Customer Reviews

Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been looking for this book for years now. I would wander the aisles of book stores looking for a concise treatise on the geometric elements of design. I open book after book in the design, architecture and art sections looking for a description of this "Sacred Geometry" passed down from master to student, used by Leonardo DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Greek sculptors, the Parthenon, and countless other masters and imitators, but which is sadly missing from many of the fine art and design curricula throughout the country.

Judging from the title, I thought this book would be wordy and academic. Or on the opposite end, written by ... a protractor, a compass and little else. I couldn't be more wrong. What I found is, after a section describing how certain geometric relationships exist in nature, and what their mathematical properties are, page after page of designs analyzed.

First the design is reproduced for you to see, unadorned. Then the author shows you the same picture, but with red grids, circles, diagonals, stars, etc. covering it to show you the precise geometric relationship, of say, the Clestory Window in the Cathedral at Notre Dame to the building as a whole. Or how the Eames Chair conforms to the geometry of the Golden Section. Breif text accompanies each picture.

The text "The typography of the poster forms a triangle which serves to anchor it to the format and enhance visual interest" is found next to a small reproduction of the poster with a red triangle drawn on it. Some pages even have translucent overlays so you can see the picture with a grid, or circles, or both - "an overlay comparison... reveals that the... proportions in both drawings... are almost identical."

This book gives you the tools to evaluate design. It strikes the perfect balance between showing and telling. I read the whole thing (and I mean read, not just skimmed) during two one-hour subway commutes (2 hours) and plan on referencing it time and again in the future.

99.99% of the books on design I see ignore the fundamental geometry in favor of the flashy graphics that are available to our computer inundated culture. If you feel classical design principals can help you become a better designer, artist, person, etc. buy this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Kimberly Elam presents a simple yet comprehensive overview of the role of geometry in the beauty of design and nature. Elam first explores the prevalence of the Golden Section in nature, art, and architecture, and supports the storied beauty of its proportions with an overview of the cognitive proportion preference studies of both Gustav Fechner and Lalo. Red-highlighted illustrations illuminate Elam's clear explanations of how to construct Golden Section (or Fibonacci Series) rectangles, ellipses, and triangles.

Geometry of Design doesn't only cover the Golden Section. Elam also explores the root 2, root 3, root 4, and root 5 rectangles and explains their role in the more familiar European DIN system (root 2), and the construction of hexagons (root 3).

After introducing these common geometric proportions, Elam reveals the geometric structure of historically significant works such as Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Chair, A.M. Cassandre's Wagon-Bar Poster, and Jan Tschichold's Konstruktivisten Poster, as well as contemporary industrial designs such as the Braun Aromaster Coffee Maker and the modern Volkswagon Beetle. Her analyses are concisely written and aptly accompanied by translucent overlays which reveal geometric structures that range from the astonishingly deliberate to the seemingly unintentional.

Kimberly Elam's Geometry of Design is a flawless introduction to the role of design's least visible, yet most powerful, methods of achieving aesthetic beauty. It is a must-read for anyone curious about geometry's role in design.

Why do we instinctively admire the 1997 update of the Volkswagon Beetle? Why are Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona chairs of 1929 still relevant in twenty-first century interior design? Why have everyday Braun kitchen products achieved iconic status in museum settings?

In her pithy (101 page) essay, GEOMETRY OF DESIGN: STUDIES IN PROPORTION AND COMPOSITION, Kimberly Elam admirably succeeds in illuminating fundamental concepts underlying successful modern design. Through the elegance of Elam's arguments, readers are painlessly introduced to a set of mathematically-based compositional elements developed in classical antiquity and reflected in acknowledged masterpieces of later design. From the Parthenon and Notre Dame de Paris to Mies van der Rohe's Chapel at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and from Leonardo's "Man Inscribed in a Circle" and a chambered nautilus to Le Courbusier's "Chaise Lounge", selected works succumb to Elam's acute analysis of successful proportioning and composition. Her exploration of these fundamentals, including the dynamic rectangles exemplified by the Golden Section and the European DIN Root 2 system (so different from the sectioning system used in American design), is aided by the excellent vellum overlay diagrams.

So much of our response to art and design is intuitive, and we categorize as outstanding those works from which we derive intense aesthetic pleasure. The efficiency, the very orderliness which form their basis is a revelation. Elam's book is a classic and very readable summation of the foundation of successful design.

At the concept level this is a great book, very well thought out and a nice layout. It is well worth the price. Very nice!!

A great book!!!

So why did I give it only a 2.

Because the beauty and logic of the book are only demonstrated in very simplistic designs which already would have geometric thinking built in....cars, building, furniture, commercial posters, fish, shells, etc. Symetrical snowflakes.

These objects would be driven to good design because of utilitarian functioning which is required by their physical nature. One example is A coffee maker, A car, A building . Kim is on to something great with this book,but I think she should have tackled more creative and complex objects and compositions where utilitarian value is secondary. She walks down the usual Leonardo and Greek path but the analysis is only of primarily singular objects. She does a great job but most of the objects are isolated objects or poster graphics which are already contrived on a pure geometric basis.

The great value of this book would be in the context of the evolution of design, proportion, and compostion with some of an Art aesthetic bent.

Analysis of complete compostions would be of value, some Durer engravings, some Raphael, some Petro da Cortona, some Poussin, some Raphael, Baroque, Neoclassical, Rococo, Cubist, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc. The books concept is great but the interaction of objects in paintings, or multi-group sculptures within the spirit of the books intent would have been a nice addition. The analysis objects are mostly trivial cases. The analysis methods are wonderful but I mean .........a chair by itself!!!

