Principles of Design

Principles of Design Harmony, Proportion, Scale, Balance, Rhythm, Emphasis

Harmony • Combination of unity and variety • Unity: the room is tied together with a common denominator. • Variety: there are different shapes, colors and objects in a room.

Unity What makes this unity?

Variety What makes this a variety?

Harmony What makes this harmony?

Proportion • The way that part of an objectrelates to the whole of the object.

SCALE • The way the size of an object relates to another object.

SCALE & PROPORTIONToo Big, Too Small, Just Right • This chairs massive scale diminishes everything around it.

Too Small. • The chairs light palate accentuates its skinny scale.

Just Right. • This club chair matches the scale of the sofa.

Too Tall. • Used as an end table, this wood pedestal towers over the sofa, making the sofa appear small and the pairing awkward.

Too Short. • The lamp would need to be fully stretched to offer good illumination from this low point.

Just Right. • The perfect pairing, visually and physically, is a tabletop that is a couple of inches shorter than the sofa arm.

Balance • The feeling of equal weight in a room. • Formal Balance • Symmetrical (mirror image): identical on both sides of central line. • Informal Balance • Asymmetrical: not identical on both sides of a central line.

symmetrical What makes this symmetrical?

Asymmetrical What makes this asymmetrical?

rhythm • The feeling of movement in a room; it moves your eye from one point to another.

Rhythm What makes this rhythm?

Repetition: an object that is duplicated. • Transition: moves your eye toward something. • Radiation: moves your eye out from a central axis. • Gradation: moves your eye from warm to cool OR from dark to light….or vice versa.

repetition What makes it a repetition?

Transition What makes this a transition?

radiation What makes this a radiation?

gradation What makes this Gradation?

emphasis • The focalpoint of a room.

Emphasis What is the emphasis in this room?

Principles of Design