Pattern Design

by Lewis F. Day

Overview

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 artists must impose a pleasing order and structure on the whole to achieve an aesthetically satisfying end product.
This classic guide, revised and expanded by Amor Fenn three decades after its publication, teaches artists to do just that. Surveying a multitude of applications, from architectural detail to decorative textile printing and typographic patterns, Day provides insight into the geometric foundations of all repeating patterns, and treats in a practical way the anatomy, planning, and evolution of repeated ornament. He demonstrates the extent to which pattern is the essence of the ornamental arts, and offers a wealth of technical information for the student and designer.
Generously illustrated with more than 270 designs ranging from old Japanese, Persian, and Arabian patterns to early 20th-century motifs, Pattern Design will stimulate the imaginations and advance the skills of novices and experts alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486407098
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	06/24/1999
Series:	Dover Art Instruction
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
I. WHAT PATTERN IS
Pattern not understood
The meaning of the word
"Comes of repetition, and is closely connected with manufacture"
Has always a geometric basis
Use and necessity of system in design
"Lines inevitable, and must not be left to chance"
II. THE SQUARE
Geometry the basis of all pattern
Breaks in the simple stripe give cross-lines
"Hence the lattice and the chequer, on which a vast variety of pattern is built"
III. THE TRIANGLE
The square lattice crossed by diagonal lines gives the triangle
Hence the diamond
"And out of that the hexagon, the star, and other geometric units familiar in Arab diaper"
IV. THE OCTAGON
Four series of lines give the octagon
"Not the unit of a complete pattern, but the basis of some radiating patterns"
"More complicated cross-lines, giving sixteen and eighteen sided figures, result in more elaborate pattern, but involve no new principle "
Pentagon pattern really built on simple trellis lines
V. THE CIRCLE
The circle gives no new plan but only curvilinear versions of the foregoing
The wave a rounded zig-zag
The honeycomb compressed circles
"Segments of circles give scale pattern, a curvilinear variation upon diamond"
The ogee
The circle itself a scaffolding for design
VI. THE EVOLUTION OF PATTERN
Various starting points for the same pattern
Six ways in which it might have been evolved
The construction of sundry geometric diapers
Influence of material upon design
Some complex lattices
VII. BORDERS
What a border is
"Includes frieze, pilster, frame, &c."
Simplicity
Short interval of repeat
Flowing and broken borders
Mere lines
"Stop" borders"
Frets
Evolute
Zig-zag
Chevron
Undulate
Guilloche
Interlacing
Chain
Strap
Branching lines
Spiral scroll
Counterchange
Intermittent borders
Block border
Panel border
The S scroll
Natural growth
Enclosed borders
"Fringes, &c."
Strong and weak side of border
Direction of border
Corners and their influence upon design
Circular and concentric borders
VIII. PRACTICAL PATTERN PLANNING
Possible and practicable lines of pattern construction
Lines often fixed for the designer
Conditions of production affect plan
"Triangular plan, oriental"
"Rectangular plan, western"
Relation of one plan to the other
Of triangular and octagonal repeat to rectangular
Possibilities of the diamond
Design regulated by proportions of repeat
IX. THE TURNOVER
A weaver's device
Doubles width of pattern
Exact turnover not desirable where conditions do not make it necessary
Balance must be preserved
Use of doubling over in border design
Suited to stenciling and pouncing
X. "THE "DROP" REPEAT"
Scope given by drop repeat
Designed on diamond lines
And on the square
Geometrically same result
Practically different patterns
Opportunity of carrying pattern beyond width of stuff
Brick or masonry plan
Octagonal plan
Step pattern
False drop
XI. SMALLER REPEATS
Width of repeat divisible into width of material
Repeat two-thirds or two-fifths of width of material
Full width repeat seeming smaller
Variety in apparent uniformity
Weavers' ways of doing it
Same principle applied to larger design
Method and haphazard
More complicated system
Other plans for disguising precise order of small repeats
XII. SUNDRY SCAFFOLDINGS
Importance of variety of plan
Area of pattern not confined to area of repeat
Excursions compensated by incursions
Lines thus disguised
"Wave-lines, turned over, result in ogee"
Wave-lines result from working within narrow upright lines
Uprightness of narrow repeats counteracted by lines across
Diagonal wavelines to connect features forming horizontal band
Designs obviously based upon slanting and horizontal lines
Wave-line from side to side of broad repeat
Scaffolding of an old Louis XVI. Pattern
XIII. THE TURN-ROUND
Unit of design may be turned part way round
Unit of 6 by 6 inches results in repeat of 12 by 12 inches
Works either on the straight or as a drop
For radiating pattern a triangle half size of smaller square suffices for unit
Fold and fold again
Arab lattice pattern dissected
XIV. HOW TO SET ABOUT DESIGN
Free patterns planned on formal lines
Features recur at intervals determined by unit of repeat
Planning the only way to avoid unforseen effects
Means of disguising formal lines
Necessity for system
Genesis of counter-change border
Of geometric diaper
How not to do it
Detail not to be determined too soon
Genesis of conventional floral pattern starting with the masses
Of a drop pattern
Of a pattern stating with line
Of a floral pattern starting with distribution of flowers
Of a velvet pattern starting with severe lines
"Inhabited" pattern"
Evolution of Italian arabesque pilaster
Animal form in pattern
Starting at a venture
And from an idea
Afterthoughts
XV. TO PROVE A PATTERN
The unit of design a repeat
Repeat to be tested
One repeat not enough to show how design works
More must be indicated
Test of roughing out on one plan and working out on another
Accurate fit essential
Proving to be done at early stage of design
Test of cutting up drawing and rearranging the parts
XVI. PATTERN PLANNING IN RELATION TO TECHNIQUE
Dimensions of design determined by conditions of manufacture
Possibilities in block printing
Limitations in weaving
Narrow repeat a condition of
Sponging down
Colour designs in colour from the first
Colour as a help in complicated design
Form and colour
Design only a map of form and colour
Precaution against self-deception
The evolution of a design
Tracing paper
Accident
Mechanical helps
Hardness
Precision essential
Body colour
Water colour
Systematic use of mixed tints
Working drawing only a means to an end.
XIX. COLOUR
Close connection between form and colour
Effect of colour upon design
Drawing should show not merely effect of colour but its plan
A map of colour value and relation
Differences that colour makes
Casual colour
Colour and material
"Geometric form softened by colour, accidental or cunningly planned"
Confusion of form by colour
Emphasis of form by colour
Change of colour in ground
XX. THE INVENTION OF PATTERN
Imitation and translation
Memory and imagination
Old-time content with tradition
Modern self-consciousness
Originality
Conditions of to-day
Inspiration
How far nature helps
The use of old work
The designer and his trade
The artist and his personality
XXI. DEVELOPMENT OF PATTERN DESIGN - AN ADDITIONAL CHAPTER BY AMOR FENN.
Sources of nineteenth-century design
Augustus Welby Pugin and the Gothic revival
Designs for the Houses of Parliament
Mid Victorian vogue
Owen Jones and ancient Western and Oriental art
Bruce J. Talbert
Edwin William Godwin
William Morris
The Art Workers' Guild
Walter Crane
Lewis F. Day
C.F.A. Voysey
Arts and Crafts Society
E. W. Gimson
L' art nouveau
Continental designs
"W. Lovatelli-Colombo, Paris"
"Josef Hoffmann, Vienna"
Futuristic influence
Maurice Dufrène
Burkhalter
Geometric motifs
Stépanova
Modernistic art
Georges Valmier
Strong colour effects
Hermann Huffert
INDEX TO TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS