relief
10 years ago No Comments

(pronounced ree-LEEF)

In our context, this word has nothing to do with antacids or that feeling you get when all of your mid-terms are over. In this case, a relief is an architectural term. It can used either to mean the projection of part of a surface above the background surface of some material, OR it can mean the object itself where this is occurring. Relief is traditionally associated with stone carvings on architecture and statues, but technology has made it so that now even wallcoverings and tiles (and a myriad of other materials) can have some sort of relief pattern in their design. The latter examples are commonly termed as bas-relief (pronounced BAH-ree-leef), or a low-level / shallow difference in surface depths because of the nature of the material and how it will be used. Something with high relief is more like sculpture in that the figures (or design pattern) project much further out from the background surface.
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