The Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde talks about form follows function in relation to typography. (Pipeline, http://gmunch.home.pipeline.com/typo-L/misc/ward.htm , Warde Beatrice, The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible) At first she tells her audience to imagine 'that you have before you a flagon of wine'. She tells them to imagine a 'favourite vintage' and that it be 'deep shimmering crimson', with this she is introducing the wine as an important detail and one that is enticing to her audience. In this metaphor the wine is a purpose or a message that is to be conveyed. Next she gives them the choice of two containers for their wine. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent' the solid gold cup dresses up the wine and hides it, changing it into something else and trying to make it as appealing as possible aesthetically. The glass cup however simply completes the function of the glass which is to hold the wine and it displays it clearly instead of dressing it up. In Beatrice's analogy she believes that the function of type is to carry the message and no more. It should not be made to be aesthetically desirable unless that is its function. The function being the most important thing; therefore form follows function is a statement she agrees with as function is considered the more important component.
Beatrice claims that the man who chose the glass cup over the golden goblet was a modernist. Modernism made a massive impact on design and art as before there was a large amount of work that would now be considered over decorated, there was importance and respect for elaborate work, people liked to see that a lot of work had been put into the design and for that to be displayed they would show as much as possible on their piece. The modernist movement brought to light the importance of subtlety and negative space. It became respected to communicate the message in clever ways and minimising the amount needed to communicate.
Harry Clarke's Illustrations come from the time of the modernist movement, you an see the elements of both pre and post modernism in his work. In his illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's work there is a large amount of detail and the page is very crowded, it fits in with pre modernist work which is highly elaborate and patterned.
But looking at his later work below he's cut back on the crowded design and gone in a different direction. The trees drawn without outlines give a sense of calm and the faded colour scheme compliments that. Although this illustration is for a different audience; children, the change in tone displays that he has moulded the form of his illustration to project the function.
Modernism as described by Beatrice Warde is where a design is made with the function in mind rather than the form but in illustration I believe that form is used to support the function and therefore part of the function of an illustration is it's form.
In modern illustration form has become identity, Dominic Strinati talks about ' industrialisation and urbanisation gave rise to an atomised and anonymous mass ripe for manipulation, a mass market for the mass media best catered for by mass culture.' Strinati, D. (1995) An introduction to the theories of popular culture, Second edition, Abingdon, /oxon: Routledge, page 10) As technology has grown we've changed to adapt around it and now we find ourselves in connection to the whole world. With that many people all able to communicate it gets harder and harder to have your voice heard, and that's where pop culture comes in. 'The social significance of popular culture in the modern era can be charted in the way it has been identified with mass culture. The coming of mass media and the increasing commercialisation of culture and leisure gave rise to issues, interests and debates which are still with us today.' Strinati, D. (1995) An introduction to the theories of popular culture, Second edition, Abingdon, /oxon: Routledge, page 2) The expansion of mass media has made it so that certain icons and illustrations can be idolised and manufactured into products, for example Miffy and Hello Kitty. So to secure an illustration into societies hearts and become more known and popular it has become important to appease their audience. A lot of work has made its form have a sense of charm to entice people, the charming aesthetic of the work isn't always the function of the story but that style of work will compliment the story and make people understand the tone of the work by looking at the illustration. Unlike Beatrice Warde's analogy where she considered that the function of the piece was most important and the form should not decorate or over shadow that. But with illustration it functions on how it looks and ho someone reads the image and therefore the form of it is important in creating a tone.
In children's illustration form is a very important factor as your audience is children and it i a cultural code that we know of people reading books to children and showing all the pictures. For a child the picture helps them understand the stories clearly, and for a large amount of young children's books are meant to be read by an adult to the child and there fore the images is the more interactive part for the child.
Kory Paul's illustrations in Monster poetry show these weird shaped and coloured monsters to illustrate the poetry alongside, the exaggerated and ridiculous style of the monsters makes them seem humorous. This lightens the mood for children as the picture is so ridiculous it ridicules the idea of monsters. This fits in with the function of a child's book is to have morals and to be mildly educational whilst entertaining and this teaches children to feel less fear about their idea of monsters because the illustrations turn those creatures into fun brightly coloured creatures.
The wiggly drawn lines make it look hand drawn and give it a quirky feel. The long bent toes on the people are ugly and misshapen, this exaggeration of weird body shapes and characters continues throughout the book and it gives it an odd sense of charm. Every image isn't meant to be beautiful or terrifying its just silly and ridiculous and that is a large part of humour for children.
Bright colour ranges are a continuous factor in a lot of children's illustration. Here is an example of David Weisner's work for Flotsam.
