a quote by Bruce Archer

[Rik]

I read the quote recently and wondered what all the Xpert Artists and Designers think?!

"The habit of calling a finished product a Design is convenient but wrong. Design is what you do, not what you've done." – Bruce Archer

[handrawn]

you might just as well substitute the word 'Art' for [a] Design - it would work just as well... or not

[zaphodeist]

It depends on whether the word is used as a noun or a verb. Bruce Arthur is using it as a verb but the noun usage is the main one.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de...design?view=uk

A finished object IS a design, Bruce Arthur, it is NOT wrong to call it so.

So there

[James Allen]

I read the quote recently and wondered what all the Xpert Artists and Designers think?!

"The habit of calling a finished product a Design is convenient but wrong. Design is what you do, not what you've done." – Bruce Archer

I would have to mostly agree, though it’s so popularly used in both senses now, I guess I’ll keep ‘misusing’ it.


Word Origin & History

design

1540s, from L. designare "mark out, devise," from de- "out" + signare "to mark," from signum "a mark, sign." Originally in English with the meaning now attached to designate; many modern uses of design are metaphoric extensions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Design


Metaphoric

“A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance…”

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaphoric+

[zaphodeist]

I'm going to carry-on using 'design' in both senses - Bruce Arthur can carry-on being a pedant

No ... wait! Bruce Arthur would probably say that being pedantic doesn't result in him being a pedant!

[Rik]

I think John has probably hit it on the head though nouns and verbs ? I never could get what all that was about!

James: Your post does point to all the verbs and nouns and that's where I got stuck again!

Recently I did a 'Go Green' logo.

So, whilst I was trying to come up with the idea and drawing and redrawing it, I suppose I was at the design stage.
Then having finished it, is it now simply art?
But, if I was showing it to someone, I would say, "Here is what I designed."

Confusing!

[handrawn]

context is king - nothing means anything much out of context - and english is such a flexible language.. wicked!

[James Allen]

During our art course we all said 'my design' and in business it’s the same, so I guess we can say that the word has changed and popular usage does this. Language constantly evolves. Many people say ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’, and ‘rediculous’ instead of ‘ridiculous’. Eventually ‘your’ will be correct and ‘you’re’ will disappear, and our descendants will think we ‘rediculous’ ancestors were so strange to ever say ‘you’re’ in the first place. Words are wrongly used right up to the point where they are rightly used.

[zaphodeist]

While I take the point that language is in a state of flux - often unpredictably so - I'd like to be pedantic here [what's good for Bruce is good enough for me ] and stick my neck out: "your" and "you're" mean different things, there would have to be something replacing one of the terms to force it out of circulation so they're unlikely to conflate or for one to disappear [the apostrophe will go though]; "rediculous" and other misspellings might change the look or sound of a word [Gawd! I hope "aks never replaces "ask"! The triumph of the ignorant! And no, it's not dyslexia - too many people saying it!!] but not the meaning. Where "design" is concerned the change has been from verb to noun - like the other way way round for "Hoover". Language has not been changed so much as expanded.

"Similar" used to mean "identical", not "meh ... looks a bit like it but ..." That's change

[James Allen]

None of us think a word like ‘there’ will ever replace ‘their’ but long after we die our descendants might be correct to write, “There skycars r the culer blu.”

I think most words are actually ‘mistakes’ if you go back far enough.