Chapter 8 Elements and Principles of Interior Design 235 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Proportion Proportion describes the relationship between a whole object and one of its parts. A whole can be one object, person, or an entire composition within a two- dimensional or three-dimensional space. Proportions describe internal relationships and are not dependent on a specific size or standard. Assessing proportion is a visual judgment. It is determined by looking at the composition, object, or person to see if the proportion is appropriate. People rarely notice proportion until some- thing is out of proportion. The human body is a great example of proportion, Figure 8-24. The body consists of many parts that make up the whole. Finger joints, hands, and arms have predictable mathematical relationships to each other and are part of the whole. The comparison of leg length to torso, waist to height, and shoulder width to body length are all ratio measurements of the body. When analyzing facial features, the eyes can appear set apart or close together the ears big or small and the mouth wide or tiny—all in comparison to other facial features. Variances in proportion make people look different from one another. If part of the human body is out of proportion, it is very noticeable. For example, if a man wears a size 15 shoe and he is only five feet tall, his feet are out of proportion to the rest of his body (consider a clown). There are several different ways to compare proportions. These include ■ height, width, and depth of one element within an object (or composition) to another ■ size of one area to the size of another area ■ amount of space between two or more elements within an object Over time, rather than visually assessing proportion, individuals or groups—particularly ancient Greeks— developed proportioning systems to describe an ideal—a pleasing aesthetic within a composition. One such system, known as the golden mean closely relates to human body proportions. It is a mathematical system inspired by the pentagon shape evident in organic life and nature’s patterns of order. The golden mean involves a line that divides the parts of a whole into two unequal, yet visually harmonious parts. For example, on a wall that is eight feet high, the golden mean is somewhere between one-third and one-half way up the wall. It appears in everything from sunflowers, apple blossoms, and daisies in the plant world to spiral (nautilus) shells beneath the seas. The golden section is a proportion in which the ratio of the whole to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the smaller. It moves in progressions of 3 to 5 to 8 to 13 to 21. The Greeks used this propor- tioning system to design new structures, columns, and sculptures to be more visually pleasing. The Parthenon is a good example of the golden section. After using the golden section, the Greeks found that if they followed the golden section too exactly the result would be uninteresting. In developing the golden section, the Greeks discovered that a rectangle was more visually pleasing than a square. This resulted in the golden rectangle—a rectangle with sides in the golden ratio of 1:1.618, Figure 8-25. One of the unique properties of the golden rectangle is its ability to be divided innumerable times into a square and another golden rectangle, of which then can also be divided into a square and another golden rectangle, and so on. The Greeks were also the first to record that odd numbers were more visually pleasing than even numbers when grouped together. This rule is often used today in accessorizing spaces. Anna Rassadnikova/Shutterstock.com Figure 8-24 Proportion of the human body greatly impacts the design of a space. Why do people rarely notice proportion until something is out of proportion?