Three-dimensional design à la Wucius Wong: Serial Planes in repetition and gradation

Dordt College—Three-Dimensional Design Foundations
2014 © Wade D. Vollink
Serial Planes
16" w x 13" h x 7" d
photographs by versluis

This semester at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa a new course in three-dimensional design is being offered. In this student design project, titled Serial Planes, as Wucius Wong states, “Volume is represented by a series of planes, each plane is a cross-section of the volume. Thus, to construct a volumetric form, we can think in terms of its cross-sections, or how the form can be sliced up at regular intervals, which will result in serial planes.” (1)

The serial planes in the design above rely on the effective use of gradation of shape for impact. The positive curvilinear forms are contrasted with the negative circular shapes that move diagonally from larger to smaller and vice versa. The broad curves resonate and enhance the circular shapes.


It’s interesting when the same design is repositioned to a vertical elevation—the effect of the new perspective becomes very architectural.

1. Wong, Wucius. Principles of Form and Design. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1993. 247. Print.