Proportion and composition

I recently just started reading ‘Geometry of Design‘ by Kimberly Elam. The book itself talks about the natural proportioning system that exists in nature that  has served as inspiration to what some might argue all artists and designers. I’ll confess that my background is more in the hands on aspect of design formally rather than the theory. I focused more on media and image usage so this is a really good grounding in the mysterious relationship between mathematics and beauty. From introducing golden sections, divine proportions and the fibonacci sequence it highlights how the line between mathematics, science, art and beauty is fine at the best of times. Through reading the book I’ve come across the work of print designers who have made really good use of geometric shapes through regulating lines. These regulating lines have applications through architecture, print design, photography, product design, typography, interior design and even web design. I think the very existence of these proportions and lines in nature is an amazing and beautiful thing. The fact that artists throughout history have intuitively picked up on these things even before such ‘rules’ were coined is even more amazing. I’m trying not to remunerate on things too much but even having a basic understanding of geometric composition in design can really make things come together and add an element of what John Maeda means when he says ‘flow’. I imagine this is something a lot of designers are aware of but these ‘rules’ aren’t things that box design in and make appear rigid and forced but rather the opposite. As humans we seek out meaning and I think we find these proportions we see in nature as something that resonate with that desire for meaning. “We do not know why, but we can demonstrate that a human being finds planes of definite and intentional proportions more pleasant or more beautiful than those of accidental proportions.” Jan Tischichold, The Form of the Book 1975cBut does this simply touch on our appreciation for form and lines but extend to why we see a desire to find meaning in our ideas, philosophies and belief systems? Is it too much to say this exists because perhaps there is some big idea out there? Or are we too far gone as a society for meta narratives anymore?

We all enjoy design, we all enjoy making things

I recently started following a lecture series similar to TED and came across a talk by a guy called Zach Smith who makes robots for a living. Zach talks about how much he believes we all like to make things, even if he isn’t speaking the same language, the ideas are the same and Zach makes a great job at getting this across. Maybe its a bit of a tangent all this talk of meaning  over composition and proportion but I don’t think it is really. It just goes to show this is part of who we are, and Zach talks about that and more. We do love to make stuff, we love to make our mark but more than that we want to contribute in the world. It’s like a giant narrative and it’s beautiful.

I’m currently about 2/3rds of the way through the book and can’t wait to experiment on my own work with a much more developed understanding of proportion and geometric composition. Give me another week and I’ll have it wrapped up. For now though here’s a copy of that talk by Zach Smith on why we love to make things. You can find more talks like online at the Do lectures.