Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains. (Anonymous)

And that, basically, is the difference between art & graphic design. That said, I do, however, meet a lot of graphic designers who wish they were – or were trained to be – the former rather than the latter. Now, this may be no more harmful than the copywriter who’s working on that novel at home, but it really does seem to be something to watch out for. 

When you’re doing art, there are no constraints. You can put a crucifix in a jar of your own urine, make a Madonna out of elephant dung, or cover a skull in diamonds and post it for a cool £50 million. It’s totally up to you.

That said, your first constraint may be whether you want to eat or not. So, unless you are Andres Serrano, Chris Ofili, or Damien Hirst, you may want to try something a little more salable – something you could hang on a wall, say, or place on a nice pedestal. 

And if you’d like to eat something nice, well, you might go so far as to get a real job, like being a graphic designer for a large corporation, where they may very well ask you to work on their website. Of course, that’s likely going to be a little bit of a comedown from the woodcuts you made back in school.

But don’t give up on it just yet. It can actually be pretty interesting stuff. And, you know, when you were doing woodcuts, you definitely were working with some constraints too – primarily for the medium involved.

In a commercial space, you will have even more constraints. You will need to think about the limitations of the web and of Photoshop, but you’ll also need to think about your audience, and their goals, and your company’s goals, and your team … and all sorts of things. 

Now, you may feel have no free expression left. But here’s another way to think about it … What you’ve got instead is a chance to solve some problems. Yup, all those additional things you have to think about add interesting little wrinkles to your process and what you deliver. In fact, it can be quite a task to juggle all those things at once. But once you’re done and you’re delivered something successful, it can be very gratifying.

One thing you’ll need to look out for, though, is opting for the “elegant,” or “creative,” or “cool” solution. If it genuinely solves the problem and doesn’t get in the user’s way, great! Sometimes, though, what can seem elegant or creative or cool to you can be less than clear to your user. Just make sure you’re actually solving problems, and not inadvertently creating them.

Damien actually got $100 million for it