Design

“ If I am successful in my endeavour I shall have done something to show that “design” is demanded by all that we deem most valuable in life, by beauty, by morals, by scientific truth: and that it is design far deeper in purpose, far richer in significance, than any which could be inferred from the most ingenious and elaborate adjustments displayed by organic life. ”

“ The word design, as applied to needlework, includes the principles and laws of the art: the motives and their hereditary outcome; the art creating the principles; the laws controlling the art.
Design means intention, motive, and should as such be applied to the smallest as to the greatest efforts of art. That which results from it, either as picture or pattern, is a record of the thoughts which produced it, and by its style fixes the date, of its production. ”

“ Design comes by designing. On the one hand tradition carefully and continuously shapes the object to fill its use, on the other spontaneous and eager excursions are made{306} into the limitless fields of beautiful device. Where construction and form are thus the result of a long tradition undisturbed by fashion, they are always absolutely right as to use and distinctive as to beauty, the construction being not only visible, but one with the decoration. ”

“ From the start one feels that design is his principal preoccupation, that he is thinking mainly of the pattern of the whole, its decorative effect and play of line, its beauty of masses and spaces, its fitness for its place and its surroundings; in a word, its composition. In the beginning, as a workman in the shop of the cameo cutter, he was concerned with a kind of art in which perfection of composition is almost the sole claim to serious consideration. ”

“ But, instead, we shall have design by living men for living men—something that expresses fresh realisations of sacred facts, personal broodings, skill, joy in Nature—in grace of form and gladness of colour ”

“ Given a certain outline and certain tones, measures, and shapes to be put into it, it is the Problem of Pure Design to do the best we can, getting as many connections making unity as possible. The process is one of experimenting, observing, comparing, judging, arranging and rearranging, taking no end of time and pains to achieve Order, the utmost possible Order, if possible the Beautiful. ”

“ It is only the design, the teleology, of the old school, touched by the Ithuriel spear of modern knowledge, and changing into a conception of universal design, that can only have originated in an infinite mind. ”

“ The language of design has an implicit set of anticipations and a projected endurance. Aesthetic structuring, culturally rooted and technologically supported, affects the efficiency of designed items. The explicit set of expectations is measured against this implicit set of anticipations. It translates from the many languages of human practical experiences to the language of design, and from here to the ways and means of embodying design in a product, event, message, material, or interaction. ”

“ CHAPTER VI.—OF THE RACIAL INFLUENCE IN DESIGN THOSE personal predilections and idiosyncrasies which we each possess, those differences of temper and qualities of perception which affect our sense of colour and form, which account for those variations of treatment in the rendering, in design or drawing, of the same objects by different persons—what are these and whence do they come? They belong to the very constitution of our minds and bodies; they are beyond our own control, and beyond almost our own consciousness, oftentimes. ”

“ No design that is divided at all, and yet not divided into masses, can ever be of the smallest value: this great law respecting breadth, precisely the same in architecture and painting, is so important, that the examination of its two principal applications will include most of the conditions of majestic design on which I would at present insist. ”

“ The highest Thinkers, Artists, Poets, Philosophers, and Mystics in those centuries became Architects, and, in pure contemplation of and love for the Divine, helped to beautify design by giving up their lives and energies to the work without reward. ”

“ CHAPTER III.—OF THE INFLUENCE OF MATERIAL AND METHOD WE have seen (1) that architectural considerations lie at the basis of design and control its general character, its scale, and relationships; and (2) that utility determines and specializes its particular forms and functions; now, as our third proposition, we may say that, in addition to these in limitation of material and methods of workmanship, we shall find the influences which determine primarily the purely artistic question of treatment in design, and which differentiate its classes and varieties. ”

“ Design governs the arrangement of masses, lines, and dots to secure the qualities of beauty and fitness.
Any piece of work which is definitely arranged with consideration for its various parts and their relationship is called, in the abstract, a “design.” Thus we speak of a poster, a decorated wall, a building, or a printed page as “a design.”
Any successful design will have the qualities of fitness and beauty. Fitness to purpose is largely a mechanical factor. An ugly building may protect its occupants from the weather, and an ugly printed page may be entirely legible. ”

“ To design means to literally involve oneself in a practical experience with signs. To design means to express, in various signs, thoughts, feelings, and intentions pertinent to human communication, as well as to project oneself in artifacts appropriate to human practical experiences. ”

“ Seeing too that from this knowledge there arises a certain conception and judgement, so that there is formed in the mind that something which afterwards, when expressed by the hands, is called design, we may conclude that design is not other than a visible expression and declaration of our inner conception and of that which others have imagined and given form to in their idea. ”

“ There is no merit in the mere multiplication of features. It is a mistake. The rule of Pure Design, and it is the rule for all Design, is simplification rather than complication. As designers we ought to avoid additions, if possible. ”

“ Design was fresh and open to individual treatment—men needed an [Pg 94] outlet for their love of, their elation at, the sight of beautiful things, and behind them lay the background of far-reaching traditions to encourage, inspire, protect experiment with the friendly shadow of authority. ”

“ All civilization and most forms of savagery demand that the equipment of routine life shall be pleasing to the eye after its prime purpose of usefulness has been developed.
If an article be pleasing in appearance its making will have involved some of the elements of design. The relationship of its parts, the lines of its construction, its coloring, the manner in which it is ornamented will depend first upon its purpose, but will be guided by a group of recognized traditions which we call the principles of design. ”

