What is "arts of design"

Design \De*sign"\, n. [Cf. dessein, dessin.]

1. A preliminary sketch; an outline or pattern of the main features of something to be executed, as of a picture, a building, or a decoration; a delineation; a plan.

2. A plan or scheme formed in the mind of something to be done; preliminary conception; idea intended to be expressed in a visible form or carried into action; intention; purpose; -- often used in a bad sense for evil intention or purpose; scheme; plot.

   The vast design and purpos? of the King.
   --Tennyson.

   The leaders of that assembly who withstood the designs of a besotted woman.
   --Hallam.

   A . . . settled design upon another man's life.
   --Locke.

   How little he could guess the secret designs of the court!
   --Macaulay.

3. Specifically, intention or purpose as revealed or inferred from the adaptation of means to an end; as, the argument from design.

4. The realization of an inventive or decorative plan; esp., a work of decorative art considered as a new creation; conception or plan shown in completed work; as, this carved panel is a fine design, or of a fine design.

5. (Mus.) The invention and conduct of the subject; the disposition of every part, and the general order of the whole.

   Arts of design, those into which the designing of artistic forms and figures enters as a principal part, as architecture, painting, engraving, sculpture.

   School of design, one in which are taught the invention and delineation of artistic or decorative figures, patterns, and the like.

   Syn: Intention; purpose; scheme; project; plan; idea.

   Usage: Design, Intention, Purpose. Design has reference to something definitely aimed at. Intention points to the feelings or desires with which a thing is sought. Purpose has reference to a settled choice or determination for its attainment. ``I had no design to injure you,'' means it was no part of my aim or object. ``I had no intention to injure you,'' means, I had no wish or desire of that kind. ``My purpose was directly the reverse,'' makes the case still stronger.

   Is he a prudent man . . . that lays designs only for a day, without any prospect to the remaining part of his life?
   --Tillotson.

   I wish others the same intention, and greater successes.
   --Sir W. Temple.

   It is the purpose that makes strong the vow.
   --Shak.