Wrought Iron, Built up 151 156 Spun Metal 152 157 VASE FORMS Primitive Pottery 1 (Plate) Greek Pottery 25 34 Greek Pottery, Painted Details 19 29 Effect of Perspective 220 245 Segments of Contoured Surfaces 226 251 Segments of Contoured Surfaces 227 252 Stretch-out of the Cylinder 224 249 Stretch-out of the Cone 225 250 Types of Vase Decoration 223 248 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY It is an article of faith that to design entails the possession of the creative faculty, which may be taken for granted with the proviso, that the creative faculty is concerned rather with the association of elements common to all than with invention pure and simple. _Human Limitations_ To be more explicit, the human imagination is limited to personal or acquired experience. At no period has any form been created that is not traceable to some process of production, or natural suggestion; for instance, the artistic conception of an angel is merely a combination of human and bird form, and is in no sense an original creation. The term originality is indeed generally misunderstood, and for the reasons already advanced it is impossible to be original. The real interest in artistic production of any kind is the expression of personality, in other words, the individual point of view of the artist; which is more or less interesting, as it is more or less personal in idea and expression. In the training of the designer it is essential that the imagination be carefully cultivated and trained to accept suggestion from any possible source. Design is distinct from any phase of realistic expression inasmuch as the subject does not exist in any concrete form, but has to be mentally visualised. “_Inspiration_” Too much importance is attached to what is believed to be inspiration, but obviously if inspired, design is rather in the nature of an accident than of the deliberate intention it should be and cannot be credited to the individual exponent. What at first sight suggests inspired thought may be accounted for by sub-consciousness, which is really responsible for the evolution of an idea or the solution of some problem. It would be beneficial to reject once and for all the idea of inspiration with its tendency to encourage the “artistic temperament” in the belief that it “does not feel like it.” The designer must be ready to respond at any time, and this implies a logical and balanced mind, capable of grasping essentials, and conditions, and of evolving some desirable solution.