Thoughts on arrays

Product designers that use computer aided design often use arrays in their work. Arrays are simply a controlled arrangement of similar objects, for instance in a grid of rows and columns. We see arrays when we look at the grille of an automobile, or the perforations of a speaker cover, or the olympic rings.

The image below shows a simple array of circles that are governed by a straight line. From left to right the white line is divided into twenty equal segments and a circle is placed accordingly resulting in twenty identical circles that are centered on the line. So far so good.

The array below uses the same white line and once again places twenty circles on it, but this time the circles also transform along their journey, scaling using a parabolic algorithm.

 But what if we curve that white line a little? We get the result you see below.

If we keep curving the white line things really start to get interesting as the circles start to overlap. Cool!

The possibilities are endless and we have a good time working - well, more like playing - with arrays and transformations.

Now that you've seen how arrays and transformations work we're pretty sure you'll know what that white line is doing on the design we call Transformation One, which you can see in the Featured Collection below.