Editing Form follows function (section)

=== Product design ===

One episode in the history of the inherent conflict between functional design and the demands of the marketplace took place in 1935, after the introduction of the streamlined [[Chrysler Airflow]], when the American auto industry temporarily halted attempts to introduce optimal aerodynamic forms into mass manufacture. Some car-makers thought aerodynamic efficiency would result in a single optimal auto-body shape, a "teardrop" shape, which would not be good for unit sales.<ref>Jeffrey Meikle's, "Twentieth Century Limited: Industrial Design in America, 1925–1939".</ref> [[General Motors]] adopted two different positions on streamlining, one meant for its internal engineering community, the other meant for its customers. Like the annual model year change, so-called aerodynamic styling is often meaningless in terms of technical performance. Subsequently, [[drag coefficient]] has become both a marketing tool and a means of improving the sale-ability of a car by reducing its fuel consumption, slightly, and increasing its top speed, markedly.

The American industrial designers of the 1930s and 1940s like [[Raymond Loewy]], [[Norman Bel Geddes]] and [[Henry Dreyfuss]] grappled with the inherent contradictions of "form follows function" as they redesigned blenders and locomotives and duplicating machines for mass-market consumption. Loewy formulated his {{visible anchor|MAYA|text="MAYA" (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable)}} principle to express that product designs are bound by functional constraints of math and materials and logic, but their acceptance is constrained by social expectations. His advice was that for very new technologies, they should be made as familiar as possible, but for familiar technologies, they should be made surprising.

[[Victor Papanek]] (1923–1998) was one influential twentieth-century designer and design philosopher who taught and wrote as a proponent of "form follows function".

By honestly applying "form follows function", industrial designers had the potential to put their clients out of business.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} Some simple single-purpose objects like screwdrivers and pencils and teapots might be reducible to a single optimal form, precluding [[product differentiation]]. Some objects made too durable would prevent sales of replacements (see [[Planned obsolescence]]). From the standpoint of functionality, some products are simply unnecessary.

An alternative approach referred to as "form leads function", or "function follows form", starts with vague, abstract, or underspecified designs. These designs, sometimes generated using tools like text-to-image models, can serve as triggers for generating novel ideas for product design.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-06-16 |title=How Generative AI Can Augment Human Creativity |work=Harvard Business Review |url=https://hbr.org/2023/07/how-generative-ai-can-augment-human-creativity |access-date=2023-06-20 |issn=0017-8012}}</ref>