Form Equals Function. Design by Studio F. A. Porsche

Studio F. A. Porsche is this year’s recipient of the honorary title “Red Dot: Design Team of the Year”, which has been bestowed annually since 1988 as part of the Red Dot Design Award to a design team that consistently impresses with outstanding design work. Continuing this long tradition, this year’s winning design team will also present its own special exhibition at the Red Dot Design Museum.

Studio F. A. Porsche – honest design as the key to success

Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche always liked to emphasise that “Good design has to be honest”. Together with his team, he designed the first Porsche 911 in 1963 and founded Studio F. A. Porsche in 1972. To this day, the design studio remains true to his philosophy. Based in Zell am See in Austria and with sites in Berlin, Ludwigsburg, Los Angeles and Shanghai, Studio F. A. Porsche today is one of the best-known design studios globally. Yet the team here does not design sports cars but functional and aesthetic products of outstanding quality, in keeping with the studio founder’s idea of creating products that become lifelong companions.

The Porsche 911 and its influence on other product areas

At the heart of the exhibition stands a scaled-down model of the historic Porsche 911, which already embodies all the design principles to which the studio is still committed today. Using current products including headphones, an e-bike, watches, sunglasses and a washing machine, the exhibition also demonstrates that these principles have lost none of their relevance and can also be applied to different product groups.

The relationship between form and function

The exhibition’s title “Form Equals Function” references the design principle “Form follows function”, which was coined by the American architect Louis Henry Sullivan and later became the creed of many generations of designers. By contrast, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was of the opinion that form should not follow function, but that the two aspects should instead be weighted equally. According to him, form and function can only develop their effect through the interplay with one another, with each aspect given meaning by its counterpart.

This becomes apparent in the exhibits from different product areas, including the “Tec Flex Ballpoint Pen”, in which form and function are intrinsically linked: the barrel of the pen is intersected by laser-cut incisions which nonetheless hold together like the links in a chain. By squeezing the barrel, the links are compressed and the ballpoint tip is revealed.