Over the past thirty-odd years, when I show a set design to someone not working on the show (and sometimes to people who are), I often hear the comment, "wow, you're an artist." My usual response, simplified over the years, is to just say, "thank you, but I'm a designer, not an artist." This often results in two raised eyebrows, which tells me that a lot of people don't know that there's a difference.
Granted this isn't one of those things that you must know in order to survive in the world, but, since it's come up so often (just the other day in response to a prop I designed), I figured I'd do a post on my blog about the difference. A lot has been written about this, often from a subjective, almost defensive point of view, but the bottom-line difference is actually very simple. I thought the post might be useful to some of you who teach set or costume design, so here's the link:
https://setdesignandtech.wordpress.com/2020/02/17/the-difference-between-art-and-design/------------------------------
George F. Ledo
Set designer
www.setdesignandtech.wordpress.comwww.georgefledo.net------------------------------