Core77

Balance, symmetry, and proportion are things all product designers are supposed to have a good grasp of. And while you've probably heard of the Golden Rectangle, are you familiar with the Hambridge Solution (pictured above)?

Like the Fibonacci Series, this technique is often used to develop things like the size of individual drawers in a bank of drawers by relating them to one another. In the Hambridge Solution, different elements of a design are related to each other by the square root of 2.

This is best shown in a graphical example. In the picture, you can see a series of rectangles that represent a set of shelves or a bank of drawers. By drawing a diagonal and then swinging an arc from one rectangle, then next appropriately sized rectangle can be constructed. The only caveat here is that the first rectangle must be higher than it is wide (even if you later cut a portion of it off – to create a Golden Rectangle, of course!).

The above is taken from woodworker Mark Mazzo's "Three Pillars of Design: Part 3 - Proportion", whereby he explains proportion to the layperson. (The other two parts of his essay, "Part 2 - Construction" and "
Part 1 - Function" are interesting as well, but primarily to the woodworker.)

via the craftsman's path - a chronicle of woodworking and furniture design