In it there are lots of colours but they are restricted to a palette to fit the underwater theme of the book. In illustration, function tends to define factors of the form and then the style is used to incorporate the function into a finished illustration. Scene introducing images like this in children's illustration tend to contain a lot of detail to set the scene. But rather than compromise the form to suite the function it has been adapted to showing the detail it needs while balancing the image so it isn't over crowded. Here we can see the use of the foreground, mid ground and background; the foreground there are multiple shells, each one follows the same rough shape but with a few details in the swirls, to stop this section feeling over crowded there is a mixture of darker and lighter colour combinations on the shells and they are spaced out evenly so there aren't any dense clusters of a similar colour so that the foreground is balanced and aesthetically pleasing. The mid ground shows a turtle with a smaller replica of the city in the foreground on its back, with this information we can understand that the foreground shells must be on top of another turtle. With this device the illustrator tells the story without patronising or babying the audience. I feel this is an older fashioned children's illustration it seeks a realism angle on a magical image whereas in more modern illustration there are much wilder styles and techniques and this seems classic by comparison. As illustrations struggle to be noticed brighter and bold angles were taken.
Here is Mari Kajo's illustration for Vivaldi. There is a distinct change in the amount of detail between this and Weisner's. Mari depicts her characters and scenes with a strong sense of shape, this style has become popular for children's illustration; with the bright colours and flowing shapes that aren't restricted by the rules of realism. These shape based illustrations appeal to children because they are simple and easy to understand, like the initial material used to teach children to understand speech and words; by showing them a bright illustration of it, this style helps children get to grips with the codes and shapes that represent different things. The simple face shapes make it easy for a child to understand the emotions of a character as it is put in the simple form, of a smiley face or an sad one, before them.
The contrast between the girl in full colour and the black and white big cats shows where the main attention should be directed to. The black and white animals look faded in comparison which was an intention as they are showing the girls imagination and what she's thinking about and by using a colour pallet separation they have clearly showed the difference between the two worlds. It is a subtle way to show it as opposed to just placing it in a thought bubble, a culture code that children will already be aware of as representing thought. But it has become popular in modern illustration to be subtle and clever with image making, considering the best way to communicate what's happening. They challenge a child instead of playing it all in front of them in one simple image, they sacrifice some legibility for form; this challenges the audience to understand these new codes and markers within the pictures that mean different things.
For parents buying children's books, they are encouraged to help their child develop so educational book and ones with strong morals are pushed forward. Psychological elements are taken into account, colours like blue and soft yellows are used because they have a calming tone. Jacquelyn Sanders, in Psychological significance in children's literature, said following on from questioning what is appropriate for children's literature ' We must, of course, first ask what are the outstanding characteristics of children? What most markedly differentiates them from adults is that they are not grown and they are growing' (Jacquelyn Sanders, The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy,Vol. 37, No. 1, Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School, August 1-3, 1966: A Critical Approach to Children's Literature (Jan., 1967)) Suggesting that we be responsible for the learning and development of the child as it grows and so answer the many questions they could have. So in a way a lot of children's books are instruction manuals for life put into terms they can understand and enjoy. So the illustrations must also meet the functional demands of being instructional; they must be clear. So they have to stick to the known cultural codes surrounding their audience, which is a set form restriction. So in this aspect function is more important and the form must have constraints to fit and create a final piece.
Louis Sullivan said 'form ever follows function, and this is the law' (Wikipedia, Wikiquotes, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan) he also talks about form and function in nature. Nature is created with function in mind, it adapts and changes to it's surroundings to survive. We see beauty in nature where form was a second thought so its the production of the function that we are appreciating. This can relate to illustration in saying that if an illustration is executed to complete the function it can be appreciated in its design without decorating it. But with competitive illustration now there is so much focus on the aesthetic of things that style is being put before substance. Appealing to the audiences tastes has made everything seem like a style because there are so many illustrators trying to be new and different.
Therefore I think that form has become a function of illustration. Because even when the piece is made completely true to form it is still considered a certain style like minimalist. All illustrations are now automatically assumed to be fitting a certain style and that the illustrator who did it will have that certain style throughout their work and you can buy and read their product. A large amount of illustration relies upon being well liked by a mass audience so that they can make a profit to live on so style has become the worm on the hook dangling in the consumer's faces.
Bibliography
Research:
http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/easy-guide-design-movements-modernism-10134971
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/arts/01iht-DESIGN1.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
http://50watts.com/Harry-Clarke-Illustrations-for-E-A-Poe
http://www.hmhbooks.com/wiesner/flotsam.html
http://flavorwire.com/306958/the-20-most-beautiful-childrens-books-of-all-time/7/
Quotes:
Pipeline, http://gmunch.home.pipeline.com/typo-L/misc/ward.htm , Warde Beatrice, The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should Be Invisible
Strinati, D. (1995) An introduction to the theories of popular culture, Second edition, Abingdon, /oxon: Routledge Page 2 & 10
(Wikipedia, Wikiquotes, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Sullivan
(Jacquelyn Sanders, The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy,Vol. 37, No. 1, Proceedings of the Thirty-First Annual Conference of the Graduate Library School, August 1-3, 1966: A Critical Approach to Children's Literature (Jan., 1967))
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