The Unimportance of Form and Other Arguments

The Unimportance of Form and Other Arguments by renowned British designer Jasper Morrison is the second title in our reading series of books on inspiring creative minds. Following Miguel Milá’s Essential: A Design Guide for Life (November 2025), this volume brings together Jasper’s early writings from 1984 to 2002, published together for the first time. The collection traces the formation of ideas that would later define the pillars of his practice: the responsibilities of design, the value of usefulness, and the quiet authority of ordinary objects.

Jasper, celebrated for iconic furniture, lighting, tableware, and everyday objects that feel as though they were always meant to exist, is also a sharp, incisive writer—direct, sceptical, and often very funny. Collected and edited by industrial designer Sina Sohrab, the 31 compiled texts include essays, arguments, musings, early autobiographical manifestos such as The Poet Will Not Polish (1984), his 1985 RCA thesis Owing to Its Nature, later essays such as Objectality (1999), notes for a novel that never materialised, and even a letter from James Irvine responding to Jasper’s faxed essay It’s a Beautiful Thing (1992).

About Jasper Morrison

Jasper Morrison is a British designer known for furniture, lighting, tableware, and everyday objects that fit seamlessly into daily life. Born in London in 1959, he studied at Kingston Polytechnic, the Royal College of Art, and Berlin’s HdK, and founded his Office for Design in 1986. He made his name with works such as Thinking Man’s Chair (1985) and the Plywood Chair (1988), and has gone on to design furniture and products for companies including Vitra, Flos, Cappellini, Muji, Alessi, and many others. Morrison co-curated the influential Super Normal exhibition in 2006 with Naoto Fukasawa, which became a defining moment in his practice. Alongside a canon of published books, including A World Without Words (2011), The Good Life (2014), and Super Normal (2007), his contributions to design have earned him membership in the Royal Designers for Industry, a Compasso d’Oro, and a CBE.

Details

• Published by Apartamento Publishing S.L.
• Format: Softcover
• Release date: November 20, 2025
• Measures: W24.00 × H21.00 cm / W9.45 × H8.27 in
• Pages: 184