“Take any form you choose and repeat it at regular intervals, and, just as repetitive sounds produce rhythm or cadence, you have pattern. However, the use of pattern in design is no haphazard matter, but a disciplined activity in which the artist must impose a pleasing order and structure on the whole to achieve an aesthetically satisfying end product” – Lewis F. Day, Pattern Design

I happened upon a very old book about pattern design from 1903 with the quote above – and it really resonated with me. I figured, there’s nothing wrong with learning from the old masters in the art of pattern design. Perhaps I simply need some old fashioned education on the subject.

I’ve been thinking about how deliberate the art of pattern design really is. I mean, it’s not just pretty imagery. There’s the technical aspect of making something repeat, but there’s a whole art to creating something that repeats beautifully. It seems like a simple thing on first glance. But I’ve been struggling with creating the whole that is satisfying to my eye. Perhaps a bit of study with the book will help me out.

If nothing else, it’s pretty interesting to read such an old book, written in the English of the early 1900s. I’ve been introduced to the definition of pattern – that of repetition at regular intervals. But also to the pitfalls of odd gaps and barren spots that can make a technically repeating pattern, look wrong. I’m also diving into the basics of geometric grids… what to base your pattern designs upon. Instead of having an image and thinking… hey, let’s make this repeat! It’s very interesting to see how much deliberateness there is in designing a pattern. It’s not just slapping up pretty images.

I love that design is about making order out of chaos. It’s a beautiful process, sort of like magic!

Posted on April 12, 2012 at 9:43 am | pattern design | No comments

A little bit of practice today in creating a basic repeat. Trying to see if I can get variety using a basic repeat square. Of course, it seems like a futile attempt, since the point of patterns is to create the ever-repeating surface.

But I suppose it’s sort of a mind trick. When you have a central image, you don’t want it to just be tiled like a straight grid. Somehow, it’s not as interesting. One can start with a larger tile and repeat the same elements multiple times. As a viewer, you are trying to see if the same elements are repeating in an organized manner, but it’s a bit tricky on first glance. Not totally sure if I’m just playing around for no reason. Is one version more visually appealing than the other?

Posted on April 11, 2012 at 12:45 pm | basic repeat, pattern design | No comments

Oh how time flies and I’ve certainly been thinking about patterns… just not so successful in finalizing them. In my explorations, I’ve come to realize that I don’t have issues learning the digital process and the math that goes into figuring out how certain repeats work… we can all learn those technical aspects.

The real trick is the truly right-brain art… of why something seems to work and why another technically correct repeat just isn’t so interesting. Maybe it is partially thinking about what the final surface would be and how it will be used. There are so many other aspects to surface pattern design. I have been so focused on the technical aspect, I think I’ve missed the important stuff…

Also, being the stage of exploring… means a lot of random things are produced. It doesn’t always go together or make a whole. I’ve definitely come to realize there is a very non-learnable part about design, if that makes sense. Definitely pondering this…

Posted on April 5, 2012 at 12:33 pm | pattern design | No comments

Still have some things to work out and spacing issues, but thought I would share another randomish repeat pattern. I’ve gone from coffee to tea…

Having the items in all around directions really helps with the random look…plus repeating the items in different ways within the repeat tile really helps too. I can still see some problem areas since I didn’t work out my spacing… but happy to have learned a bit more while playing around. Fun fun!

Posted on November 26, 2011 at 12:03 am | pattern design, random pattern | 4 comments

After reading the comments from my last post about random patterns, I decided to do some rough tests and it totally makes sense! Thank you Claudine for your advice – you are amazing. I basically used two copies of every item in my tile, but randomly positioned them. So you can still find the repeat, but it definitely looks more random than previous tries… I suppose it’s all a mind trick!

Now if I used different illustrations and mixed it up more, things would probably look more random (if that’s what I was going for.) Very interesting how a little change can really alter the perception of a pattern design. I’ve also realized that I like the variation of scale in patterns – at least random design patterns – because it makes it look more filled-up and put together – as compared to purely geometric or one main focal item repeated… Hmm… more experimentations to come!

Posted on November 19, 2011 at 9:23 am | half-drop repeat, pattern design | 2 comments