Form is Function – Part 1

By Lee

Introduction

If all the books ever written on art, criticism, theory, design, what have you, were (with the exception of a notable few) piled up and set to flame, we’d have ourselves one fantastic bonfire.

Now more than ever before in human history, there exists such an abundance of information to access and decipher that it spins the mind faster than most of us are certain we can comprehend.

Knowledge and Wisdom. Do we find them in this abundance? Or, is it merely fodder; guilded, wrapped, bowed, and tagged; biding time on the shelves like so many countless other bits and pieces of existence?

There is a very real reason for the gargantuan supply of opinions and how-to’s in existence, and that is the equally gargantuan supply of people with opinions and how-to knowledge. Man has an overwhelming and often burdensome need to share knowledge, however applicable it may be. Bookstores overflow with inane communication offering an appearance right. Libraries bear the mantle of oracles of wisdom, amassing vault upon vault of mankind’s most florid assumptions. To all of this we apply value – meant as part of the greater whole; societal competence; civility informed. Yet, in all its honest attempt, it has failed. Its roots are bare – exposed to the elements by a shallow and eroding soil.

The purpose of information should be to inform, not to inundate, a word with which it is most quickly
becoming synonymous.

It is this lack of clarity in regards to information where the world of design continues to re-invent itself only to find definition imposed by a wrongly informed world rather than being described and proffered from a collective and founded wisdom.

“Form follows function.” A statement made to describe. A phrase made motto. It has defined decades of design at all levels. It is a statement that re-enforces preconceptions of “style.” It is statements such as these that have driven confusion and absolution for centuries, only to find themselves uprooted by a newer theory, a more contemporary
approach.

So it is then that I write, “Form is Function”, not as a definition of yet another movement in the worlds of culture, but as a clear description of what design can and should embody. Form has relevance. Indeed, it is relevance – just as a builder without materials is no builder at all; the same as the necessity for multiples to make a sum. There is no possibility of disregarding form while considering function. To do so is to birth a lie one must first convince of themself and then to the masses.

Once explained it becomes brilliant and earthshattering. Schools are founded. Salesmen are hired. Books are written. The world buys in. All are glorified in this “new way.”

But, we forget.

We forget that function had form, always. It was simply never acknowledged.

Form is Function.

From the first consideration of any element, form and function are a unified whole. There is simply no way that they cannot be.

Now arise several points of consideration. After all, it’s one thing to rant, it’s another to make a point. The first of these questions is that of purpose. Author John Heskett has handled the broad concept of design quite well in his book, Design: A Very Short Introduction, (Oxford Press, 2002, 2005). Here, though, the focus is centered on Graphic Design, a topic approached as a description of the parts rather than a definition of the whole.

What is Graphic Design?

Graphic Design is best described as the product of a marriage, polygamist and somewhat dysfunctional, but a marriage nonetheless. It is a product and vehicle that delivers an intended message for an intended purpose.

It is made successful by its adoption of traditional fine arts techniques and contemporary mediums.
Whenever pictoral representation transcends “art”, and text goes beyond “word” – when both are combined with a mode of transport to convey, Graphic Design exists.

What it most certainly is not is an absolution defined by visual fodder. True Graphic Design profiles everything involved with the message and, in turn, develops a visual and tactile experience relevant on a personal basis.

Why design cannot be simplified as the sum of two mediums is that it was born of necessity and desire from more than two parents. Origins like this generally dissolve into a very poorly handled divorce settlement. The parent known as “art” wants the kid when it’s old enough to play catch and go fishing. “Information” wants the kid whenever it’ll make a buck or get an egocentric point across. “Sales” wants the kid after it’s graduated and can work a profit for the company. Then, there are the practitioners, (or designers) only ready to take responsibility if Graphic Design can behave like the therapist they want it to be. Outside of all of this is the greater whole who looks in at the sum and, again, defines rather than describes. So we find then that the whole has no choice but to define from what it sees instead of understanding the truth.

The Impact of Parental Supervision

Graphic Design does indeed have a timeline of development. But, unlike many specific stylistic periods in the history of all manner of civil intuition, it is an amalgam fused together by mankind’s constant need to communicate.

Posted on November 25th, 2009