Point of View: The Graphic Pattern

This week is all about having a look at the concept of illusions and perception of prints and patterns. It’s all around us through our daily lives in logos, motifs, prints and patterns of textiles, painted lines and arrows on the streets, repeats in nature.

While recently browsing a toy store with my son, I stumbled upon a shelf full of kaleidoscopes. We were stationed there another five minutes as I wanted to look through them all, hold it up against the light, snap iPhone pics through the lens to see how it turned out as you can see in the photo below. It’s as though I was peering into the colorful scope of my childhood memories: the fascination I always had of kaleidoscopes, stained glass windows in churches, making shapes out of passing clouds, looking in a mirror when it’s at that angle of infinity mirrors that keep repeating with no end.

Looking at the above snapshot I captured through a kaleidoscope, I see a play of floral motifs in primary colors of red, yellow, and blue that combine into a satellite system of a larger floral motif comprised of three flower petals. The trio of petals surround one yellow center and have a total of six yellow points on the border of the petals. Do you see it? That pattern on a larger scale would ultimately go on for infinity like the never-ending patchwork quilt.

Let’s use some products from Hazel Coasts as samples of the same exercise to understand how graphics, motifs, patterns, and prints may be interpreted. I may list examples and you may see it otherwise when viewing the same items. Looking at the Fouta - Chevron with Pinstripes (see here), does your eye first land on the colored chevron background pattern or on the black dashed lines that form the pinstripes? This play of line design adds elegance to a setting in a subtle, yet intentional way. Since foutas are a versatile product that can function as a tablecloth, blanket, bath or beach towel, or beach wrap, it is an easy way to elevate the style of a number of practical products.

Looking at the Motif Ceramic Collection (see here), the motif on the round tray, jar with lid, and mug may be viewed as a floral motif, a bird’s wing span, among other things. It’s a fun choice for adding a pattern into a space due to the mix of colors within the design, from which repeat colors could be introduced into a space. The multicolored motif would pop against ruby red or hunter green table linens, a midnight blue painted dresser or black oak side table.

Looking at the Wool Rug - Round Stars (see here) and the Wool Rug - Elongated Stars (see here) the colored graphic pattern on the creamy white background can be seen from different perspectives. I see cream hexagons with a multicolored border that are surrounded by star formations, I see mini triangles all individually scattered, I see bowties with two mini triangles attached to create that shape. I see rows of bowties going in two directions - one row of bowties going lengthwise from tassel-end to tassel-end of the rug and one row of bowties going on a diagonal orientation along the width of the rug that don’t have tassels.

Looking at the Rush Handbag - Triangles Black (see here), the pattern could be seen as individual triangles in black on a natural background, a square made of one black and one natural triangle, black pinwheels made up of four smaller triangles, among other things.

Need more design inspiration? Visit our online store here to browse our handmade products and ideas. Perhaps something catches your eye - a motif, a print, a texture, a color - that you want to add to spruce up your space. You may see the designs in one way, while others may see it in a different way. It’s all about your point of view.