Design (teleology)

“ Educated to see in Nature what were called evidences of design, meaning plan and purpose according to our finite ideas of design, we could not rise to the conception of the continuous action of universal law; and every thing not easily construed by our preconceived teleology was settled by the convenient doctrines of miracles and cataclysms. ”

“ As regards the second kind of teleology, according to the division made above, the outer design, which shows itself, not in the inner economy of the organisms, but in the support and assistance they receive from without, both from unorganised nature and from each other ”

“ Had all these heavenly systems no designer they would soon have been disorganised and ruined. The vast mass of matter rolling in space without disturbing each other's motion demonstrate contrivance and design by the regularity of their motions, and hence the Designer. ”

“ The frame work, the order or the geometrism of the kosmos has been established by life acting consciously upon the universum of materiality. And in order to establish this geometrism life had to be mobile, active, creative. It could not remain static, immobile, and accomplish it. Being mobile, dynamic, creative, it passes on. It is like a fashioning tool which the cabinet makers use in cutting out designs upon a piece of wood. It moves, and keeps moving until the design is finished, and then it is ready for more designing. ”

“ Having made our scale sketch, the next step is to work out the full-sized cartoons, which, of course, demand more attention to drawing and detail. Many artists make as many elaborate studies for figures, drapery, and details as they would for a highly-wrought picture in oil, or mural painting. As a matter of fact, however, though any amount of good drawing and invention may be put into glass design, it should not be forgotten that beauty of pattern and effect and symbolic suggestion are the objects and not pictorial naturalism. ”

“ I know a little of the principles of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or anything else that I ever heard of.
It is repeated, of course, by the breadths, but not otherwise.
Looked at in one way, each breadth stands alone, the bloated curves and flourishes—a kind of "debased Romanesque" with delirium tremens—go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity. ”

“ In the primitive ornament of all peoples we find the same or similar typical forms constantly recurring, the germs of pattern design afterwards developed, complicated, and refined upon: the chequer, the zigzag, the fret, the circle, the spiral volute, the twisting scroll—can we ascribe their invention to any individual mind or hand? Can the mechanician tell us who were the inventors of the wheel, the lever, the mode of producing fire, the canoe, the paddle, the spade, the plough, the vessel of clay, the axe, the hammer, the needle, or even spinning and weaving? ”

“ They are so vast and complex that they can only be realized in the sweep of ages. One design is subordinated by another without ever being lost sight of, until the time has arrived for its complete fulfilment. ”

“ For instance, it is argued that when a man observes a watch or a telescope, or any article that has been made to answer a certain purpose, and the mechanism of which is so adjusted as to effect the desired object, it is said that from the marks of design or contrivance observed in the mechanism, he infers that these articles are the products of some human designer. ”

“ The warp and the woof are the realism of the kosmos; the vertical threads are the roots and stem of the phenomenal world; the design is our sensible world as it appears to the intellect. The life of the intellect has been spent in contemplating this design; while of the hands which wove the carpet, of the mind which directed the hands and of the spirit which vitalized all, it knows nothing nor indeed can it know anything. Where shall we say are those hands, that mind and that spirit which made the carpet possible and an actuality? ”

“ You find the planets arranged in accordance with what you call a plan. That does not prove that they were created. It may prove that they are governed, but it certainly does not prove that they were created. Is it consistent to say that a design cannot exist without a designer, but that a designer can? Does not a designer need a design as much as a design needs a designer? ”

“ Would the inference of design be legitimate only on the supposition that the watch had the most faultless scapement, and the most artistic finish? Would not some rude, old crown-and-verge movement, dropped by some boor as he crossed the common, quite as irresistibly lead to the inference of design? And in dealing with the mechanism of the heavens, the real question at issue, is not—Is the intelligent contriver perfect? ”

“ It is a common enough truism to say that the forms and proportions which may be suitable for objects made in a certain material, such as pottery or glass for example, should not be imitated in another, such as metal or woodwork. When the questions of utility and material have been settled, we can apply the laws and principles of architecture to guide us in the design and decoration of the given object. As to design, first, we should strive to obtain good proportion of the parts and divisions to each other,{6} and to the whole. ”

“ Emphasis is on the overall effect of pattern, not on its items. The continuous forked-and-angled design, the combinations of hourglass figures, of spaced rhomboids or hexagons, even the simpler fishbone pattern—all have this total-field approach, with relative indifference to figure elements that got squeezed, stretched, or distorted. ”

“ They carry on one Design, which is push forward by all the Actors; every scene in the Play contributing and moving towards it. Ours, besides the main Design, have Under Plots or By-Concernments of less considerable persons and intrigues; which are carried on, with the motion of the main Plot: just as they say the orb [?orbits] of the fixed stars, and those of the planets (though they have motions of their own) , are whirled about, by the motion of the Primum Mobile in which they are contained. That similitude expresses much of the English Stage. ”

“ When held to the sun, the reflected light would fall on a wall or other smooth surface, and the spectators would see the design, appearing as if through the power of the devil or some propitious deity. ”

“ And because such a line of work consists only in the choice of designs that may be adapted to it—those containing blocks of buildings and objects with rectangular outlines to which force and projection can be lent by means of light and shade—it has always been exercised by persons possessing more patience than skill in design. ”

