PDF Document]

Understood more fully, art is not a result. Art is a process, and the process of art is overflowing with objectivity. Bruno Munari, Curve di Peano P64.1, 1974, oil on canvas, 80 x 80 cm. Courtesy: Andrew Kreps Gallery, New YorkWhat I appreciated about the essays, is that there are global references, about art and design in other countries, which is nice to have context about, as a creative person. Esej o pomarańczy, groszku i róży nie był ostatnim, który uznałam za warty przybliżenia. Pozostał nam jeszcze jeden, szczególnie zabawny oraz ironiczny. To Luxioursly Appointed Gentlemen's Apartaments. Napisany przed laty, nie stracił nic ze swojej aktualności, nie jest to jednak powód do radości, a raczej do rozpaczy. A natural material ages well. Painted material loses its paint, cannot breathe, rots. It has become bogus”. Munari is a giant of 20th-century Italian design, a figure of incredible depth who helped define the role of the designer as we know it today. Design as Art, originally published in 1966, is probably not his most important book, but it represents an interesting journey through his thoughts. It is useful for young people aspiring to a design career as well as for experienced designers who want to improve the communication of their projects. We know that only the technical means of artistic achievement can be taught, not art itself. The function of art has in the past been given a formal importance which has severed it from our daily life; but art is always present when a people lives sincerely and healthily.

Design as Art - Bruno Munari - Google Books

As a UX designer, I always need to dig deeper, beyond the facade that one might call a potential “design” and look at the bigger picture holistically: the target audience, the use case scenarios, the context, and the device the design is intended for: TV to mobile, desktops to tablets, to ATMs, etc. And when it comes to product design, let’s not forget validation and usability testing. If design were just art, how could you test it?Any rational concept of the function of Industrial Design must begin be rejecting the all too common production of objects that are absolutely useless to man. (…) One such object is the rose. The object is very widely produced, and this production often becomes really chaotic in circumstances when the economics of production have been given no serious study at all. The object is formally coherent and pleasantly coloured. It comes in a wide variety of colours, all of them warm. The distribution channels for the sap are well worked out and arranged with great precision; indeed, with excessive precision in the case of those parts which are hidden from view. The petals are elegantly curved, reminding one of a Pininfarina sports car design”. If you enjoyed Design as Art, you might like John Berger's Ways of Seeing, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. What’s really going on here? Why have art and design been pitted against each other, and why are designers so adamant that design cannot be art? These questions are the starting point for a thoughtful conversation between Toptal designers Micah Bowers and Miklos Philips. As mentioned above, Munari has written many books aimed at both experts in the sector and children, and certainly Design as Art does not reach the level of masterpieces such as Fantasiaand Da Cosa Nasce Cosa, texts not yet available in English. Nevertheless, the book is a journey into Munari’s poetics, useful for young students approaching the world of architecture and design. The takeaways are truly your own as a creative person, so its kind of a make-what-you-will of these essays, here is what Bruno Munari has to say about design stuff. Some takeaways that really ring true for you, depending on your field of creativity, you'll highlight or bookmark and reference for later.