Principle of Design (Description)

Design is both a verb and a noun, a process and a product.

Design is the qualities of balance, emphasis, proportion & scale, rhythm & repetition, and unity & variety.

Balance:

Symmetrical Balance:

• Absolute symmetry: each side is exactly the same
• Bilateral symmetry: each side isalmost the same (e.g. human face & body)

Asymmetrical Balance: not the same on either side of an axis (but not necessarily out of balance)

Radical Balance: a balance in which everything radiates outward from a central point.

Emphasis and Focal Point:

• Focal point: the area in a pictorial composition which artists can employ emphasis to draw attention.
• Afocal: no focal point which deletes a specific point of emphasis, but provides no place for our eyes to rest.

Scale and Proportion:

Scale: a word we use to describe the dimensions of an art object in relation to the original object (that it depicts or in relation to the objects around it).

Proportion: the relationship between the parts of an object and the whole, or to the relationship between an object and its surroundings.

Cannon: an ideal proportion of the various parts of the body (human and animal).

Golden Section: a traditional proportion which is supposed to express the secret of visual harmony. (a rectangle whose sides measure 1 to 1.618, or roughly 5 by 8: the height vs. the width)

Repetition (Pattern) and Rhythm:

Pattern: a repetitive motif or design

Rhythm: an effect achieved when shapes, colors, or a regular pattern of any kind is repeated over and over again.

Unity (coherence) and Variety

The sense of disjunction, the sense that the parts can never form a unified whole, is what we have come to identity as Postmodernism