DESIGN 63 



balance, the whole process of designing is toward 

 this end. The balance is either very regular and 

 striking — understood at a glance, as in a geomet- 

 rical figure — or it may be more a matter of grad- 

 ual appreciation, as in a Japanese print. 



These two types of balance, the obvious or sjth- 

 metrical, and the occult or unsymmetrical, are 

 illustrated respectively by the formal and in- 

 formal schools (Fig. 14), and the balances are 

 perceptible both in plan and elevation. Formal 

 arrangements are generally geometrical, simple 

 and s}^mnetrical, so far as the structural lines are 

 concerned, while the informal are more complex, 

 irregular, and seldom in the least symmetrical. 

 Formal arrangements are generally in pairs, — 

 that is, are bilaterally sjnmiietrical, — while no ex- 

 act similarity will appear in an informal one. 

 The general prinmess imposed by geometrical 

 figures is exactly in keeping with the spirit of a 

 formal garden, but is quite at variance with an in- 

 formal scheme, the chann of which lies often in a 

 sort of waywardness. 



It must be remembered that informal design 

 depends upon details and is generally seen in 

 parts ; it may consequently consist of a number of 

 more or less independent balances which should of 



