Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition

062 Faith Follows Function

Ideological and spiritual considerations should be secondary to functional considerations.

The “function” of a design refers broadly to what a design seeks to accomplish once brought to fruition — it is the design’s purpose or raison d’être. As such, function is paramount in design and should not be traded for other considerations. But often the personal biases, beliefs, and values of designers influence their thinking in ways that run counter to function — i.e., function follows their faith. Examples of such faith-based influences include an overriding emphasis on sacred geometries (e.g., golden ratio), geomancy (e.g., feng shui), fads and stylings (e.g., streamlining), artistic and emotional expressions (e.g., gewgaws), ...