The Problem with Paul Harvey
“I give myself problems.” Speaking at Pockets in Bath last Thursday, Paul Harvey was describing an approach to design that had shaped his work over the last three decades. Designers are generally understood as problem-solvers, responding to the demands of materials, manufacturing and the body. Harvey’s approach was different. Rather than waiting for problems to arise, he deliberately created them, imposing constraints that made designing and manufacturing considerably more difficult than they needed to be. The previous month, at a panel discussion at Central Saint Martins with Carlo Rivetti and Aitor Throup, Harvey described one of his fundamental rules: “No decoration.” Effectively it meant that anything created for the brand needed to focus on having a functional or constructional justification rather than being applied simply for visual effect. Harvey’s approach echoes that of Adolf Loos, the Austrian architect and architectural theorist whose highly influential essay, Ornament and Crime, published in 1913, argued against ornamentation, believing it led to a waste of labour and materials. He helped lay the foundations of architectural modernism.
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