“ For, directly we endeavour to construct a decorative design—that is, a design intended to adorn or to express an object or surface—we find that we must build it upon some sort of a plan, or geometric controlling network or scaffolding, so as to give it unity, rhythm, and coherence—especially so in the case of repeating designs. Even in an isolated panel or picture the necessity of this linear basis will be felt, since one cannot draw a line or define a form without demanding an answer—that is, a corresponding, re-echoing line or mass. ”

“ The direction of line used in relieving forms, and expressing modelling and details, must depend much upon individual taste and feeling as well as knowledge of form. The element of beauty of design also comes in, and the question between this and force or literalness—the difference between a study or direct transcript from nature, and a design with a purely ornamental aim, or a composition directed mainly to the expression of a particular idea or emotion. ”

“ B is a flat rendering whose arrangement of masses suggests the pictorial interest of A without denying the flat surface upon which it is printed.
The Materials of Design
Since design is a matter of arrangement, its materials are the masses, lines, and dots which make up the whole form.
A dot theoretically has no dimensions. And a line (being the path of a dot in motion) theoretically has length but no width. While if a line be moved sideways it produces a mass which has area and shape. ”

“ Much more frequently does the central element of a design need to be supplied by the mind of the spectator. The beauty of an undulating and of a spiral curve rests' in part on a vague representation of the central axis, about which its seemingly free movements arrange themselves in so simple an order. In many symmetrical arrangements, too, as those of the human figure, the central element to which all relations are more or less consciously referred has to be put into the figure by the mind. ”

“ The ingenuity in designing such patterns as those below and opposite, which is very considerable, consists in so scheming them that every lead line shall fulfil alike a constructive and an artistic function; that is to say, that every line in the design shall be necessary to its artistic effect, that there shall be no lead line which is not an outline, no outline which is not a lead. ”

“ Nothing can exceed the richness of invention which, in this series of halls, corridors, and courts, never repeats the same ornaments, but, from the simplest primitive forms and colors, produces a thousand combinations, not one of which is in discord with the grand design. ”

“ Visual representation, as opposed to language expression, attains coherence as a whole, and the whole is configurational. One can write the word table without ever experiencing the object denominated. Extracted from direct or mediated experiences, knowledge about the object and its functions is a prerequisite for drawing an old table or conceiving a new one. To design means to express in a language that involves rendering. It also involves understanding that practical expectations are connected to the projected object. ”

“ So it is in the history of art and the evolution of design. At first we are attracted by the brilliant personalities, surrounded by satellites, that seem to sum up in their work whole epochs, and remain typical and central points in the wide spaces of time ”

“ When we collect design and purpose from the arrangements of the universe, we do not arrive at our conclusion by a train of deductive reasoning, but by the conviction which such combinations as we perceive immediately and directly impress upon the mind. “Design must have had a designer.” But such a principle can be of no avail to one whom the contemplation or the description of the world does not impress with the perception of design. ”

“ As regards procedure in working out a design, one generally thinks of some leading feature, some central mass or form or curve—of a figure or a flower, say—and one thinks of its capacity in repeat; and, since one form or line should inevitably suggest or necessitate—as by a kind of logic—another, one adds other forms until the design is complete. For it must never be forgotten that design is a growth which has its own stages of evolution in the mind, answering to the evolution of the living forms of nature—first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. ”

“ One may correct the proportions of an object and reduce the size of the materials in it to a minimum but still fail to secure the desirable elements of lightness and interest. The object may still look heavy and remain a box-like structure void of the grace synonymous with the best in design. It is, however, possible to correct the clumsy and heavy appearances by imparting to the design elements of grace and lightness. Two methods may be used, singly or together: (1) Enrichment of the Functional Outlines or Contours; (2) Surface Enrichment sometimes called Space Filling. ”

“ Certainly we can think of pictures in which the general architecture of the design is in no way striking or remarkable which yet please us by the perfection of the texture, that is to say, the ease with which we apprehend the necessary relationship of one shape, tone or colour with its immediately surrounding shapes, tones or colours; our æsthetic sense is continually aroused and satisfied by the succession of inevitable relationships. ”

“ In designing figures or emblems, for instance, within inclosed spaces, such as shields or cartouche shapes, forming leading elements in a design, it requires much invention and ornamental feeling so to arrange them that, while different in subject or meaning, and differently spaced, they shall yet properly counterbalance each other, and, though varied in detail, shall yet be equivalent in quantity. ”

“ The third type of objectivity, the teleological relation, is the unity of mechanism and chemism. Design, like the mechanical object, is a self-contained totality, enriched however by the principle of differentiation which came to the fore in chemism, and thus referring itself to the object that stands over against it. Finally, it is the realisation of design which forms the transition to the Idea. ”

“ False notions of symmetry were allowed to control design at the expense of fitness, and classic details, even more grotesquely disfigured than in Italy and France, and combined with elements of nameless character, began to overlay the walls, and break the sky-lines. ”

“ Why do we admit design in any machine of human contrivance? Simply, because innumerable instances of machines having been contrived by human art are present to our mind, because we are acquainted with persons who could construct such machines ”

“ The quality of the surface left by the skilled artist or artisan is more regarded than symmetry of design, or even than correct modelling. Frequently only the important parts in a design are carefully finished and the rest merely sketched: the mode of working, whether by modelling-tools or hammer, being always left apparent. ”