Christopher Jagers

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Ugliness - Art vs. Programming

Ugh, John turned me on to another ugly website … and by a big coorperation - FOX. You would think they would have the money and the brains to hire some artists to make visual decisions, but no such luck. Webdesign has really shown me how much of art is logical, not subjective. Good design is not about taste so much, but rather controlling a hierarchy of focus. In that way, art is much like programming - logical! For example, your eye will go to areas of highest contrast first, lesser contrast second, and so on. Contrast can come from size, hue, value, or saturation. And all of these can work together or against each other. In the case of Fox, obviously there is a visual conflict between where your eye goes, where they want you eye to go, and where your eye needs to go to use their website. A complete mess. The advertising on top dominates everything else - not a wise structure.
This brings me to the thing I have been thinking about lately - art vs. programming, and their stereotypes. Art has a rep for being romantic, subjective, and mysterious. On the other hand, programming has a rep for being logical, quanitifyable, and mechanical. However, my experience over the last few years has revealed that these conceptions are not true, and that these two disciplines are much more similar than I previously expected. Programming is full of elegant solutions, and subjective decision making that would be characterized as “creative.” Whereas, art is full of visual decision making that is very mechanical, and aims to focus a viewers attention based on formal truths and the biology of seeing. In fact, I think art is very logical - and that programming is full of artistry!

Unfortunately, too many underestimate the logical power of art.

posted by cjagers at 11:57pm