A Guide to Good Design
Pleasing proportions borrowed from nature
Synopsis: It’s possible to build something that is structurally sound and functionally adequate but not pleasing to the eye. Graham Blackburn offers a primer on good design, based on the golden ratio. This ratio is common in nature, and Blackburn explains how woodworkers can apply it in their projects. Everything doesn’t have to fit the formula exactly, but Blackburn simplifies the process.
Even if you should be blessed with a good eye, it’s not easy to design a piece of furniture without using some underlying paradigm for determining its dimensions and the inner proportions of its parts. Whether it’s a design method passed on from craftsman to apprentice or the inherent sense of balance that humans possess, without such a paradigm to follow it is perfectly possible to build something that is structurally sound and functionally adequate but not pleasing to the senses. A piece of furniture that disregards proven design may look clumsy, unbalanced, or awkward.
The geometry of furniture design
Chief among the many paradigms that designers have used—and continue to use—to ensure balance and good proportions in furniture design is the golden ratio (also referred to as the golden mean). Represented by the Greek letter phi (Φ), the golden ratio can be expressed as the equation [1 + √5]/2 = Φ . For practical purposes, we can think of phi as equal to 1.618, and visualize it by dividing any given line so that the longer part is 1.618 times greater than the shorter part. One of many intriguing principles of the golden ratio is that the shorter portion of the line is in the same proportion to the longer part as the longer part is to the whole line.
A naturally occurring proportion
The golden ratio underlies much of nature and the way our universe is constructed. Examples abound on every level from astrophysics to quantum mechanics. Planetary orbits and even the very structure of the human figure abide by it. Being so fundamental and pervasive in nature, the ratio appeals to us at a subconscious level as being essentially right. As such, it has been used for centuries by designers of everything from the pyramids to furniture masterpieces.
From Fine Woodworking #168
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