Born Shouting

For a long time I’ve had a bit of a thing about form and function working together not apart. It’s an ambition that I try to apply to my work, but don’t feel I succeed in - I too often get sidetracked by tacky form or unnecessary function. The visual imagery of the eviscerated creature that Papanek conjures up brings this concept across especially well in the following quote:

The “skin” designers ( … stylists) disdainfully avoid the “guts” designers (engineers … ); form and function are artificially split. But neither a creature nor a product can survive for long when its skin and guts are separate.

Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Victor Papanek