I totally agree that this issue is far far less clearly delineated than 'real-time' and its a relatively muddy issue of semantics, though it is worthy of debate

I totally agree that this issue is far far less clearly delineated than 'real-time' and its a relatively muddy issue of semantics, though it is worthy of debate imo. I stand by my assertions. When an artist talks about their design they mean the entire creation. The dictionary definitions you presented are two homonyms. #1 is sort of what we are discussing though a better definition would be the verb form. "verb (used with object) To plan and fashion artistically or skillfully." #2 is another meaning which could be used in the sentence "The birthday card had a pretty little design in the corner" You will not find many artists referring to their work as #2. Of course there are people whose job it is to design the pretty designs for the corners of birthday cards. What they produce is designs #2 but what they do is design #1