Whenever we think of defining art and especially good art, we unintentionally start to think of aesthetics. The aesthetic is a fundamental element of art, because art would not be without it. Aesthetics can be presented in many different forms in design. Here, another question arises. What is design? Husset has given a seemingly simple definition:
Design is to design a design to create a design.
Because design is everything and it's everywhere around us, we need to categorise it into types. Thomas Munro, one of the fathers of aesthetic in art has done just that. He categorises types of design based on the senses they mainly apply to and how each type is developed in different dimensions in time and space.
There are three main categories of designs; visual, auditory and audiovisual.
Visual designs address our sense of seeing. These can be divided into:
a) Visual static surface design. This is a type of design that is developed in two dimensions of space, with no hint of change or movement. The three main components of these are lines, colour and texture. Here we have some subcategories:
1. Strip design, which is developed unspecifically in one dimension, on two directions, but has definite borders in the second dimension. It resembles a ribbon in a way.
2. Bounded-area design, which is developed in a given two-dimensional area, inside its borders. That is why it has definite and prepared contours.
3. Allover design, which is developed in a two dimensional area, but in all directions, while ignoring its edges or corners.
Each of these designs can be presentably and suggestively flat or three-dimensional. They can also be representational and have thematic relations, or nonrepresentational or abstract.
b) Visual static solid design. This is a type of design that is developed three dimensionally, where its units are solid. Here the main components are mass, voids and surface shapes. It can be divided into:
1. Exterior design, which can be viewed from the outside, and offers different design when seen from different point of view.
2. Interior design, which the viewer can see from the inside, while changing his vision angle.
3. Combination of both, designs which can be observed from the outside or the inside.
c) Visual mobile, temporally developed designs. These are types of design that develop in time. Here we have:
1. Mobile surface design, which develop in a two dimensional area, but hint at motion.
2. Mobile solid design, which are solid objects in motion.
These types of design may or may not also be representational, presentably and suggestively flat or three dimensional.
Auditory designs are related to our sense of hearing. They are divided into:
a) Musical deigns, which are created using rhythm, timbre, tempo, pitch and more. They are developed using instruments or human voices.
b) Word-sound designs, which are developed when literature is spoken. These also follow rhythm, tempo, assonance, rhyme sometimes etc.
c) Verbal-musical designs, which combine the two before-mentioned.
Audiovisual designs address our sense of hearing and seeing simultaneously. There are two subcategories:
a) Audiovisual surface design, which combine surface designs with music
b) Audiovisual solid design, which combine solid design with music.
This categorisation, I believe makes it a bit easier to define design and to identify it around us. Also it has made me understand that even designs that seem coincidental are not at all so, but have their own distinct features. Now I see things a bit differently, and my world seems richer and a lot more meaningful than it did before.
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