Ways of seeing form and function
Design
Louis Sullivan was a 20th century American architect whose legacy includes pioneering skyscraper design, mentoring Frank Lloyd Wright and coining a phrase that has stood the test of time. His ideology — Form (ever) follows function has found its way into a number of fields, taking on a new and evolved meaning with changing times. I stumbled upon this concept while hacking my way through Design and it stuck. In Design it has an obvious interpretation. Aesthetics matter only if they are purposeful.
Content
When I took on curating and creating content I found resonance with this ideology yet again. In the 21st century where content is produced and consumed voraciously, the form(at)s are many and their functions could range from providing critical information to piquing curiosity. Often in an effort to meet the burgeoning demands of digital content, content producers overlook the form. This has led to the internet becoming a cesspool of mediocre writing and design sitting pretty on platforms garnering attention and adoration alike. Function accomplished. Form banished. Beats me.
A spiritual union
It is not all bad. There are a fair number of content producers that find the right balance of function and form to create compelling content. Frank Lloyd Wright believed in this balance. According to him form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union. He achieved this with a number of architectural structures that went onto amaze and inspire people in equal measure. The Guggenheim Museum is a great example of how he broke the norm of using rectangular shapes for building structures. He curated a range of geometric shapes including ones adopted from nature and used them to make this iconic structure. When I decided to journey from design to content I was aware of the basic forms that served specific functions. Over the years I explored diverse formats to perform functions that best suited their structure. Despite the structure there was no science to uphold it.
Code
I chose to code because it involved writing which was a lot less subjective and a lot more certain in its structure and rendering. The syntax was set in stone. Or so I thought. Two weeks into learning HTML and CSS and I am discovering the judicious use of syntax and semantics while creating comprehensive code that is appealing on the outside (for users) and accessible on the inside (for developers). When I first began working in CodePen, I saw HTML standing in as the structure and CSS its styling aid.
I am yet to embark upon the joys of JavaScript but till I do, I strive to achieve the perfect union of HTML, my functional friend and CSS its partner in style.
