About the Brand (and what our name means)
Form•Function•Form?
Louis Sullivan, mentor to iconic American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, adopted a phrase over 100 years ago which became almost a mantra for the Modernist architecture movement. 'Form Follows Function' is the popularly known version, prioritizing function over form--or at least believing that the appropriate form will emerge after a careful consideration of a new design's function.
"Form•Function•Form," as a brand identity/product philosophy, rejects the intrinsic modernist belief that reason can triumph in all things--and simultaneously rejects the second-class or reliant status of pure, whimsical aesthetics--as a result of the belief that form & function are cyclical and interdependent: form-follows-function-follows-form. In good design, there is a symbiotic relationship between the aesthetic perception of a thing and its use; neither is primary, both feed off of and inform the other. As a designer, as a human, I believe that something within us loves, even needs, beautiful things in our lives. Real beauty--beauty that lasts and is not simply reflective of passing trends which point to real beauty--is not mere ornamentation, but an integral part of the lines and proportions of something.
Form•Function•Form appreciates, uses, and creates pieces that not only are functional (and we stress that simple adornment, such as a bracelet, need not be anything but aesthetically pleasing to be functional), but achieve this functionality with grace and longevity. Finding beautiful things and bringing them together in new, more intriguing ways is the mission, and each piece often spends months in design and testing phase, moving back and forth from napkin sketches to precise drawings in Autocad, to hand-cut prototypes, until the final product is ready to be manufactured by hand in a small Florida studio.
About Material Sourcing...
Form•Function•Form uses only the highest-grade components and materials available, from anywhere in the world. As low (and even mediocre) quality manufacture is virtually no longer economically viable in the highly skilled, capital-intensive labor force of the United States, "high quality" and "USA made" are nearly synonymous, and US made materials often fit the FFF vision perfectly, while allowing for easy modification and custom manufacturing of components to our unique, precise specifications. Uncompromising quality, wherever it is manufactured, is what goes in to every one of our products.
About Shipping Costs and Times...
We make and ship things as quickly as we can. So usually if you order a product and it's not during a sale, we'll have it out within a day or two. If you pick something up during one of our rare sales, or during the holidays, we tend to have larger numbers of orders to make so it may take a few more days to get your goods made and shipped out.
About Warranties and Returns...
See our Return Policy page for what we think is a pretty damn liberal system--because we're pretty damn sure you're not going to want to return things, and we're POSITIVE we'll go above expectations fixing any issues you may have.
About those questions you have...
Get in touch! Our Contact page has a list of all the ways we're available to answer your questions, or solve your order problems.