Playing with stupid (trivia) guess why the quote is idiotic.

[Failhorse]

OK. This is the quote.
"Function dictates design. I like to take it a bit further."

Why is it so wrong?
(The engineering students/grads are probably going to have a coronary over this.)

2 stranges for a proper explanation.

[Vivi Hill]

Well personally I wouldn't say that function dictates design. I think it would be more accurate to say that function constrains design. In other words, the design of a practical object is limited by its purpose--you can't have a table that you can't put stuff on, and have it still be a table. On the other hand, there are pretty much infinite variations of the idea of a table. But every table, in order to be called a table, must fulfill a basic function. If function dictated design, then each design of table would have a very specific sub-purpose. This is obviously not the case since one can go to Ikea and grab a brand new, stylish coffee table and use it pretty much exactly as you used your old one.

There is also the case of multiple, very different designs of objects fulfilling the same function. I can browse the web on a mobile device, on a laptop, or on a desktop. The exterior designs of these objects are very different--a laptop has a screen built into it, a desktop may not, a phone might have a touch screen and a CPU built into the screen--and yet I can do the same exact things on the devices, regardless of whether or not it is easier to do so one one or another device. However, I cannot pick up a rock and browse the web with it. Any web-browsing device must have some form of input and output, and must have a connection to the internet. So again, function does not dictate the design of a web-capable device, but it certainly constrains it.

Additionally, from a purely technical point of view of the quote, I'm not sure how it's possible to "take it further", since "function dictates design" is about as concrete a statement as I can think of. How would you take it a bit further? I'm not sure what the person who said this really means by saying that. Function trumps design, perhaps? Or maybe function equals design? Their implication is unclear.

[medkitz]

I think Benny won

[Failhorse]

Yes, Benny wins.

[Thret]

The person who said it was probably an architect.

[Maringue]

Yes, Benny wins.

Yeah, my thoughts along this line were:

"Function dictates design. I like to take that a bit further."
Me: "So what, function dictates function? Because that makes no fucking sense."

Maybe this person was unclear as to the definition of dictates. I'm guessing this person was somewhere in the middle management strata and has never designed something.

[LegendarySurgeon]

It's a quote attributed to <edited so failhorse doesn't get sued due to continuing litigation> in the <don't want to get sued> Private Label 2012 Collection catalog.

I appreciated that on the page before the description "<sued> has once again taken the function and design of guitar a bit further" was used.

[Rologton]

Ooook, further proof that I need to stay a History major...

[Failhorse]

I edited that post. Thanks for keeping some sort of anonymity on the internets.

[LegendarySurgeon]

I edited that post. Thanks for keeping some sort of anonymity on the internets.

Haha, sorry. It's literally the first result if you google the quote.