Interior Design: Harmony of Shapes and Sizes

We are often asked what sizes and shapes to recommend. Paintings come in all sorts of sizes and shapes. The mind of an artist knows no bound, and it is not going to be restricted by the limits of a canvas. Therefore, we end up with sizes that are all over the place. Something had to be done to commercialize this irregularity though.

    The paper industry has put forward standard sizes, which are divided between the US sizes and the ISO standard sizes. Either standardized ratio is based on the Golden Ratio. This standardization has facilitated the growth of the printing industry and the framing businesses. Now, we no longer must wait for a painter to finish their work to know what size it will be.

    The art process now must start with the selection of the canvas size. Most artists will argue that this is necessary; while a select few will disagree, insisting that creativity should not be limited. We try to cater for the select few in our Oversized Art Collection.

    It has to be appreciated that the standard sizes, US and ISO, even based on the Golden Ratio, have their own intrinsic variations, introduced by the Deutsche Industrie Normen. The modification to how the Golden Ratio applies to paper sizing was based on minimizing the loss of paper in the cutting process.

   The harmony of the shapes and sizes of the canvas, and commercially available paper, is on how they keep their ratio when folded and cut in half. This is particularly evident in the ISO A sizes as shown below:

The above paper ratio differs from the original Golden Ratio of 1.618. Unless this was mathematically modified, we would not have come to the above harmonization of sizes.

    This harmony in shapes and sizes fit perfectly into a décor because it balances with the principles of design. Interior design considers this harmony, making wall art its prominent feature.