Art, craft and design - exploring ideas, and some definitions

As you explore ideas about art, craft and design, you'll be looking at:

• Line, shape, pattern, texture, colour, tone, form and space
• Materials used
• Art, craft and design in different times and places

First you'll need to know the differences between art, craft and design - here are the main pointers:

• Art - painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking
  • Art, in its broadest meaning, is the expression of creativity or imagination, or both.
• Craft - ceramics, weaving, jewellery-making
  • Craft involves making useful things skilfully by hand. It sometimes shades into art, particularly when an object is so beautiful you'd rather display it than use it.
• Design - architecture, graphics, textile design, product design, interior design
  • Design concerns what any man-made object can be made to look like.

Can you see how man-made objects might fall into the three art and design categories? And can you see how they overlap? Some objects are hard to put in one category only. Play the animation to get a feel for it - it'll help with the next section.

The examples on the next few pages should now start to fall into place ...