Yesterday, Dave & I took a drive from Fredericksburg to Lexington, Va. It was a beautiful day for that scenic drive. On the way back, near sunset, we stopped at one of the established “scenic overlooks” along I-64 near Afton Mountain, outside of Charlottesville. Here we found the VDOT Workers’ Memorial.

This monument, built solely with donations, serves to honor state highway transportation workers who died performing their jobs, many in work-zone accidents. The design of this memorial is an uncomplicated and dignified. Carved in black, white, and gray granite, it depicts three profiles or silhouettes of workers, symbolizing the diversity of the VDOT workforce. A simple, minimalist design, chosen from 41 entries, was submitted by Fredericksburg District Location and Design Engineer Harry Lee and his daughter, Stephanie, a studio arts senior at Mary Washington College at the time. Standing against the majestic scenery of the mountains and valley below, and beautifully landscaped with colorful flowers, this commemorative shrine is a perfect example of the power of minimalist design.

Dominance simply sounds like a controlling, authoritative word. In design, it holds the same meaning. Creating dominance in design makes creative use of size, color, density, value, and white space to create the effect of one object being larger than others, hogging the space, begging for attention.

In this image of a building on Princess Anne Street in downtown Fredericksburg, the building and, more specifically the windows in the building, use size and perspective to create the effect of dominance. The building is ruling the lamppost! The post is actually in the foreground. I was standing on the street corner, looking up with the lamppost only an arm’s-length away from me. Perhaps a change of angle to emphasize the lamppost would turn the tables on that building then the lamppost could dominate the building!