International studio (32.1907)

The Designer's Approach to His Problem

interfere with its movement, but those which meet
or even approach it at an acute angle tend to lead
the eye astray. They apparently cause the en-
closing line to bend inward. Thus the structural
force of the space is weakened.

In Fig. i is shown a book cover decorated by a
series of lines, all of which parallel and strengthen
the borders. These intersections divide the surface
in squares. Certain of them have been decorated
with rosettes so that the decorative mass as a whole
is a rectangle which in its outline supports the en-
closing form.

2. The angles of the space decorated should be
supported by the decoration.

Any element placed in the angle of a rectangular
form serves by strengthening such angle to em-
phasize the squareness of the form as a whole.
The decorative arrangement for a rectangle may,

therefore, with propriety be made up in part of
masses in the angles. If the rectangle have within it
a circular or elliptical panel the pull of the circular
lines upon the side of the form will make it de-
sirable, even necessary, to have a counter attractive
force in the corners.

In Fig. 2 the structural elements (both lines and
angles) of the box have been strengthened by the
decoration.

The upper edge of the box has also been made
more attractive than the lower by a wider decorative
band. This band serves not only to enrich the
surface, but to carry the eye upward from the feet
of the form to the cover. It conforms to the in-
junction that “in an upright design the upper
part should be made the nobler part.”

3. Growth points oj the decoration should develop
from points oj force.

figure 2

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