Heard a story the other day that got me to thinking about the never-ending discussion between creatives and users about form vs function. Apparently, a French climber decided to scale the side of the NY Times building last week. The architect who designed their building created a wire facade meant to add a design element of interest to the look of the building. When French climber Alain Robert saw this, he saw grips he could use to scale the building.

This takes the conversation a bit further…what happens when something creative is made that has an unintended function? The architect who designed this building accomplished his goal of creating a functional and visually appealing building, he just never imagined that a small design nuance would be used by someone to scale his design.

This raises the point that as we develop creative solutions, true creativity comes into to play when all angles and possibilities are considered.

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