(d) To develop and foster standards and ideals of efficiency, comfort, enjoyment, beauty and social worth. This last purpose includes taste and is the one of concern here.
The peculiar æsthetic standards which interest young people are of the most practical kind. They apply every day and to everybody. And they are fundamental. The illustrations given below will indicate the common-sense way in which design should be approached:
Color. The tones of the color scale have not yet been systematized so well as those of music, but each year students of design and artists move a little toward agreement. Now, suppose one wishes to use two or more tones in a room, how may harmonious effect be secured? The very word "harmony" means agreement, and suggests similarity, likeness, relationship. Therefore the tones one would use in the embellishment of a room should possess some common quality for the harmonizing element. Each tone having that quality as characteristic is similar in that one respect to all other tones having the same quality. Hence they are related in a way. The relation may be made strong or weak by the manipulation of the bond which holds the tones together. For instance:
Red and green are not related at all. By mixing gray with each, red and green become related through gray. By mixing yellow, orange or blue, etc., with red and green, the relationship may be established in the same way.
Yellow and green have a common quality—yellow, and in so far tend toward harmony. But it may not be a pleasing one, and it will be necessary to bring them still closer together by introducing other bonds, as gray or a color. Yellow is very light and green is dark: they will work together better if brought nearer together in value.
An Interesting Curtain which might be Duplicated by almost any Girl—If She Wanted Curtains
