In printing, the successive lines of type which form a paragraph, block, or connected series of paragraphs or blocks, are considered as a mass. An initial letter may be another mass; a head-band still another; and ornaments or illustrations may form other masses. All must be considered as mass elements in the design of the page, with rule borders as surrounding lines, or heavier designed borders as surrounding masses.
Thus all the component parts of the printed page are reduced to elements or materials of design, and with these materials an arrangement is to be made, for the sake of beauty, which will have the qualities of harmony, balance, proportion, and rhythm.
The Qualities of Design
The dictionary defines harmony, in art, as “a normal state of completeness in the relation of things to each other.” This “state of completeness” in a harmonious scheme is such that we have no desire to change or modify any detail or characteristic.
Balance is defined as “the state of being in equilibrium.” In design this refers to the equilibrium or balance of attraction to the eye between the various masses.
Proportion is “the comparative relation of one thing to another” with respect to size.
Rhythm, in design, “is a movement characterized by regular recurrence of accent.”
Let us discover the embodiment of these qualities of design with a simple experiment. Cut from black, dark gray, and light gray cover paper a miscellaneous assortment of small pieces as shown in [Fig. 3]. This group of squares, oblongs, triangles, diamonds, circles, and whatnot has none of the qualities of design as it appears in [Fig. 3].