An image is a concept from the arsenal of art. By an image is meant something that can be called the quintessence of a work of art, its emotionally colored thought. This “feeling of thought” is always inseparably linked to the form, i.e. to the expressive means used by the artist, poet or composer in its creation. The peculiarity of such artistic thought is that it cannot be “translated” into the language of any other expressive means – it will turn out to be some other thought.
Design is also a kind of art, but it is an art of a special kind. It organizes the human environment. On the whole, we can say that the artificial environment is of decisive importance for man; man is the only creature who creates the artificial environment, and he is unable to survive without it. But over time, the human environment became not enough just to support physical existence – the environment has also become an expression of thought, of the human personality (it is not without reason that we can say so much about a person by looking at his room).
Interior design, clothing, landscape design always creates an image that tunes thoughts and emotions to a certain way in accordance with the activities that will unfold in this or that environment. Imagine a garden, planted with trees with ugly curved trunks, causing the thought of otherworldly monsters … would you take a girl to such a garden for a romantic walk under the moon? I don’t think so… a girl wouldn’t understand you. But for a party in the gothic-vampire style such sample landscaping will probably be just right. Or a workplace, furnished with soft couches and chairs with pillows – will you set up in a businesslike atmosphere? Or a child’s room, decorated in gothic style – in such a child will be afraid of ghosts, and not only at night!
In other words, the image in the design – is the overall look of the room, territory, clothing, which is composed of all the details and expresses a certain idea, adjusts the emotions in a certain way. The image of bedroom design is an idea of silence and calmness, the image of Gothic costume design is an idea of something gloomy, otherworldly or tragic.
This is why a designer always remains an artist. But unlike an ordinary artist, his creativity is always limited to functionality. For example, a shoe should not only emphasize the beauty of women’s legs, but at the same time not to become a torture instrument, and not to harm health (alas, this rule is often violated in modern models of fashionable shoes: high heels as big as the Eiffel Tower – these are real spinal killers! But the designers who created them, no doubt, felt themselves to be creative individuals).
Design is a rather complex phenomenon that always finds itself at a crossroads between artistic image and practical functionality. And if a designer has safely steered his project between this Scylla and Charybdis, it is safe to say that he has created a work of art.