I was reading a book on architecture with my son last night and he asked, "which of these buildings is your favorite?" I admire lots of buildings--the genius of the Colosseum, the beauty and scale of Angkor Wat, and the well adorned Chrysler Building to name a few. But that night we also read about the Guggenheim Museum in New York and that's the one I chose.
Frank Lloyd Wright's unique design achieved the goal that would "facilitate a new way of looking at the modern pieces in the collection. Wright eschewed the traditional models of museum design and conceived a layout for a "highly expressive, intensely personal museum." His design dispensed with the conventional approach to museum layout, in which visitors are led through a series of interconnected rooms and forced to retrace their steps when exiting. His plan was for the museum guests to ride to the top of the building by elevator, to descend at a leisurely pace along the gentle slope of the continuous ramp, and to view the atrium of the building as the last work of art.
Wright designed the building to enhance the experience of the visitor instead of simply creating something beautiful. It was a purpose driven design, and the result happens to be a beautiful museum.
Good graphic design incorporates the same ideals. Ultimately, we are designing for the experience of the viewer, and we have a duty to present the client's information in a clear, concise and engaging manner. The final layout is the result of performing those duties. If our final design is purpose driven, the result will almost always be a beautiful design.
This page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.