Rebstock Design

Form ● Function ● Truth ● Beauty

July 12, 2008 – 11:27 am

Hello readers! For my inaugural blog entry, I thought I’d explore my design philosophy: “Form ● Function ● Truth ● Beauty”.

We’ve all heard the maxim that “form follows function,” but how many of us have paused to give it any thought? Popularized by Chicago architect Louis Sullivan, the phrase means that the Function of a building, an interior, or an object should dictate its form. This is sage advice, and designers and crafters following this principle have given us some of the world’s most elegant objects and spaces. And I would submit that deep down in our DNA, humans and other animals are wired to find beauty in the useful. After all, we evolved to our current state, and that process has preserved the parts of us that function most effectively, molding the visible features into signals that announce our health and intelligence—and thus our suitability for reproduction, which continues the cycle, and the bond between utility and Beauty.

But this is not to say that pure Form has no function. As one of my design instructors once said, “sometimes the purpose of an object is magnificence”. I’ll add that an object might also provoke thought. A painting or sculpture, which  has no obvious physical function, can speak to the uniquely human need for beauty, ornament, and intellectual stimulation—for their own sake.

Truth is another ideal toward which all designers and artists must strive. To me, Truth encompasses pure materials, excellent design, fine craftsmanship, and the elegance and integrity of the spaces and objects they produce. Truth also represents absolute honesty, integrity, and transparency in the practice and the business of design.

Taken together, these ideals—Form, Function, Truth, Beauty—can transform lives. When we surround ourselves with spaces and objects that are beautifully suited to their function, designed and made with honesty and integrity, we have achieved that wondeful goal.

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This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:NautilusCutawayLogarithmicSpiral.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 2.5 license.