DECORATIVE DESIGN.
By design is meant the originating of objects and their decoration according to the laws of use and beauty. It thus naturally falls into two grand divisions, namely, con structive design and decorative design.
Constructive Design, or design in three dimensions, deals with the evolving of objects having length, breadth and thickness. It covers all the fields of human invention, as vessels, utensils, apparel, furniture, architecture and machinery. Each of these forms a distinct de partment of design. We thus speak of archi tectural design, machine design, jewelry design, etc.
The chief aim of constructive design is the creation of an article of use and beauty. The object designed must show fitness for its pur pose in size, form, material, and in beauty of its proportion. For example, we would be violating the laws of use and beauty if we were to make a chair out of cardboard, the size of a table, and in the form of a pyramid.
But very often objects, although fully satis factory in themselves as regards use and beauty, nevertheless present blank surfaces the appearance of which might greatly be proved by the application of ornamentation. This leads us to a consideration of decorative design.
Decorative Design, or design in two di mensions, may be defined as the evolving of forms for the enrichment of surfaces. The result of decorative design, commonly known as ornament, produces its legitimate effect when, without concentration upon itself, it makes the object to which it is applied more pleasing than if unadorned.
To produce satisfactory work, the decora tive designer must study the materials of design, the systems and principles of arrange ment, and the various methods of application.
Materials of Decorative Design.—Designs may be produced from abstract shapes, from conventionalized natural forms, as plants, animals and landscape, and from lettering.
Abstract Forms in Design are derived from the exhaustless field of geometry. They are arrived at by combining lines of various widths, or by cutting up such geometric sur faces as the square, oblong triangle, circle, etc., into smaller interesting areas. (Fig. 8).
Nature Forms in Design.— By far the most important elements of design are derived from plant-life, animal-life and landscape. But as the decoration of an object should be subordinate to the object itself, a realistic treatment of a nature subject is not permis sible. Before being applied it must be con ventionalized.
Conventionalization.— By conventionaliza tion is meant the adaptation of a natural form for design purposes. In a botanic drawing of a flower, for instance, the various organs, as petals, sepals, pistil and stamen are studied with minuteness and all the wonderful struc ture is revealed. But in drawing it for decora tive purposes, the flower is idealized, by keep ing only the general characteristics of growth, form and proportion, while simplifying out lines, rejecting unimportant details, and ren dering it in flattened values.
Conventionalization may be formal or in formal. A nature motive is formally con ventionalized, when its elements are decidedly simplified in outline, form and value, and symmetrically arranged.
Informal conventionalization refers to the use of the perspective appearance of a nature subject but slightly modified for decorative purposes.
Systems of Arrangement.— The principal forms of decorative arrangement include: 1. Designs for unlimited areas, or all-over patterns.
2. Designs for partly limited areas or borders.
3. Designs for limited or enclosed areas. (Fig. 9).
prated in rhythmic rows which are both hori zontal and vertical the design is called a full drop regular repeat ; when the unit is repeated in alternating rows, the pattern is known as a full drop alternate repeat. (Fig. 11). In what is termed a half drop repeat, the unit is re peated in alternating rows in which every other row is dropped one-half the height of the unit.