CHAPTER VII
TREATMENT IN DESIGN
APPRECIATION of design by the individual is largely a matter of temperament, though it may be due to some extent to acquired knowledge. Generally, few are conscious of any guiding principle, and selection in their case is mostly the result of fashion or custom. To others certain colours and forms have an appeal, though they may be quite unconscious of, or unable to explain the attraction other than it suits their taste.
In the last few years it has been recognised that colour may be employed beneficially in curative treatment, but the normal healthy individual is often indifferent to environment other than that of material gratification.
When any artistic work creates pleasurable emotion, it is purely a matter of cause and effect. To design successfully involves some understanding of the causes or factors which constitute the appeal.
Natural Attraction
The attraction of colour and form is undoubtedly universal, and may be generally understood, though there are delicate degrees of proportion and association in both that may only be appreciated by the cultivated eye. Early essays in drawing generally exhibit an undesirable redundancy in curves, and in many instances the student is slow to realise that those that approximate to the elliptic form are proportionately of more interest than those obviously composed of segments of circles. Undoubtedly this subtlety of line is one of the predominant factors in appreciation of form.
A factor in pattern that is largely responsible for the charm is the presence of small detail in juxtaposition with larger forms. This is entailed in instances by technical conditions, such, for instance, as in some tapestries where inhabited pattern is essential to the process of production.
Decorative Materials
Some materials are employed partly for their decorative effect, such as naturally figured woods and certain varieties of stone; and design mainly consists of judicious selection, use and treatment. Oak and walnut being woods extremely suitable for structural work and furniture have always been in request when obtainable.
Polishing is to some extent a preservative, but work in oak or walnut, especially when carved, should be kept comparatively dull, otherwise confusion between the relief and the natural figuring would result. In mahogany or satinwood, where the chief interest exists in the figuring and colour, carving is undesirable and the best effects are obtained by high polish. It may be urged that in the Chippendale period the work was invariably carved, but the detail was always in very low relief, and the finishing dark in colour, in which the figuring was subdued. Mahogany in its more general employment owes its chief beauty to the development of figuring and colour.