How to walk from San Francisco to New York City in 30 seconds.

The related design concepts of scale and proportion can play a key part in how people perceive an object. People rely on proportion as a comparison tool to measure one object to another – often using the human scale reference. In other words, the scale of an object is often is matched up to human size. When the scale/size of an object does not fall in line with the norms of proportions, the unusual mismatch brings emphasis to the object(s).

The role of scale and proportion may seem miniscule in everyday life, but people actually tend to gravitate in awe towards such unusual disparities in scale and proportion. Take, for example, Legoland. Inside the depths of the theme park lies a prime example of unusual scale and proportion – Miniland!

(Pictures from Legoland.com)

Miniland is an astounding creation of LEGO pieces meshed together to form seven different cities in the United States. The different regions were built using a 1:20 ratio – thus creating miniature versions of American hotspots like New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. However, there is a catch when it comes to displaying these miniature LEGO-cities. In order to see the vast contrast in scale, a universally recognizable object must be placed within range. In this case, humans are shown standing next to the miniature cities to portray the key effect that scale and proportion can play in the perception of objects. Otherwise, by simply seeing a photo of just these miniature LEGO cities, people will be unable to realize how small in scale they actually are.