INDUSTRIAL ART 



2975 



INDUSTRIAL ART 



tiply and divide by playing store and by 

 handling money that for all the purposes of 

 the school store is real. 



Ideas about learning to draw and to paint 

 are also changing. We have long spoken of 

 such lessons as art, because for many years 

 people have thought that art meant only the 

 drawing and painting of pictures, or the mod- 

 eling of statuary and other beautiful forms. 

 But now we are learning that art, instead of 

 being limited to pictures and sculpture, has a 

 great deal to do with everything that is made 

 by man. We are hearing about artistic homes, 

 artistic clothes, artistic bridges, artistic public 

 buildings and artistic factories and railroad 

 stations. In buying certain fabrics or cloths to 

 be made up into gowns, or to be used as cur- 

 tains or hangings in a house, we find that those 

 materials which are styled artistic command a 

 higher price, and certain nations in the world 

 control the markets for dress goods, carpets, 

 rugs, china and glassware, metal ware, watches, 

 jewelry, and a host of other things, because 

 their manufactured products are more artistic. 

 We have come to speak of the kind of art 

 that is expressed in things, rather than in pic- 

 tures and statuary, as industrial art, because it 

 is art expressed through the medium of indus- 

 try and manufacture. 



Everybody should know a good deal about 

 industrial art, for this is a great industrial 

 continent, and it is of the highest importance 

 that the things which are made here shall be 

 as worthy and as beautiful as the things which 

 are made across the ocean. Not everyone is 

 born with the genius to paint great pictures, 

 or with the talent to draw cleverly, but every- 

 one can learn that kind of art that is ex- 

 pressed in useful things, and this has to do 

 with our selections of dress, of house furnish- 

 ings, and our good taste in general. So what 

 we used to study under the topic of drawing 

 is now modified and changed in our schools 

 to meet the demands of industrial art. 



We find that it is still necessary for us to 

 know much about form and color. We must 

 still learn to draw objects, and to understand 

 the laws of perspective. But in addition to 

 this, we must go deeper into the study of 

 design, which is the foundation of industrial 

 art, and which is governed by principles which 

 can be learned as easily as the principles of 

 grammar. Indeed, design is something like 

 grammar. You know that there are rules 

 which govern the use of English, and every- 

 one who pretends to be educated at all should 



know why it is not correct to say "He has 

 went" or, "Between you and I." People often 

 use good English without knowing much about 

 grammar, but acquaintance with the rules of 

 correct speech never injures the naturally good 

 habit of talking and writing, and frequently we 

 need to know why a certain expression is in- 

 correct. It is so with the rules of design. 

 Some people are born with a fine sense of color 

 or proportion, or a general sense of order and 

 fitness. We say that such people have good 

 taste. But there are many people who need 

 to have their tastes cultivated, and the study 

 of design is the very best way to develop good 

 taste in all matters that relate to the use of 

 colors, forms and shapes. 



Design is arrangement. Arrangement of any 

 kind is always the result of thought. In plac- 

 ing the furniture in a room we must follow 

 some plan. We cannot put the chairs and 

 tables and bookcases and pictures around in a 

 haphazard fashion. We must place each arti- 

 cle where it will be convenient for use, and 

 where it will look w r ell. This thoughtful plan- 

 ning is design. We cannot permit every prop- 

 erty owner in a town to place his house or his 

 sidewalk where pleasure suggests, without re- 

 gard to his neighbor or to the appearance of 

 the street. He must locate his house and his 

 sidewalk in observance of the rules and 

 restrictions which have been laid down in 

 planning the street or the town. Our most 

 beautiful cities are those which have been 

 thoughtfully planned by good architects and 

 landscape designers, who think a project 

 through from beginning to end, and who do 

 not place a single house or tree without regard 

 to other buildings and other plantings that 

 will be done at a later time. 



The problems that follow are planned to 

 make clear the meaning of design in its relation 

 to things of everyday use. In working out 

 these problems we shall employ the simplest 

 of materials, and we shall help you to make 

 a number of useful and beautiful articles, as 

 proof that you are learning to understand the 

 laws that govern design and to use intelli- 

 gently the beautiful harmonies of color. 



Problem 1; The Making of a Booklet. Let 

 us take for our first problem the designing, 

 making and decorating of a blank book, in 

 which may be kept pressed leaves of trees, 

 drawings or pictures of birds or flowers, or 

 even a collection of plant leaves. 



The first thing to be selected is a suitable 

 paper for the cover. It must be tough in qual- 



