Of words, design and art

“Without realizing it, the individual composes his life
according to the laws of beauty even in times of
greatest distress.”- Milan Kundera.

Navigation by paul koh

I look at pictures more than I read ever since I was a kid. I was interested in writing only as a substitute for composing stuff, piecing bits together, re-arranging parts to make a new whole. Because art was not considered viable then (as is now generally speaking), I used words as colors to create things. In other words, I tend to read and write the same way - visually. I remember searching for new words to add to my toolbox (they call it vocabulary) so that I can begin to paint a nicer picture. On hindsight, this served me well as it helped me academically. For a long time, I have forgotten about art and used words instead. Words have always been more tedious to me, not as immediate or second nature as drawing or painting, but I kept with it because I needed a means of expression... haha I wrote poetry, short stories and probably the highlight was winning third prize in The Golden Point Award some years back haha! Didn't really write very much since.

Metamorphosis by paul koh

Design was a logical extension of that process. Learn the tools and you start composing and piecing elements together, re-creating a part of you on the work that you do. Perhaps, that's why design is, to a degree, personal and has a particular style to it. Of course, design is different from art; Design succeeds only if it serves its purpose, which is largely determined by external forces. Sometimes it gets to a degree when designers become fatigued by the process as they lose themselves more and more to the demands and routine of commercialization. It takes a good agency and good clients to continually stimulate designers to really design. Art, to a much larger degree, is about re-creating who you are... and that is the source of its power.