Designers Struggle with Balance

An article on proportion and balance, examples stated and why there are particular methods used

(PRWEB) November 6, 2005 -- One of the fundamental problems that designers have is ensuring that a design is pleasing to the eye or the aesthetics are correct.

Consequently one of the fundamental skills they have is ensuring that the design is aesthetically pleasing, but how do they do this?

There are a number of ways to achieve this. The first and , I believe most common is by using your eye with trial and effort to determine the most successful and pleasing design to the designers eye. Of course the more education that the designer has in proportion and balance determined by what has worked over the centuries the more the designer is at an advantage over others.

So who is to say that systems and popular design methods are correct. Democracy and popularity sees to this and while swimming against the tide (or trying to do something different) is a great way to see how strong you are, for the designer using what is known to work is why we have design education in the first place.

The very interesting thing is that often proportion is set to a particular mathematical formulae. Very much like music when you hear an incorrect note you instinctively know, and it will have gone against the traditional and tried formulae. The same can be said for design and while some musicians play by ear the majority even if they have the natural gift still have some formal training to back up the composition. And so it’s the same for the designer. While we think that we have a natural talent this is best developed using professional training and methods.

Two of the most common methods of determining correct proportion are as follows The golden mean.

A system of rectangles that were developed formally in Greece but may have been used back as far as early Egyptian times for the construction of the pyramids.

The Fibonacci series. A useful series of numbers used for determining proportion.

The golden mean.
This refers to a mathematical proportion (I can hear most designers groaning now but its actually quite simple) that is believed to be pleasing to the human being. Its also referred to as the golden section and is believed to have been used in building design since early Egyptian times although its not positive that this was done intentionally. It was formally defined by the Greeks.

The golden mean refers to the lengths of sides of a rectangle to a particular formulae or proportion. This is expressed as a ratio of 0.618 to 1.0. Therefore as a designer ill often use this in its roughest form of 2/3 to 1 for the sides of a rectangle either in planning a room or elevating a wall and the sizes of the windows or the spaces between or above or below. Its up to the designer how often and where this is used in the building.

Ill often determine the overall frame work of the building or interior using these proportions and then play with the decorative permanent elements as a further proportion of this or pattern.
The golden mean produces a harmonic effect called eurhythmy found in nature. This has been found to be aesthetically pleasing by many cultures over the centuries and is used today by many designers and architects not least of whom was le Corbusier.

The ratio of the golden mean is represented by the Greek letter phi (not pi ) and is 1.618

If we produce a simple rectangle with the sides proportioned via the 1.618 or 1 : 0.618 then the rectangle is said to be a golden rectangle.

An example is shown below

The Fibonacci Series
This is a series of numbers developed by the Italian mathematician Leonard Fibonacci. The series is calculated by adding two consecutive numbers to find the next in the sequence. You will note after a bit of study that it is closely related to the Golden mean. It begins with
1, 1,2, 3 , 5 , 8, 13 , 21, 34 , 55 , 89……….

After 13 any number divided by the previous one will give a value of 1.62 the same as the golden mean constant. A rectangle or other uniform shape such as a cylinder or rectangular box could all use the Fibonacci numbers in the design as depicted below.

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