HXRAMIC STUDIO 
As designers, let us open our eyes and minds widely to 
all that is beautiful in nature, and to the best things that 
have been done by decorative artists. 
Let us use our motif in whatever way will best express 
our taste, so long as that taste is guided and ruled by the 
broad principles which underlie all beauty in decoration. 
Whether we are at present in any danger of falling 
into a limited way of planning design for china is a question 
that each china-painter has to decide for himself; but when 
we look at the wonderful work of the old oriental designers 
we can all agree that there are many fine ways of composing 
designs for china. 
For, consciously or unconsciously, those old-time 
ceramists had a decorative feeling in the use of whatever 
motif came to hand; a feeling for proportion, for spacing, 
for subordinating interests, and for movement of line, — and 
these were the spirit of their work. 
And it is these principles which we propose to study in 
our articles, for through them alone we can reach the spirit 
of beautiful composition and design. 
You will see in the illustrations the difference between 
these two ways of beginning a design. To divide our space 
in a big frank way helps us to feel the whole proportion at 
the outset; and above everything design rests upon good 
proportion. 
When we work in this way we are compelled to think 
of proportion, and not of our motif, as the important factor 
in our design. 
Any given space can be divided into a well proportioned 
design in an infinite number of ways,— each person finds 
his individual way of doing it by following the broad first 
principles of composition, by practicing, and by growing, 
(as he is sure to do if he cares to,) in appreciation of beauty. 
We all want recipes for working, and often we would be 
more ready to work out, mathematically, the exact amounts 
of given tones to be used in a design than we should be to 
go out under a pine tree and note the beautiful dark pattern 
of its branches against the sky. 
Where do the best designers get their inspiration . 
Not from scientific recipes for dark-and-light patterns. 
LANDSCAPE BY DAUBIGNY 
FIRST PAPER 
Anyone can make a design of a sort, but to very few 
is it given to make a good design without considerable study 
and practice. 
In making simple designs children are often more suc- 
cessful than grown persons, because they work with frank 
space divisions and do not try to draw into their designs 
artificial and awkwardby planned shapes. 
Good design always means dividing space in a big way, 
by careful planning, so that every shape in the whole space 
may be a graceful and well-proportioned one; while weak 
and uninteresting design shows us certain shapes drawn 
into a space for the sake of what they represent, (a flower, 
a tree, or whatever it may be,) with no thought given to 
the shape of the spaces that are left. 
We cannot make designs by cutting pieces out of a 
given space in this fashion. The method will answer when 
one is cutting cookies out of dough, because the rest of the 
dough can be kneaded together to make more cookies. 
But our background spaces in design have to be left right 
where they are, and they form a prominent part of our 
design, so it behooves us to consider them carefully. 
When a Japanese art-dealer was asked whether the 
designers among his countrymen worked from given theo- 
ries he answered mockingly, "No, we make the designs, 
and let others make the theories." 
Broad principles the designers of every race and time cer- 
tainly have, and, consciously or unconsciously, always follow. 
These principles of design are what the present 
series of articles is intended to teach, .and there will be 
much insisting upon them, much harking back to them, 
with which you will have to be patient. 
Principles we must have, but in addition let us be sure 
that we can always recognize beauty; let us feel it and seek 
it, and it will surely find its way into the work of our hands. 
Do not conclude that because you do not care for 
modern "conventional" design you are opposed to all ab- 
stract ornament. There are plenty of rare and beautiful 
designs among the classics that every artist-nature delights 
in, cannot help liking. 
Copies of a few of these, some of which are given with 
this article, hung on the walls of his work-room, will im- 
prove a designer's work more surely than will months of 
theorizing. 
