I’ve always been in love with building blocks, deeply drawn to the idea of starting with a simple form and adding to it, building and constructing something far more complex from a single element…it’s also not intimidating. Try to add to an existing fort and it’s possible to witness it crumble having barely touched the thing. To start from square one, on the other hand, well if you didn’t like the placement of the first block, it’s not exactly difficult to start over.
To try and understand the whole of art history (in all its forms) and its influence on design is, to say the least, a tall order. I’d recently stumbled upon the writings of Jack Cheng, whose facetiously titled posting, 51 Ways to Change Your Life, bestowed only a single, but very poignant lesson (inspired in part from the 43 of Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth)- learn in moderation.
When you find yourself saying “that’s a really great idea, I should try that,” stop reading. Pick one thing from that list of fifteen. Don’t worry about finishing the rest of the book. Try it. Practice it, repeat it, until it becomes routine. Remind yourself to consciously think about it on a regular basis. When you make that one item a habit, you can come back to the source and learn something else. Then, every time you practice the new thing, you’ll be reminded to keep practicing all the old ones.
Moderation is key. The more we try to learn everything, the more we learn nothing.
So in the spirit of learning in moderation intermingled with my love of building blocks, it’s back to basics, exploring some of the most elementary principles of art and design, mainly of composition. Be it music or literature, painting or poster design, composition is the very basic building framework of any creative work, the combining of different parts to make a whole. How one consciously puts together the elements at their disposal- the first block.
Of course the tools at one’s disposal can be seemingly innumerable, flip open William Lidwell and Kritina Holden’s the Universal Principles of Design and you’ll see 210 pages worth, but I’d like to start with one in particular – proportion, more specifically the Fibonacci sequence.
Google anything to do with composition and inevitably you’ll come across, the rule of thirds and the golden ratio, aka the golden proportion, also referred to as the golden section and golden mean, dive a little deeper and it will point you to the Fibonacci sequence. A series of numbers in which each number beyond 0 and 1 is the sum of the previous two.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, …
I once took a color theory class in which the teacher asked her students to define what good design was, in the end after quite a few well-crafted responses about utility, the “answer” she boiled it down to was that good design was what the majority of people deemed such. While it was a sobering answer in its stark simplicity, it still left a void as to why the majority should find one form generally more appealing than another.
Enter English poet John Keats and German physicist, psychologist, philosopher Gustav T Fechner, both of whom came to the same conclusion though from complete opposite ends. The former wrote in his conclusion to Ode on a Grecian Urn, “Beauty is Truth; Truth, Beauty. That is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know,” the latter conducted an experiment to give aesthetics a mathematical foundation. Fechner conducted one of the first public surveys to measure statistically aesthetic preference. What he found was that people generally preferred ratios and proportions closest to large consecutive Fibonacci numbers. Proving the inherent preference for that which “we know,” a sort of “divine” truth in nature.
“Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics.”—Mario Livio, The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, The World’s Most Astonishing Number
Phi’s (φ) self-replicating symmetry appeals to us because we unconsciously sense its internal balance recognizing in the harmony of φ relationships the harmony within ourselves. φ resonates with the core of life, reminding us of our own infinite depth and beauty. – Michael S. Schneider, A Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe
The point being, one need not be aware of mathematics and phi to appreciate beauty because we know them, we find its reflection in every organic and for that matter many an inorganic object we come in contact with. Appreciation and utilization, however are two very separate things. How an artist is able to incorporate such proportions or break them and its subsequent effects throughout history may very well be like its graphical depiction, seemingly infinite and full hidden harmonies and relationships to be uncovered and discerned by the careful observer/student.
RELATED LINKS & RESOURCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_designed_with_the_golden_ratiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_numbers_in_popular_culture
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