Is Web Designing an "Art"?

Art pertains to those concepts that are beautiful, extraordinary, and revolutionary. Such things include music, media, dance, visual, language, literature, and even life itself. However, can web designing be an “art” in such relation to the previous examples provided? Can we really call web designing “beautiful” and “quintessential” as we could, for example, a painting?

Actually, a lot of us just skip right down to the content and forget about what it actually looks like – unless, of course, the design is detrimental to the legibility of the content. Why?

Art – the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

web.jpgIt doesn’t require a painter to appreciate a painting, a musician to appreciate music, or a producer to appreciate a movie, but it requires a web designer to even say, “wow, the use of images is really something”, or for a web developer to say, “well gee, the structure of the code is really something. I wonder how it was put together”. Art is a concept where people of vast ranges of expertise and flavours that can appreciate a beautiful creation without having to understand what it took to obtain the vivid idea; web designing doesn’t attract such attention – it’s only there for the same reasons why the way a gift is wrapped in a clean way: we want the person to be impressed with that is being offered. Gift wrapping is not necessarily an art, as there are only so many ways to wrap a gift, and gift wrap is disposed after it has been torn apart. The difference in terms of web designing is the fact that it has variables, declarations, and various conditions that give web designing an art versatility.

However, because web designing is versatile, it also has no hypothetical advantages over other arts: you can create beautiful arrangements and possibility for the information provided, but it is not likely that this design with have a significant story as a painting of melancholy would; web designing is not musical, and placing music onto a page pulls the attention of the design and defeating the purpose; and finally, the literature of the developing HTML code can be beautiful depending on how it was written, but the number of codes that can be used is restricted in quantity, language, and usage – because English is the only language possible in HTML code, it is not versatile in the moderns, and is not necessarily a “language”; there are only few codes that are most likely to be used in web designing, and majority of them range from paragraph tags and divided blocks, and there are more than enough to allow the designer to do whatever they wish, or are required to.

Perhaps that is the reason why web designing is not as widely appreciated – it has been a necessity to publish information over the inter net, and it has never occurred to people that web designing can be used artistically because of its influence with science and math. Science is the art of knowledge, and math is the art of problem solving – would web designing be the art of knowledge and problem solving? What web designers had failed to notice is the fact that coding requires simple algebra and geometry, and deriving formulae, in which had been disregarded, is the basis of what brings everything together.

Math is rarely considered an art, because math is a necessity that is required in everyday life: time, money, and other quantitative qualities. Science is rarely considered an art as well, because it’s like teaching something you have already known since you were born, except now they’re telling you why you understand the concept by talking backwards. Likewise, web designing is something we have already known about, but we haven’t actually figured out what we know until we hit that switch in our minds to say, “this is why that works like this.”

Is web designing an “art”? It’s an art in context of everyday life – it’s an art, although beautiful and wonderful, that is not appreciated because it has been a necessity to begin with.

  1. What do you mean by “web designing”?

    Do you mean the procedure of making a blend, collage, or even an abstract image through various programs like Photoshop? Or do you mean the typing of the HTML codes, CSS styles, and PHP scripts?

    If it is the former, it is definitely an art, in my opinion. For one, it’s a form of expression. Two, it uses various subjects to pull away from: the real world, nature, other human, and emotions. Three, it’s a creative outlet of ideas, feelings, and thoughts. Four, there are trends and fads that go in and out. But there are a few factors that lead me to not believe it’s an art form.

    For example, can you honestly tell me that if some newbie opens Paint for the first time, uses the Spray Can tool, sprays a few colors in it, and dubs it his “artwork” that represents spray paint, would you consider it art? Even if it’s a two year old boy?

    If a two year old boy took a canvas, took his mom’s make-up, and drew a huge mess, would you consider it artwork? I would.

    Something seems so simplistic and wasteful in a Paint-produced image. But the little boy’s canvas, to me, sounds meaningful. I don’t know why.

    (Will continue this comment later.)

    John January 18, 2007 at 10:06 pm

  2. Web designing is actually the hybrid of web developing and graphic design; therefore, the answer to your first question is both.

    Yes, you are correct in believing web designing is an art, but people rarely take notice of it, and some argue that it’s far too “technological” and “scientific” to become an art; since the age of architecture had bloomed, people have become more amazed with buildings that people have before. Perhaps it’ll require time before people actually appriciate web designing, then.

    Franky January 19, 2007 at 2:21 pm

  3. Hm, honestly, I believe that mathematics and science play a huge role in art. The “golden ratio” played a huge role in the Renaissance. Art can also pertain to science as how it relates to nature and the human mind. With this I believe that web designing is an art. There are painters, archeticts,pastry chefs, or sculptors are considered artists, then why wouldn’t a web designer be considered one?

    John, as for the whole “Paint” thing, I’m sure that a few would consider it artwork and follow the same steps Person 1 took. Some people see beauty in the most unexpected things, whether it was or wasn’t the artist’s/designer’s intentions. :/

    (Edited by the intention of the author on January 30, 2007 at 11:33AM)

    Josephine January 22, 2007 at 2:03 am

  4. I believe anything can be considered “art” whether it’s a cup, shirt, ransom note, and of course, a web page.

    When you come down to it, everything has to be designed first, or sketched out and that takes imagination and sometimes technical stuff like math. Whatever the end product, the “artist” has put their time and their heart in it… or maybe just their time and mind. Whatever works.

    There are different varieties of the same thing, like vases and even ear-phones using different colors, material, and of course, different style which to me, is an expression of the maker and shows some of their personality, which is what I believe art is about.

    In my opinion, I find “Biology” as another form of art so who’s to say that web designing cannot be the same?

    — I kind of wrote this all as I went so I hope this made as much sense as it did in my mind. :D Everything makes sense in my mind.

    Kristina January 28, 2007 at 9:43 pm

  5. A ransom note? :p
    I think both of you are right, but it revolves more over sentimentalism. A lot of people would say ,”what the hell is that crap? It looks like a two-year-old to drew it”, regardless of how much work would have been put into it, or what the artist was thinking behind it. Likewise, people don’t appriciate web designing enough to think of it as an art, but more-or-less a requirement, if you catch my drift, because, according to the regular web surfer, it serves no other purpose than to orient data in a certain way.

    I consider it art, otherwise.

    Franky January 30, 2007 at 11:31 am

  6. Science in itself is an art. So to me any form of expression be it a written word, a painting, or a few algebraic formulas plugged into a graphing program that creates an amazingly complex and beautiful symmetrical set of fractals…Is art. Sure there are specific categories for various media, and some critics will give you black and white opinions, but anything that can be used to express or channel meaning/feeling can be art.

    I think web design is relatively unique or new as far as creative outlets go; at least I don’t know very many people who turn to it for expression or stress relief. I really like your work, and would want to see more if you had any. Perhaps given time more people will look to it as a certified art form. I think a fair number of people here do, since most schools these days list graphic arts and web design classes under “Art” department courses for college and high school instead of under computer sciences and business.

    I guess my main argument is that logic and reason do not equate to a world of emotionless mechanized conformity like most people seem to think, and that you find just as much beauty in things that are “scientific” as in anything else. Web design and graphics may be perceived as something mechanical or not, but like I said it doesn’t matter either way to me.

    Kris February 13, 2007 at 2:05 am