Design Principles in Nature

In design, we’re taught to abide by a system of rules to ensure the quality of our creations. Analogous, complimentary, triadic for colors; skeuomorphic and flat design; contrast and balance; and so on.

But you can’t ignore the fact that nature — along with the scenery of architecture and cityscapes — is pieced together into scenes that defy every design rule ever taught. No balance! And more often than not, nature looks pretty stunning.

How does nature get away with this? Inversely, what value are these rules if nature can get away with this?

I don’t have an answer, but rather a couple of theories to explain this distinction.

The simplest explanation is viewing mode. It’s possible that we look at scenes differently than we do other, more specific designs, and our expectations and requirements adjust accordingly.

A second explanation requires us to distinguish between the color and form of the scenes.

For color, this comes down to lighting: Light cast upon objects normalizes the color of these objects, so as to bring them into a more harmonious hue. For painters, this is a small hack of laying a thin layer of paint veneer to cast a harmonious light on all objects in the painting. This effect can also be seen when comparing photos taken from different lighting sources. Viewed next to each other, one of the standout differences is the source of lighting between the two.

For form, the key lies in human vision: The focal radius of the human eye is extremely tiny. This effect becomes clear when we compare our enjoyment of photos with our enjoyment of immediate scenes. With photos, we can focus on many of the objects at once. With live scenes, our depth is restricted to focusing on the form directly in front of us (a very small area!), with everything else becoming a patchy blur in our periphery.

Interestingly, neither of these explanations rely completely on the design of scenery itself — just the perception of it. For more on that, I’d suggest reading Ways of Seeing by John Berger.