Great design problems are worked out by the interaction of objects, not just singular static objects. There is a wealth of more dynamic and interesting composition that was totally ignored. The Wagon Bar poster is the only thing that comes close to the type of complexity found in Art. The Folies poster was a good place to start, but the book dies with just these two examples,the Volkswagen and kettle are just too basic and functional within the context of current design which over simplifies most designs for the economy of mass production.

Take on a 1930's or 40 Packard, Duesenberg, or Silver cloud, not a 2000 Volkswagen where it and every other current product sit in the wings waiting for Steve Jobs and Apple to give them there next two circled transparent (in 15 colors) wonder flash of consumer mass production Neo-Borg Americana dribble,hoping each ounce of plastic or metal saved will mean less time to reprogram the robots, and make it easier to tell the consumer they should be thankful they can assemble it themselves at home.
(Got to love the proportions of that green packaging popcorn)

The book is a good intro book and brings together a lot of thinking from a number of other books in a quick read format, I would say "buy it" you will get your bang for the buck.

I would have rather paid 4 times as much and have it go much deeper into real Art proportion and compostion analyis.
The thinking and format of the book was so great, it seems a shame to waste it on objects and not apply it to some art examples. I mean compositional multi object art designs.

The book should contain at least some history related paintings,
Veronese, Tiepolo, some Titian, some contrast between Ren, Mannerism, Greek, Egyptian,(wall paintings not a pyramid) etc.. These examples within the context of multi-object compostions are more educational because they represent imagination use of proportion and compostion not functional requirements.

A great effort, Kim explains a violin, a trumpet, a drum, a flute, a trombone, but we never get around to a "symphony" if I can use a musical example to calrify what I mean.

Most of the examples are one trick ponies.

I hope a more sophisticated, more expensive, second edition comes out and the publishers let her go more in depth on a broader range of designs and Art history, she is on the right track, and the book would be valuable, it is a superb format, but the whole book I would have called Chapter One. Maybe I am being unfair this may be aimed at the Comercial Consumer Industrial Design crowd, not the Art crowd.

I keep this book by my desk as I'm designing. It's wonderfully inspirational, clear and concise. The golden section is not the easiest of concepts to wrap your head around, never mind using it in practice. Kimbery makes these concepts far easier to grasp. Kudos to Kimberly for finding creative ways to clearly illustrate what is best categorized as an interesting phenomenon. I appreciate the wide selection of real life examples she prepared, citing examples from nature, art, design and manufacturing. If the transparency pages aren't lining up exactly with the images below them don't fret. These are meant to help you understand the structural framework of the work being described, nothing more. This book has inspired both my professional and personal work. I hate math and I was never any good at. If I can love this book so can you. Start using the golden section in your work and you'll be hooked.

I bought this book primarily to see the studies of proportions in architecture. There are very few examples (really only 4 pages dedicated to that subject and 3 buildings analyzed) shown here. It does, however, give a myriad of ways to lay out different proportions using rectangles, circles, triangles, pentagons, etc. These, along with the examples of proportion in nature and on the human body were enough to spark my imagination as to how proportion can be used in design of buildings, but if you are looking for broad analysis of architectural proportions, look elsewhere. The examples that are given are mainly of poster design in the 1900s and Modern furniture design.

This is a good book for someone who has never delved into the subject. I find that it follows the same track as others in making the golden proportioning system fit about anything they want it to. Probably the most disappointing thing is the book's assembly: there are numerous overlays in the book that are not aligned with the images they are overlaying. The deviations are from slight to almost 1/4" - very bothersome to view. This is more of a problem with mediocre quality control and concern by Princeton Architectural Press. It's good that the book is relatively inexpensive or I would have returned it.

As a design student i have found this book to be very informative, yet it doesn't really get into too much detail which for me is good. This book is good for understanding the golden seccion and how it has been applied in some of the most memorable designs of all times as well as in architecture and other forms. If you want a full, no-details-left-out kind of book this is not it. The most important thing about this book is the examples. for begginers it really helps to see that proportion and composition is not just a matter of intuition or chance.

This is a good book for the graphic design student. It offers information that you probably WILL NOT encounter in a classroom. It has alot of great information for those of us who aren't mathematically savvy, but can understand visual proportions and the book offers alot of examples with nice semi-transparent grids and overlays so that you can view the images within the context of the authors talking points.

This book WILL NOT however teach you how to use the information as a strict method of design. In other words, it gives the reader the power to understand and use the information as a compositional aid, not a strict guideline for layouts like a grid system.

Overall, I would say that if you feel that you already have a thorough knowledge of grids and/or an understanding of the golden ratio, than this book may be slightly redundant for you, but if you are new to art/design, than this book will offer alot of useful information in a quick, easy to understand read.

I would suggest reading this book in conjunction to one of the many great books about grids so that you can gain further understanding of the information.

This title provides some excellent geometric information on golden rectangles, other relevant geometry construction and some valid description of how these theories have been applied in history. The fundamental geometry is interesting and sound.

I found that the examples provided are, in most cases, quite a stretch. While it may be possible to map the described theories on to the examples, in most cases there is no historical proof that any of the creators used such theory to develop the examples. The examples are intended to demonstrate how the underlying principles validate their overall acceptance as high-design, but this mapping of ideas alone really provides no concrete evidence of acceptance due to geometric principle, and really is just postulated to support Elam's thesis.

For example, Elam proposes that the re-design of the VW beetle closely subscribes to golden geometry principles, explicitly stating, "...the body fits neatly into the top half of the golden ellipse." Ok, I guess. But I suspect that the wheelbase is not tied to the planar side view as defined by drafted geometry. The complexity of the product can not be understood by a forced mapping of these principles. This type of generalization is prevalent throughout the examples.

The initial theory and information and low cost of the the book make it a useful addition to any form and colour library.