Relationships

I show this image elsewhere but it is easier to see in this post and this setting. Both the lamp and the Zen garden have been combined to create a pleasant little scene and they work well together. Of course it’s easy to see why these two items harmonize – the somewhat oriental look to [...]

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Harmony in Design

I brought home this stone lamp from a craft show and inadvertently placed it next to a zen garden with rocks. Jackie walked by and said “Look how nice the lamp looks next to the Zen garden. She was right – the two harmonize nicely through the shared element of the stones, as well as [...]

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The Principle of Balance in Design

We are often not aware of balance when we encounter it as we encounter it often but we are viscerally affected by imbalance. The reason we like balance is because we don’t like imbalance. This stems, probably, from being physical creatures built upon a bilaterally symmetrical design and to whom balance is essential to health, [...]

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Harmony & Contrast – Excerpt from an upcoming book by Keith Davitt

One of the principles all art forms work with is embodied in the concept of harmony and contrast (which in music is harmony and counterpoint or dissonance). Just what is a harmony and what a contrast? Of course we all know these when we see or hear them but knowing what constitutes a definite harmony [...]

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Appropriateness of Design – or The Principle of Suitability

Any design needs to be appropriate for he, she or they for whom it is intended and for the purpose it is to serve. It should also be appropriate, or suitable to its environment. This is true for all the arts and can be verified in all aspects of life. A musical composition meant for [...]

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An Experiement in Beauty – The Principle of Unity

When you see a person coming toward you down the street who appears from thirty feet or so to be attractive, continue looking as he or she nears.  You will find, in perhaps ninety nine cases out of a hundred that as the person comes close enough for you to see more details of the [...]

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