Formulation of form

In today's world every business is globalised and consumer products are seeking a universal identity. It is hard to satisfy all the consumers with one product. Imagine any product in the world today, you will find thousand different versions of it. Is it really required for a product presented with so many identities?

Some of the revolutionary designs in the history are given by industrial designers who were scholars of architecture. They were skilled in translating culture, religion and technology into spaces and forms. All these architects were following some guidelines so as to achieve design faster. All these handrules were inferences of various research.

Step towards mathematics

Development of geometry and proportion system were steps taken towards translating design into mathematical expression. Designers have adopted proportion system so as to simplify the design process.

It is important to know the proportion system and their existence as well as their relationships with design and aesthetics. Some of the proportion system

Renaissance proportion systems
Shows relationship between man (as created by god) & divine proportions and man and buildings.

Alberti (1404- 1472)
An Italian painter, architect and musician produced the first major writing on proportions of architecture in 'De re aedificatoria' published in 1485. His main emphasis was on pythagoras theorem.

It is important to see how musicians developed their theories in the same period. According to them musical harmony is :

• The number by means of which agreement of sound affects our ears with delight, are same which pleases our eyes and minds.
• To them these numbers are extremely well known and are from those particular things where in nature shows herself as most excellent and complete.

Filius Bonacci( 14th century)
Fibonacci or f (phi) series- in this series he gave value of f as 1.618 and the series is 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21........
which is additive as F(i)=F(i)+F(i-1) , F(1)=1; and the ratio limit as i-> infinity of F(i+1)/F(i) is constant as 1.618 this theory is one of the most accepted theory of proportion system.

Hambridge
Found that the Greek proportion system was based on pure geometry and the Greek vessels are based on the 5 and f series ratio.

Le Corbusier's
'Le Modular' is an example of the aesthetic or proportional approach to modular coordination. It uses two seqences of dimensions, which are arranged so that, in each series, each term is the sum of two previous terms while at the same time, each term is larger than its predecessor by a constant ratio rather than a fixed dimension 1:1.618 ( the so called golden mean). It is same as Fibonacci series. The blue series is twice the red series.

Le Corbusier tried to make a case for the use of these two series on anthropometric grounds, but there is no proof that these series alone are capable of guiding dimensions for human relationships in building.

Red Series	Blue Series
1"	2"
1.5"	3"
2.5"	5"
4"	8"
6.5"	13"
10.5"	21"
17"	34"
27.5"	55"
44.5"	89"
72"	144"
116.5"	233"

Can there be a generalized formal approach to design for different communities?

Consumer products are seeking a universal identity as it helps manufacturers to invest less from his resources thus provide the products to the consumers at less price. With a formal approach we can give a different identities to a product so as to satisfy the consumers.

There is a need to find some approach for designers so that he can design for any community world over.

The design process exercised by the designers all over the world is same and they differ only at the form development stage. The process as followed is:

1. Define the functional requirement of the product from a thorough market and user (consumer) survey, define the need and importance of the product.
2. Define the user group: the consumers, their demographic, cultural and socio economic characteristics namely ergonomic aspects of the product and product semiotics, their design beliefs and awareness.
3. Finding solutions and choosing the best out of them: with proper analysis in that particular area:
   • try to find the different existing solutions and use them to the maximum effectiveness.
   • Go for research and with technical competence try to find the best possible solution.
4. Resolve each and every component dimensionally after finding the solution to the problem, separate each component and form element blocks according to their specified functions as well as their position in network flow.
5. Arrange the element blocks in various possible ways and choose the best composition: based on
   • functions of individual elements
   • the network flow without any confliction points
   • material characteristics- its strengths and weaknesses.
6. Choose the right metaphor for the right market. It depends on:
7. Designer's knowledge and understanding of the psychology of people.
8. Designer's personal choices, interests and idiosyncrasies.
9. From idea to physical form: at this stage all the designers deviate from one another. The factors affecting the form of product and designer are shown in the model.
   
