ABSTRACT
This chapter debates the nature of the fundamental components of the visual arts and design, including points, lines, planes, shapes, structures and forms. The focus is mainly on the organisational geometry associated with regular patterns and other visual statements. The importance of colour palettes to the success of a collection of regular patterns is recognised, although it is stressed that this is not the primary focus of this book. Regular polygons are identified and illustrated and various constructions associated with these explained, including the so-called ‘golden-section’ rectangle, ‘root rectangles’, and other square-based constructions such as the ‘sacred-cut’ square. Compositional grids based on the subdivision of rectangles are introduced. A series of exercises (designed mainly for a student readership) is included.
