Is balance a natural phenomenon?

In nature, balance and symmetry can easily be found almost everywhere – in the wings of a butterfly, in a sunflower, and even in the face structures of people. It is a known fact that people have a natural tendency to be attracted to people who have symmetrically balanced looking faces. On a deeper level, symmetry in appearances represents genetic fitness. Similar to people’s tendency to recognize patterns with the gestalt theory, people are also naturally registered to not only recognize, but to favor symmetry in their surroundings. This could explain why the more physically attractive crowd are often more regularly unavailable in the dating pool, why physical birth defects are regularly looked down upon by society and why the figure on the left in the picture below is more appealing to the eye for no logical reason.

(Links to image source)

Like any other design concepts, the idea of symmetrical balance has had its highlighted moments in history, along with its low moments as well. Examples of symmetrical balance at its finest were often found in architecture from centuries ago. Although examples of unsymmetrical balance in architecture have also been applauded in history, the concept of symmetrical balance still holds a spot of favor in people’s normal perceptions of design thanks to human nature.

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.

Peace and a purple stain.

In Prague, Czech Republic, tucked away in a peaceful pocket of the historic district, Mala Strana, lies a peace wall.

(Personal photo)

Also known as the John Lennon Wall, the wonder consists of many layers of artistic graffiti that has collected on the wall over the past few decades. Amongst the plethora of The Beatles’-themed song lyrics, doodles and messages lies a white-painted peace sign with the word, “Imagine” scrawled out in the center. Despite the chaos surrounding the peace sign, the symbol serves as the wall’s focal point. This is achieved through emphasis by contrast – the cleanliness and whiteness of the peace sign contrasts strongly against its colored “background.” This dramatic change in color naturally draws attention to the contrasting focal point, which also brings attention to the overall meaning of the wall itself: peace.

Almost completely opposite of the appearance of the John Lennon Wall is a simplistic work by artist, Cy Twombly.

(Personal photo)

The work contains only two things: a passage by the ancient Greek poet, Sappho, and a smudge of purple. Twombly randomly scribbles out Sappho’s passage – “Like a hyacinth in the mountains trampled by shepherds until only a purple stain remains on the ground” – towards the bottom of the blank canvas. Despite the passage’s symbolic meaning of lost maidenhood, the purple stain located above the quote achieves its status as the work’s focal point through the emphasis of contrast and isolation. The smudge of purple stands out against the blank canvas by being the only source of color in the work, as it also stands out by being isolated to the point where one cannot help but be drawn in to focusing on the colored stain that sits off to the side of the passage. Even if people do not always consciously think of such aspects like the role that emphasis plays in how things are perceived, designers’ strategic use of focal points can easily – and unconsciously – encourage people to take a closer look at something that might otherwise seem quite ordinary.

The tricks our brains are capable of.

What is the difference between the two figures below?

(Links to picture sources)

The answer is simple – the first figure is that of a photo of a panda bear, while the second figure is that of a widely recognized logo of a panda bear. The question still remains though: how do the random pieces of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) logo come together to be easily perceived as the same thing as the realistic figure on the left? The gestalt theory of visual psychology is to thank for this one. “Gestalt,” which translates to “the unified whole,” is a term that derives from the field of psychology, as its name implies. According to the theory, people have the natural tendency to organize visual elements by arranging them into meaningful patterns. For example, in the WWF logo above, the figure itself is incomplete. However, with the Gestalt principle, closure, it is possible for the image to be perceived as a whole image by people’s ability to fill in the missing information to establish unity in the figure.

(Links to picture source)

Interestingly, the WWF logo has gone through a significant transformation over the years – initially appearing as a more complete and realistic-looking panda during the 1960s and 1970s, but morphing into its present-day, incomplete assortment of black and white parts during the 1980s. Although the logo has shifted into a state of less completeness, people are still able to recognize the logo as a whole by unifying these different parts to become the complete panda image.