10. Standardize the elements: standardizing elements of design helps in reduction of the complexity of product in its visual appearance and manufacturing process.

Note: The last three processes plays a very important role in formulation of form.

Geographical categorization of form

You can predict the domain of the product by studying its form since every designer is bound by experience on his/her land. We can divide the design world on the formal basis, predominantly into

American	follows bold form, Pop, organic influenced by Europian design
European	based on Bauhaus philosophy
Finnish	based on regional crafts, materials and process
Danish	based on regional crafts, materials and process
Italian	Pop, Novelty in material usage
Eastern Asia (Oriental)	Based on Floral patterns, Organic forms.
South Asian or Indian subcontinent	Adaptive design of the products from any part of the world.

All these classification is based on the influence on architecture and industrial design.

Mathematical Analog to Form

What do you consider a good form? this is a personalized opinion but the visual appeal can be counted for a good form. Form is a composition of geometrical patterns which can be defined easily in coordinate geometry. Man has perfected the geometrical forms that's why we always try to find perfection in the wholeness in any pattern. In order to achieve the best possible composition, we always consider balance, rhythm, harmony, symmetry, noise, tension and so on. All these fundamental criteria for composition can be translated into numerical formulae.

Visual theory	Numerical translation
Composition	addition, subtraction, division and multiplication of mass
Balance	weight- Centre of mass, area mass- theory of proportions, polygons volume- theory of proportions, polygons
Rhythm	Chordent and discordant number set.
Harmony	Arrangement of numbers
Curves	Organic-proportionate relativity of organic parts of living beings Geometrical- coordinate geometry, vectors etc. Oriental-cell development configurations like multiple, bilateral etc.
Tension of curve	making it a part of circle
Symmetry	equality, similarity
Noise	Theory of chaos
Dynamics	the force configurations, Random number theory
Colour	interaction proportionate variables of luminosity.

Scientists and researchers the world over have done research trying to find out relationships between humans and the natural elements of the ecosystem. The outcomes of such research can help in finding the relationship between nature and design philosophies. Taking examples of

1. Organic forms and human anatomy
   • there is a constant proportional relationship between each organ of the body.
   • there is specified form for each organ.
   • the curves of the body organs can be found if the dimensions are provided.
2. Ergonomics help in fixing up the dimensions and invariably proportions of any product. Anthropometrical data are definite information in numerical values.
3. Streamlining numerical formulae of aerodynamics helps in finding out the best possible form.

Likewise all this information can be translated in formula/ set of formulae for the numerical patterns of the form like a series of numbers in a formula. In both the systems each component is related in certain respect with another. If we can find these linkages than we can find the reasons which affects the pattern growth. Taking current example of modelling and graphical software, which is a step towards digitizing the form this has been achieved to some extent.

The digitized form

There is a sudden upsurge in design software industries related with industrial design as well as graphics. The main aim is provide designers a right tool for design (we shouldn't forget that these softwares are actually translating a physical form into digital analogs i.e. changing design into figurative or numerical configurations).

Numeric language is used in writing a program of these software. Invariably in the process of giving a faithful and precise design these people are using a predetermined process. Now you can find softwares on the shelf like: 3D-Studio, Pro Engineer, Virtual Engineer, AutoCAD, Alias Auto studio, Alias sketch, Extreme 3D, Light scape, IRIS Explorer, COSMO 3D, Omniview 2D- 3D- 4D, CLARUS, Soft Image, PIXAR Renderman and many more which creats a virtual image of a product.

Limitation of digitization

Mathematics is based on relativity principle so it is impossible to define absolute entity without taking the help of scale. In the whole system of providing a shortcut to design we shouldn't forget that there would be loss of human touch and design by accidents.

There is loss in sense of scale, space and invariably perception. The process of representation dominates the mind in the creative phase. The problem of repetitiveness might limit designers as the tools and process are same. Now computer ( numeric computing machine) is considered to be the best tool available for designing.

In this fast changing world we need faster changes in design and probably the numeric way could help us in achieving that pace.

Bibliography