You KNOW I love all things arty. A lot. And you know I have opinions on what makes ‘good’ design and ‘bad’ design. These opinions are not subjective (well OK, sometimes…), but more substantially they are grounded in a set of design rules that can be applied to just about any medium – quilt-making, industrial design, painting, jewellery, interior design and more. These rules can be utilised to allow you to make confident decisions about your project, to ensure you end up with the result you are proud of.

In my years as an art teacher, I have found the Elements and Principles of Design as one very useful way of looking at art and design (of course there are other approaches). You can think of the ELEMENTS as a series of tools you can use, and the PRINCIPLES as the methods you can apply in using them. There are some crossovers between these ideas, and you will find that each element or principle rarely works in isolation.

This post is will be the first in a series, covering each of the elements and principles.

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Texture

Aaah, one of my favourite things. I’m just gong to pick a few random things out of my Etsy  favourites and talk about them.

Texture can be physical, as well as visual. In this beautiful bush-dyed top by MyLiefe, visual texture is created by the placement of maple leaves in a pattern covering the surface of the merino jersey, with the shibori-dyed linear texture on the back of the shirt. The maple leaf is contrasted with the flowers of the lace; they correspond well due to their similarity in size.

Despite the obvious differences in the crochet designs, this group of textures still works together well because Monicaj has used the same medium (the technique of crochet, with the same thickness and variety of crochet yarn), covering similarly sized and shaped smooth-textured rocks. The contrast of the the crochet against the rock is also appealing.

 

Groups of similarly shaped elements create areas of great texture. The whole piece is unified by colour, the size of each element, and their organic forms.

Chiffon over chiffon, with a background of chiffon. I might just let you dream on this one.

Here’s a great example of pattern being texture being pattern. For me, pattern and texture are very closely aligned, and sometimes it’s simply a matter of scale as to whether it gets called ‘pattern’ or ‘texture’. And again, I love areas of different patterns/textures jammed up next to each other, as long as they relate in some other way/s, such as colour, scale, or line.

Texture can be rough, silky, lumpy, bumpy, crisp and more. Here on this image of an agave, the leaves are smooth and velvety, enhanced by the impression left from when the plant was smaller and tightly closed. Those lines that run down the leaf, showing the shape of the outer leaf and its spikes, are screaming to be touched.

Another seductively smooth thing that needs to be touched. The surface is emphasised by the elongated egg shape of the ring. I could imagine for any wearer this ring would quickly become the worry-bead of choice.

Each of these pieces are very different, but all of them still have a a great tactile quality about them that is engaging and encouraging of touch. For me, this is exactly why I feel texture is such a great thing to utilise in any design – it is engaging.

(click on any of the images to be taken to their source)

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Watch out for the next in the series. I’m still deciding between Shape and Line. What would you like to see?

🙂 Julie 

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