“ Beauty depends upon esthetic [Pg 8] qualities; that is, upon the characteristics of the design which will appeal to the eye and mind through the consideration of—
Harmony (of shape, tone, color, and conception) .
Balance and proportion (of mass, shape, and color) .
Rhythm (of shape, line, tone, and color) .
This conception of the elements of design covers all of the many things that mankind makes—buildings, or railroad trains, or sculpture, or paintings, or pottery, or furniture, or the printed page alike. ”

“ The design, your Lordship sees, is good, the colouring transparent,—the drawing not amiss;—or to speak more like a man of science,—and measure my piece in the painter's scale, divided into 20,—I believe, my Lord, the out-lines will turn out as 12,— the composition as 9,—the colouring as 6,—the expression 13 and a half,— and the design,—if I may be allowed, my Lord, to understand my own design, and supposing absolute perfection in designing, to be as 20,—I think it cannot well fall short of 19. ”

“ We shall find, in short, the original and controlling bases of design in architecture, the queen and mother of all the arts.
In asserting this one does not lose sight of the view that all art is, primarily, the projection or precipitation in material form of man's emotional and intellectual nature ”

“ The ability to choose, plan, and arrange is in a greater or less degree inherent in every one, so there should be, after all, no great difficulty in the design. The necessary underlying qualities are—a nice taste, freedom from affectation, an eye for colour and form, and, it might be added, a fair share of common sense. ”

“ Design was the imitation of the most beautiful parts of nature in all figures, whether sculptured or painted, and this requires that the hand and mind of the artist should be capable of reproducing, with the utmost truth and exactitude, on paper, panel, or such other level surface as may be used, whatever the eye beholds—a remark that also applies to works of relief in sculpture. ”

“ Consequently, to design means to experience the table in advance of its physical embodiment. Thus designing is the virtual practical experience, at the borderline between what is and what new experiences of self-constitution require. ”

“ While much early ornament, as we have seen, is traceable to a constructive origin, another kind, or another branch of the tree of design is traceable to a symbolic origin, and springs from the endeavour to express thought—to find a succinct language in which to express some sense of the great powers of nature, and their influence upon the daily life of man—to embody even in a pictorial emblem, symbol, or allegory his primitive conceptions of the order of the universe itself. ”

“ It would lead me away from the scope of the present discussion were I to go into any illustrations or details of the argument from design, but I may say a few words in explanation of the principle on which it proceeds. In arguing from ends or final causes, in other words, from design, we necessarily make the idea of a thing precede its realisation; we place thought before action, and thus we necessarily lay down thought, intelligence, or reason as the first, the beginning. If thought or intelligence be the first, the beginning, by what term shall we designate the ultimate or the end? ”

“ Its mission is to create the desire for fine surroundings, to suggest ways and means for studying design, especially those phases of decoration associated with the crafts, and above all such a book invites and helps to maintain a receptive attitude of mind toward artistic matters. In the effort to produce work of merit, one becomes critical, and seeks reasons and precedents for judgment. This is the beginning of design study: and the fact that one has real interest in taste is indicative of the desire of the cultured mind for ideals. ”

“ It exists invisibly in design, it will be visible in the work. Behold, it is made in the work; has it ceased to exist in design? The one is made in the work, and the other remains which exists in design ”

“ Although design contains elements ensuing from experiences involving language, design is essentially a non-verbal human activity. Its means of expression and communication are grounded in the visual, but extend to sound, texture, odor, taste, and combinations of these (synaesthesia) , including rhythm, color, and movement.
To the human being involved in practical experiences of self-constitution, the realm of nature appears as given. In counter-distinction and in retrospect, human nature appears as designed. ”

“ In all these imitative processes the question of design becomes of the very highest importance, since the material has neither beauty nor intrinsic value in itself; and here, even more than in many other forms of manufacture, the presence and influence of the intelligent designer is most desirable, and should be paramount. ”

“ Design is a good basis, its simplicity yielding favorably to the settlement of spaces and the construction of lines, but its chief purpose ends when it has cleared the field of little things and reduced the first conception, which usually comes as a bundle of items, to a broad and dignified foundation into which these little things are set. ”

“ I have no idea that many able designers will be produced, but what I expect, as a result of this teaching, is a more general understanding of Design, more interest in it, and more appreciation and enjoyment of its achievements. Among the many who will appreciate and enjoy will be found the few who will create and produce. ”

“ Before this series one feels the firm will of a very logical, serious, classic spirit who wants to know thoroughly the intimate resources of design, before risking to choose from among them the elements which respond best to his individual nature. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Apart from a knowledge of an intention preceding an act the inference of design is unwarrantable.
Now, assuming the existence of a God, and who stands in the same relation to the world that I do to the machine, how can anyone know that the world as it is expresses design any more than did my home-made bicycle? In this case, as in the former, what is needed to justify the assumption of design is a knowledge of intention. ”

“ He can take up the study of Order in Nature and of Design in Works of Art without further assistance.
[Pg 192]
CONCLUSION 189. It does not follow, even when our minds, in consequence of the study and the practice which I have described, are richly stored with the terms and the motives of Design, that we shall produce anything important or remarkable. Important work comes only from important people. What we accomplish, at best, is merely the measure and expression of our own personalities. ”