In my experience these five have been sufficient:
1. OPPOSITION
2. TRANSITION
3. SUBORDINATION
4. REPETITION
5. SYMMETRY
These names are given to five ways of creating harmony, all being
dependent upon a great general principle, PROPORTION or GOOD SPACING.
1. OPPOSITION. Two lines meeting form a simple and severe harmony.
Examples will be found in Greek door‐ways, Egyptian temples and early
Renaissance architecture; in plaid design; also in landscape where
vertical lines cut the horizon (see pp. 21, 45, 46.) This principle is
used in the straight line work in squares and rectangles, pp. 32, 33, 39,
and in combination with other principles, pp. 25, 29.
[No 12. Opposition]
[No 13. Opposition]
2. TRANSITION. The arrangement thus designated involves a step beyond
Opposition. Two straight lines meeting in opposing directions give an
impression of abruptness, severity, or even violence; the difference of
movement being emphasized. If a third line is added, as in the sketches
below, the opposition is softened and an effect of unity and completeness
produced.
This combination typifies beauty itself which has been defined as
consisting of elements of difference harmonized by elements of unity.
A very common example of Transition is the bracket, No. 15. The straight
line is modified into curves and may be elaborated with great complexity
of modelling.
[No 14. Transition]
[No 15. Transition]
Instead of a drawn line of transition there may be only a suggestion of
one, but the effect is the same; a softening of the corner angle, No. 14
and pp. 58,60. In pictorial art the vignette, in architecture the capital,
are examples of the transition principle. In design an effect of
Transition may be produced by radiation. (Illustrations below.) Accidental
transitions occur in nature in the branching of old trees, where the
rhythmic lines are thus unified.
For convenience the suggestions for class work are grouped together in the
following