This document provides an introduction to a project on box construction and discusses several key concepts related to three-dimensional design including organization, balance, symmetry, asymmetry, harmony, and idealism. It outlines the homework assignment to brainstorm box structure designs, sketch ideas, and gather materials to construct a box. Students will provide work-in-progress and final critiques.

1. Project 1: Box Construction
Introduction to Box Structure Project
Volume and Mass Box Construction

2. Introduction
Organization
Portia Munson.
Top: Pink Project: Table. 1995. 2' 6” x 8’ x 14'.
Center: Pink Project: Vitrines. 1995. 5' 8” x 2' 8” x 1' 1⁄2".
Bottom: Pink Project: Mound. 2006 – ongoing. approx. 6’ x 12'.
Organization, the act of bringing separate
elements together to form a unit or a structure,
is a foundational component of the design
process.
Organization implies order, or at least an
ordering, but this is not to say that design must
be orderly.
Is one version of the pictured Pink Project better
than the others?

3. Balance
Actual and Implied
Balance, in the realm of three-dimensional
structure, has two faces:
•Actual balance is a phenomenon of
nature ruled by gravity, operating in real
space.
•Implied balance is a virtual or implied
condition involving one’s awareness of
actual gravity and balance, but remaining a
strictly visual experience that has more to
do with the organizational and aesthetic
factors of visual weight.
Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The Apparition. 1984.
Color photograph, 18 1⁄2“ x 14 1⁄2".

4. Symmetry
Correspondence Across A Divide
Symmetry occurs
when there is formal
correspondence on
opposite sides of an
object’s central
dividing line—in
simpler terms, when
left and right sides
are mirror images.
Bilateral symmetry
•humans and animals,
classical architecture,
automobiles.
•However, it is usually
only seen from one
perspective. When seen
from the side, most of
these objects are no
longer symmetrical.
Pierce-Arrow. Silver Arrow. 1933. Design concept Philip Wright, body
engineer James Hughes. Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.

5. Symmetry
Correspondence Across A Divide
Radial symmetry is based on symmetry around a central
axis. Trees, flowers, many circular patterns, and most
cylindrical configurations are radially symmetrical.
Spherical symmetry is the condition of having similar form
arranged regularly around a single point.
Ettore Sottsass. Transparent turquoise and yellow
vase
Alioth. 1983. For Memphis, executed by Compagnia
Vetraria Muranese.
Knotweed pollen. Microscopic view.

6. Asymmetry
Dynamic Form
Every balanced configuration
that is not symmetrical is asymmetrical
Asymmetry is off center, out of
whack, confrontational and dynamic.
Daniel Libeskind. Extension to the Denver Art Museum, Frederic C. Hamilton Building.

7. Harmony
Unity, Balance and Order
The following are some traditional definitions of
harmony:
• Unity; its elements form an integrated whole.
• Balanced proportion.
• A pleasing or orderly arrangement of parts.
Harmony has a diminished, but not non-existent,
role in contemporary art and design, partly because
of the numerous competing ideas and principles in
modern and contemporary design culture that are
increasingly useful and compelling.
Kay Fisker. Decanter. Silver (also octagonal tobacco jar). 1926.
Manufactured by Anton Michelsen

8. Harmony
Unity, Balance and Order
Plato believed that objects in the world were flawed reflections of forms that were
true and ideal, and these perfect forms could exist only in the mental realm of
ideas. Idealism within art and design, strives for a perfection that seeks deep,
essential form.
Bronze statuette of a horse. Greek,
Late Hellenistic, late 2nd–1st century
BC. Bronze, 1' 3 13⁄16" high.
Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Dieter Rams and Gerd Alfred Muller,
designers. Braun record player. 1957.

13. Homework
• Brainstorm the designs for box structure
• Sketch ideas in your sketchbook
• Bring materials: cardboard, measuring tape,
brown packaging tape or masking tape, glue
gun, glue sticks, box cutters.
• In progress critique, final critique