And now, time for your favorite design princple and mine: contrast!
(image courtesy of homemanifest.com)
Contrast makes so many points for us. When putting opposite things next to each other, each heightens the qualities it doesn’t share with the other. Each strengthens in intensity. Basically, they highlight what’s amazing in one another.
Seattle is a great example of this. We live through 10 months of grey skies, chilly temperatures, and rain, culminating in 2 AWESOME months of sunshine and warmth. I grew up in a sunny region, lived in California after graduating college, and always hated sun. It was non-weather, and the same thing every day. Then I moved to Seattle. When you never get sun, there is nothing more spectacular.
No one appreciates sun when they get it all the time, but the population of Seattle seems to triple on nice days. Everyone is out. The experience of sun is fresh, new, unusual, and aggressively enjoyed by all.
Designers know how to employ this same concept to their work. Contrast is one of the primary concepts in color theory, spatial progression, surface textures, light use, and volume balance. In fact, design elements and principles do nothing more than guide designers to create spaces and objects that replicate natural phenomena.
We so often turn to nature to inspire design, but once in a while, you learn to see the design in nature.
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