“Form follows function.” “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

Repeat after me…“Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

I will admit my ego and “creative” thinking does not always like to use this principle for design. But I will continue to fight through these growing pains by repeating and understanding this principle “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

I am beginning to learn the painful importance of designing to meet clients’ wishes rather than my own. This involves me thinking strategically not aesthetically and it’s hard, very hard. I continue to repeat “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

If an object has to perform a function, its design must support that function. Viewing the project as a problem to be solved rather than just making it look pretty is the real challenge. I continue to repeat “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”

Here is a perfect example of my growing pains and why I will continue to fight through them. In attempt to create consistency throughout the LevelTen brand I was asked to create a branding and style guide. Within the style guide I point out that all LevelTen documentation will be consistent by using the same font for all emails, internal and external documents created. I decided TW Cent MT was going to be the font that would create that consistency. Why did I choose that font? It looked pretty!

During a meeting I was asked, “Is that font (TW Cent MT) a standard font?” In other words, does everyone have that font? If not, it is not going to look so pretty when it is defaulted to another type. Now is that what you call consistent? I continue to repeat “Form follows function.” “Form follows function.”