Right, Ladies and Gentleman. I am about to embark on a symmetry blogging journey. Why you ask? Well, let me tell you. Firstly it always good to share knowledge and without numerous blogs I would not have half the skills I have today. Secondly it will help me get a better understanding of this aspect I generally took for granted in design. It is very easy to read and research, but think back to school and college (assuming your not still there), to help knowledge and understanding really stick in your head, you have to put the theory into practise.

I recently discovered a book called ‘Symmetry, The Ordering Principle‘ by David Wade and so whilst I work through each chapter I am going to take that knowledge in to Illustrator, design something, then post the design and the things I learned here for others to read. So lets hope I understand it correctly, if you find mistakes please feel free to email me or comment so that I can correct my mistakes and improve my learning and in-turn others.

Simple Symmetry

The first two keywords of symmetry are Congruence and Periodicity. Congruence according to wikipedia is ‘the regular disposition of elements and Periodicity meaning ‘occuring at regular intervals’. Pretty much most symmetry needs these and without them you lose the symmetry.

Below is my base image that I am going to make into a symmetrical design. You recognise it as half of a bad guys space fighter from a popular sci-fi film.

If I add duplicates of the image with Congruence and Periodicity as guidelines you can get the most basic of symmetry with a repeating image as shown below.

If a duplicate is added say at different sizes, angles and spacing, then it is known as’ similar’, you can see an exampe below. This is not symmetry, but needs to be understood as part of the theory.

Reflection

Reflection is the nice easy bit of symmetry, for most people including myself, it is often the most obvious symmetry. The mirror opposite of the original image, again using Congruence as the basis for the layout. Below is the Reflection of my half tie-fighter, giving the impression of a more complete image. Much more useful for fighting the rebel scum in the depths of space.

Array

The word Array pops up all over the place in web development and for the design aspect it makes much more sense to me as I can see it visually. It is simply a repeating element, add Congruence,  Periodicity and reflection to get some awesome contemporary results. I have used it below to give a repeating design of the tie-fighter.

It changes the tie-fighter image into some sort of chain effect, see how the white curves stand out bringing something more to the image as a whole.  Arrays are evident all around us, brick walls, bee hives, wooden flooring and feathered wings for example. It allows a stable structure to be build and achieve a purpose.

I have brought all the elements I have mentioned here together to achieve a whole design and would not look too bad as a poster or t-shirt design, I call it the Imperial Symmetry.

I hope you found this useful, I know I have and the thing I have learned is that the gaps are as important as the elements. My next piece of homework is to continue with Reflection with the addition of  Rotations.

Till then