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A collectionof experiencesVery early on we discovered that modular andstandard dimensions offer benefits that areeconomical from both cost and meaning pointsof view. The use of standard and modular sizesof paper in the printing industry can achieveconsiderable savings. The standardization of papersizes in the project we did for the National ParkService economized million of dollars - somethingwe are proud of.Standardization related to the size of constructionmaterials can bring significant savings in any threedimensional project. Odd sizes imply more laborcosts and waste of materials.It is imperative that a designer becomes familiarwith all these aspects of design and the realizationprocess. It is part of our ethics as well as our designvocabulary. Costly solutions can never be a productof good design because economy is at the essenceof the design expression. Economy doesn’t meancheap design. Economy in design is the mostappropriate and lean solution to every problem.Contrived solutions are never good nor long lasting.Quality is not necessarily more expensive thancheap solutions. Good design doesn’t cost more thanbad design. The opposite is quite true, very often.In the course of a lifetime it’s been possible tocontinuously evaluate details covering the wholespectrum of materials from the diameter ofa pipe, to the texture and color of any material.This process of observation and selection hasgradually built up an inventory of choicesand feelings eventually leading to a personalcanon - which becomes a recurrent elementof our creative vocabulary.I think that this is quite an important aspect ofa modus operandi. There are some basic elements,such as size relationship between parts of a givenobject, that are governed very often by a modularrelationship ranging, for example, from single todouble, from one to three, or four or more, but notan odd size in between. Also, a disc within a discwill have a diameter half the size of the larger ora third of it but not an odd, casual size. And thatis because there is some universal harmony thatdemands those choices.This process of sifting and selecting extends toeverything around us - colors, textures, materials.It involves every detail, thickness, width, andheight. Every sense of our body gets involvedbut it must be processed, analyzed, evaluated,and finally filed in our memory according to ourpersonal canon, not in an arbitrary way. Freedomof choice can only happen with knowledge andthat is an ongoing process that requires structureand determination, not happenstance.94