Vocabulary

Accent lighting

1. a type of lighting that creates an emphasis or focus used to highlight a painting, object d’art, or sculpture; also called key lighting

Ambient lighting

2. diffuse, uniform illumination that provides for safe movement; also called engineered or laminated flooring

Applied pattern

3. a pattern that is achieved by applying the design to surface, as when printing a fabric

Artificial light

4. a type of lighting that includes incandescent, fluorescent, neon, high-intensity discharge, and LED(light-emitting diode).

Asymmetrical balance

5. the achievement of equilibrium through equal visual weight of nonidentical elements around an axis, resulting in a composition that is flexible, dynamic, and informal

Axis

6. the centerline of an arrangement or design.

Chroma

7. the purity, saturation, or intensity of hue; adding gray to a hue lowers its chroma

Element

8. Any of the six singular components that serve as the building blocks of a design composition: line, pattern, texture, light, scale, and color.

Electric light

9. A type of lightning that includes incandescent, fluorescent, neon, high-intensity discharge, and LED (light-emitting diode). Also called artificial light.

Form

10. The basic line, shape, and configuration of an object that serve to distinguish one object from another.

Geometric shape

11. A category of shape, whether or curvilinear, that is regular (e.g., square, rectangle, triangle, or circle). With knowledge of one dimension, a mathematical formula can be used to calculate other dimensions.

Golden Section (or

Golden Mean)

12. The use of glass as a construction material or the process of fitting glass into frames as a construction method.

Hue

13. The family of a color or the way in which one color (e.g., red) is distinguished from another (e.g., yellow); often used interchangeably with the word color.

Human scale

14. A recognizable, constant range of expected human size, used in comparison with an object or a structure.

Line

15. A one-dimensional unit, either straight or curvilinear, that gives dimension to space and is created by connecting two points.

Mass

16. The spatial dimensions of a three-dimensional form; the property that gives it weight.

Natural light

17. A type of colored light that includes daylight, flame, candle, and skylight.

Organic shape

18. A shape that is based on nature and living objects, whether in the animal (and human) or plant kingdom. It includes amorphous or amorphic (i.e., without a definitive shape), biomorphic or zoomorphic (i.e., representing human or animal components), and botanical shapes (i.e., representing the plant world, including vines, leaves, flowers, and fruits).

Ornament

19. Visual detail that is purely decorative, not functional.

Pattern

20. The repetition of a specific shape, theme, or figure that is discernible as a distinct entity; it may be either applied or structural.

Plane

21. In the contract documents package, any several types of drawings depicting proposed layouts on particular plane (e.g., the floor of celling).

Primaries of color

22. The three primary color pigments that, when mixed together, produce black: red, yellow, and blue.

Primaries of light

23. The three colors of light that, when combined, produce white light: red, green, and blue.

Principles of design

Radial balance

25. An equilibrium that relies on center point, which serves as the axis around which elements of equal visual weight are arranged. Although less commonly employed than either symmetrical or asymmetrical balance, it is often used for ceremonial spaces such as churches.

Scale

26. A proportion between two sets of dimensions; also, a comparison of the relative size of two or more objects.

Shade

27. A lower value of a hue created by adding black, developing a darker version.

Shape

28. A two dimensional unit, such as a square, created as line shifts direction, developing both length and width.

Solid

29. A structure that is formed by the addition of the third dimension, depth or volume, to a two-dimensional object.

Structural pattern

30. A pattern that is achieved by arranging the elements of a structure or its surface, as when weaving a fabric or arranging rectangular shapes of bricks.

Symmetrical balance

31. A formal, static, and traditional type of balance achieved with identical elements situated on either side if an axis.

Tactile

32. The sensory experience of touch, which receives perceptions of pressure or traction, usually through the skin.

Task lighting

33. A type of lightning that illuminates certain areas of a space to facilitate specific activities, such as reading; also called local lightning.

Texture

34. The features of a surface, comprising both its construction and its finish.

Tint

35. A variation of a hue created when white is added, thus heightening the value, creating a lighter version.

Tone

36. A muted version (lower chroma) of a hue, created by adding gray or a hue’s complement.

Trompe l'oeil

37. An artistic technique that tricks the eye so that the viewer imagines a two-dimensional plane as having three-dimensionality rather than being flat; a decorative painting technique that simulates a material such as marble or details so realistic that they do not appear to be painted.

Value

38. The degree of lightness or darkness of a color.

Visible spectrum

39. The spectrum of light that humans are able to see (from red to violet).

Visual weight

40. The visual emphasis given toa component as part of an arrangement in a composition. It may be influenced by size, shape, texture, color, complexity, and position.