Form Follows Idea

Book excerpt: Form Follows Idea examines the work and ideas of influential designers Ralph Ball and Maxine Naylor. Their reflections and propositions here provide a refreshing and provocative approach to design, touching on issues such as craftsmanship, modernism, and the role of nature and commercialism in design. Ball and Naylor's work explores ideas of space beyond the physical object. Their concern with cultural and social values is manifest in the form and (dis)function of their designs and appropiations of everyday objects, such as chairs, lights and shelving. Form Follows Idea features their approach to these objects through cultural, ecological and visual narratives. As such, this book provides a playful yet critical re-evaluation of familiar forms and typologies. The work in Form Follows Idea is further expanded upon here in an essay by Jeremy Myerson, Director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art.