Earlywood: On Symmetry and Screwing Up

Publisher’s note: Good morning! Welcome to Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2012. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!

In the world of design, you read a lot about the acceptance or rejection of symmetry.

Wait, wait. Don’t go away. This blog entry, by the way, has to do with Audrey Hepburn’s gorgeous face.

You can reject symmetry in design based on the fact that human beings are decidedly not symmetrical. A perfectly symmetrical face looks odd – Ms. Hepburn’s face is not symmetrical. Your face is most likely asymmetrical – and your momma loved you just fine.

But what about math and its tricky friend, geometry? We can find beauty in a perfect circle, square or geometrical proof. A balanced quadratic equation is, I must say, an awesome design tool.

In fact, I don’t think you can say th…