More with the Bullshit

I agree that bullshit is probably a small percentage of the ways I justify my design...True, I stay away from stuff that feels intuitively wrong, but that intuition is generally backed up by something that is logical and explainable. I find it hard to define what is "pure art" and what is "pure design" because I think design has a huge basis in art. But one distinction that I do think can be made is that art is often personally motivated and design is often motivated by an outside need. The basis of design is not feelings, not art for art's sake, but generally purposeful and thus there are reasons for most of our design decisions. One of the first things I was taught as a designer was to always ask, "Why did I put that on a page?" "What's the reason for having that line there?" etc. Even if I plunked the line down because it felt intuitively good, upon consideration there's always a reason that is explainable to a client. If there's not, that element can be deleted from the composition. It's been my experience that being able to explain the thought process to a client dramatically increases the idea's chances of success. People want to understand that there's a process because it makes them feel comfortable, and I don't think they're asking for something impossible in that.