Form follows function

That doesn’t mean boring and minimalist.

Louis Sullivan didn’t mean that form should be subservient to function. Each concept plays against one another. Part of the reason we have such a wide variety of cars is to serve to emotional desires of different demographics.

It’s every product’s job to be an experience in people’s lives. When boxy cars like the Nissan Cube became a thing, most people wanted nothing to do with them. But that’s okay because companies don’t need most people’s business for every product, they need enough people’s business. Cube owners wanted to stand out through their car and companies sought to fill the market gap. Hard edges do a good job of standing out in a line of smooth cars. The best aerodynamics don’t always matter when your goal is to turn heads.

There’s a place for it. The more abstract the function is, the less practical the form will probably be. Maybe that’s not a bad thing depending on the target audience. How a product looks is determined by how it can best serve who it’s intended for.