Set A Ratio
Fix one ratio; derive every measure from it; measure nothing by eye.
A4 folded in half is A5, in the same shape.
Seen in Le Corbusier, the Modulor, drawn from 1943, published 1948
Try it on your work
Choose a ratio, 2 to 3. Cut a rectangle on it, then cut nine more pieces, each side derived by that ratio from a side already cut. Stop at ten pieces.
Choose a ratio for a text: two short sentences to every long one. Write a paragraph that holds it exactly. Stop at the end of the paragraph.
A group sets one ratio for a meeting: one minute of speaking to two of silence, for every speaker. Stop at the end of the meeting.
How it has been used
Fix how one amount stands to another and let every measure follow from it: the page whose margins come from its own proportions, the plan in which every bay is a multiple of one module, the type sizes stepped by a single factor. The move forbids measuring by eye: every size must be derived from the ratio.
Where it leads
Grouped under Give me a useful restriction