Form vs. Texture

After our class completed the creative caffeine exercise that Jan gave us on texture, she posed the question, "what is the difference between form and texture?" I went back and looked at some of the photos I put up on my flickr site for the exercise and realized that towards the end of my group of photos, I started adding in ones that were really more of form rather than texture. So I started thinking about these two elements of design and tried to distinguish between the two.

From my research, a good design is an expression of its material and fulfills its purpose. Design is implicit in nature, as well as a man-made expression. There is great variety in nature, and also in design – variety in texture and form.

Form is involved with mass and volume, but it goes further to also include size and shape. Form is the three-dimensional quality (depth) that makes objects distinguishable from one another and from their background.

Texture refers to the external surface of objects – both the tactile quality and the visual quality. The tactile quality can be felt by the fingers and usually comes from the nature of the material used. The visual quality of texture can be created by patterns, light, and color. Weathering is a great creator of both tactile and visual texture in nature. Sometimes visual textures created by the elements remain even after tactile textures have disappeared under the polishing of wind or water.