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 sym- 

 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 symmetrical, so far as the structural lines are 

 concerned, while the informal are more complex, 

 irregular, and seldom in the least sjonmetrical. 

 Formal arrangements are generally in pairs, — 

 that is, are bilaterally symmetrical, — ^while no ex- 

 act similarity will appear in an informal one. 

 The general primness 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 charm 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 



