Prominently displayed in Sheree Clark’s dining room is a shiny chrome orb set in a grooved stand, that is reminiscent of a Greek column but forged of metal. The orb an artwork, a sculpture, but it is also a coffee urn created by the Chase Brass and Chrome Co. in the early 1940s. The Chase urn is not the utilitarian cylinder one is accustomed to seeing at family potlucks. It is, instead, a relic of an era when form was as important as function in product design.

According to Clark, co-owner, managing partner and director of client services for Sayles Graphic Design, collecting art-deco and mid-century modern pieces is a way to live through art.

“What I do for a living is to help people communicate visually through the design work my company creates,” Clark said. “I live a lifestyle that includes high-quality design.”

Clark didn’t plan to work in design. Her undergraduate degree from Rochester Institute of Technology is in retail marketing, and her graduate degree from the University of Vermont-Burlington is in counseling and higher education. Clark says she uses both degrees as she works with clients.

According to Clark, her business partner, John Sayles, is the person who taught her importance of design.

“I have always collected things,” Clark said. “Before I met John [Sayles] in 1985, I just collected what appealed to me. My partner gave me a clearer vision and focus on what is great design. He is incredibly talented and has instilled in me from the beginning the intrinsic value of good design. My eye has been trained to see the beauty that results when form and function are in sync.”

Her collection is extensive, ranging from furniture and appliances to clothing and women’s accessories, such as compacts, copper jewelry, rhinestones and more than 300 handbags. “Fortunately I have a large basement,” Clark said, “I catalog and inventory items in my collection and periodically rotate my displays.”

Clark’s 1939 house, a flat-roofed structure constructed of glass blocks and blond bricks, is practically a museum to art-deco and mid-20th-century modern design, and Sayles’ 1952 ranch home, one block away, is completely furnished in Danish modern. Their 1956 office building is furnished in 1950s modern style.

“The things all go together,” Clark said. “There are three distinct styles, but if we bring things from home – the styles aren’t seamless, but they flow.   “It really is a natural extension,” she said, relating her collection to her work. “Some of the things that I collect are advertising and promotional materials and industrial designs because the design is unique.”

The décor occasionally affects their products, as well.

“One of our clients is the Miami Modernism show, where mid-century artifacts are for sale,” Clark said. “When John illustrates the poster, for example, he might use one of our pieces.

Clark said she chose to collect mid-20th-century artwork partly because of the pieces’ aesthetic appeal and partly because of the era’s rich historical significance, from the Great Depression to World War II.

“It’s the whole idea of what the world went through,” she said.

A few years ago, The Iowan magazine featured Clark’s home décor. Then it was profiled on the Discovery Channel, and now Better Homes and Gardens has published a book called “Collector’s Style,” which features the collection that has extended from Clark’s hobby to a way of life.

“Everything in my life has to do with design,” Clark said. “You have to wear clothes and have dishes in the cupboard and drive a car to work, so why not have interesting clothes, beautiful dishes and an artfully designed car?”