“Art and design cannot be told apart according to formalist criteria. A chair does not necessarily design make, and a bas-relief in molded resin that looks like abstract expressionism could actually be the germ of a new mass-produced design for a building façade. To find a subtle principle of distinction, one has to transcend aesthetics and fly into the sphere of ethics: While an artist can choose whether or not to be responsive and responsible towards other human beings, by definition a designer must be. In good design, ethics are as important as aesthetics.” - Paola Antonelli
Humans have always made objects for some use, and yet it was not until the 1950s that the loan-word “Design,” adapted from Italian disegno, gained traction in the English language. Some have argued that it was only with the growing institutionalization of art - the artwork made by an artist for the sole purpose of being art - that design proper became a meaningful category; before then useful objects were simply objects made by craftsmen or, in the wake of the industrial revolution, those manufactured for a mass public. The histories of art and decorative art - itself a problematic term - have long been entangled. This makes for a fascinating story, but a headache for classification.