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Form follows function Yikang Dai ART 205 Sep 15 2010 Vision and Form As a “vision animal”, we act basically upon what we see. Vision is more than looking or seeing. It is integral to all human action. It occurs to everything we see like book covers or web designs. Accordingly, the art elements in an object witch we are looking at exert a subtle influence on our mind and feeling. If something looks horrible, people will not be interested in it. Oppositely, if something is in good design, people will like it. In other words, the form of design is absolutely essential as a concept to depict and define the objects. Form and Function Form is what makes-up the design, and function is the purpose of design. People can't create art without utilizing, as Louis Henri Sullivan said, “form ever follows function.” He is widely recognized as “The skyscraper poet” and one of America’s great architects. His significant contribution to architecture is visible in any city skyline such as the invention of the high-rise skyscraper (findingDulcinea Staff.) Sullivan developed the form of the tall steel skyscraper at the very moment when technology, economic and people’s taste converged violently and made it necessary to build (“Louis Sullivan”.) [pic] Because there were more people and less land, Sullivan knew making building taller instead of wider would be utilized better. The original function of architecture is to act as a shelter for people to protect themselves against Mother Nature. As civilization development advances, we increased our knowledge and became more creative in form. People started to design buildings for more purposes such as displaying wealth and social status. The skyscraper fits the function to show the social status in such buildings with great height and elegance. Of course this form of architecture applies many functions even more than display. High-rise building allows for high-density work and living spaces, reducing the amount of land and capturing passerby’s attention at the same time. Book cover We live in a visual culture, surrounded by numerous works of designers; book cover is one of the representatives. Before the modern society, books were hand-bound with a simple book cover. It is often said, “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but in these days, the book cover became more than just a protection for the pages. A good formed book cover should apply to more functions: captures customer’s attention, conveys information from the book, and evokes emotion. We feel that a book is a complete object, the cover is a part of the larger project of designing an entire book, which should act as an entrance for the reader, offering suggestions, letting the reader approach the text and reflecting the author's ideas in a beautiful way. These sorts of modern book cover do apply to the statement that “form ever follows function”, however the old traditional type of book cover fit this statement, too. [pic] Figure 3 Old Book Cover By Lost and Taken The old type of book cover do not have as many as of the functions as which the new types have, but these form of cover does apply to some simple function such as protection for the pages, informing the title and author’s name of the book. Web Design Form follows function in computer science. Designing a web site is much like design a skyscraper or a book cover. As a visual medium, web pages also require attention to presentation and design, but the main point is always making sure the form accentuates the function. The purpose of a social network website is to communicate information. An e-commerce website might needs to deliver advertising and sell products. How to balance form and function has become the issue. Web forms are one of the best and most effective ways to communicate, however, the purpose are far more important than pure form. It’s easy to find many sites either lacks of form, such as some corporate sites was packed with information or fail miserably when come to function witch bloated with flashy animated image. If graphic design is concerned with how the page looks, interface design focuses on how the page works. The concept of usability, how easily visitors can accomplish their goals on the site, as well as the general experience of using the site, is a function of the interface design (Robbins 6.) Every design has to sustain a certain degree of both form and function. The balance of form and function is always going to be hard to find, so define the success criteria and the purpose would be prior consideration when design a project. Resource: FindingDulcinea Staff. "Happy Birthday, Louis Henri Sullivan, Renowned AmericanArchitect."findingdulcinea.com，03 Sep 2009. Web [cited 29 Aug 2010].AvailableFrom: Wikipedia.“LouisSullivan.” Wikipedia.org, last modified on 22 August. Web [cited 29 Aug 2010] Available From: Robbins, Jennnifer Niederst. Learning Web Design Third Edition. Inc: O'Reilly Media, 29 June 2007. Figure1.BloombergNews.AvailableFrom: Figure2.Wilde, deBarbara and Pet C. Paul. AvailableFrom: Figure3.LostandTaken.AvailableFrom : ----------------------- Figure 1 Bloomberg News High and mighty: the tip of the City of London’s landmark Gherkin building Figure 2 Designer Barbara de Wilde Photographer: Paul C. Pet Good formed book cover