Once you start noticing them, patterns appear everywhere. Patterns can take many forms from abstract ideas to observable behaviors to rhythm and rhyme. But the focus of today’s discussion is visual patterns―regular repetitions of an element or motif―that can be observed through sight.
There are “three fundamental sources of design motifs [including] organic, geometric, and classical” report authors Richard Proctor and Jennifer Lew in their book Surface Design for Fabric. “Organic designs evolve from nature, geometric designs depend on the rectilinear or curvilinear figures used in geometry, and classical designs are based on traditional styles”.
Classical Designs
Classical design patterns were evident at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, a Hindu temple in Lilburn Georgia, which I had the good fortune to visit.
“Open to one and all, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was inaugurated in August of 2007 after only 17 months of construction time utilizing 1.3 million volunteer hours” explains their website. “The Mandir is comprised of 3 types of stone (Turkish Limestone, Italian marble, and Indian pink sandstone). More than 34,000 individual pieces were carved by hand in India, shipped to the USA and assembled in Lilburn like a giant 3-D puzzle”.
Visitors are invited to “Enjoy hours of beauty, peace, and discovery at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Lilburn, GA – a masterpiece of exquisite Indian design and workmanship. Marvel at the intricate marble carvings, participate in Hindu rituals or learn about the world’s oldest living faith – Hinduism.”
“A typical, ancient Hindu temple has a profusion of arts” reports Wikipedia “from paintings to sculpture, from symbolic icons to engravings, from thoughtful layout of space to fusion of mathematical principles with Hindu sense of time and cardinality.”
There is indeed a profusion of arts at this Hindu Temple but my personal favorite was this spectacular row of elephants in the grand fountain. There are patterns upon patterns in this scene from the decorative elements on each elephant to the repetition of the elephant heads.
The Grammar of Ornament, a design sourcebook written by Owen Jones and published in 1856, takes a deep dive into ornamentation―an art form we might call “surface design” today.
It includes, for instance, the image pictured below. Titled, Indian No 1, the book plate showcases “Ornaments from Works in Metal, exhibited in the Indian Collection” at the Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations held in 1851. “These ornaments … are chiefly taken from Hookhas … and [are] all remarkable for great elegance of outline, and for such a judicious treatment of the surface decoration that every ornament tended to further develope the general form”.
Jones leans heavily into traditional and classical ornamentation presenting, as Wikipedia puts it, “key examples of ornament from a number of sources which were diverse both historically and geographically – notably examining the Middle East in the chapters on Arabian, Turkish, Moresque (Alhambra) and Persian ornament.”
Here’s another example from The Grammar of Ornament. Pompeian No 3 features a “Collection of Mosaics from Pompeii and the Museum at Naples – From the Author’s Sketches”.
These mosaic patterns remind me of the 8000-year-old mosaic floors I saw preserved in Ephesus, Turkey. See my previous blog post Learning from the Ancient Masters for more on the history and tradition of mosaics.
Geometric Designs
In his 1905 book, Méthode de Composition Ornementale – Éléments Rectilignes, translated as Ornamental Composition Method – Rectilinear Elements, author Eugéne Grasset makes a strong case for artists to look carefully at the great works of the past without simply copying them. His two books―the first volume focuses on straight elements while the second one addresses curved elements―guide the reader through his creative design process.
The first step, he explains, is to isolate the primitive elements, starting with the simplest ones. Here’s a snapshot of the simple geometric shapes Grasset considers to be the foundation for all ornamental composition. 
The scalloped edges of this carved stone doorway from the Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal provide a great example of a pattern based on geometric shapes…
… as do these beautiful, curvy blue-and-white tiles and the matching wrought iron window grille spotted in Aveiro, Portugal. There are numerous more examples like this in my previous blog posts Talk About Tiles! and Lines and Patterns in Wrought Iron.
Geometric patterns are also the basis of sashiko―a type of Japanese stitching. Here are a few pattern samples from my previous blog post My Little Stab at Sashiko.
I selected a few sashiko patterns to embellish a denim jacket. See my blog post A Denim Jacket with Sashiko Flair for details on this project.
The design you can see on the finished jacket is a variation of the traditional Kikko (Tortoise Shell) pattern.
Organic Designs
The third design pattern type, organic designs, also consists of elements which repeat in a predictable manner. They are based on nature and, as you might expect, less structured than classical and geometric patterns. One of my first blog posts, Patterns by Mother Nature, examines the idea of looking to nature for pattern ideas. A number of different patterns including animal prints, stripes, floral, foliage, geometric and abstracts were illustrated in that post.
Shown below, the wings of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly provide an example of an organic pattern…
…as do the colorful, rows of kernels on this Glass Gem ornamental corn…
…and this patch of starburst-shaped plants.
In Leaves and Flowers from Nature, the final chapter of his book The Grammar of Ornament, Jones warns “the more closely nature is copied, the farther we are removed from producing a work of art”. He sees “true art consisting in idealising, and not copying, the forms of nature”. He instructs artists to emulate the order, symmetry, grace and fitness of the natural world in their work.
This color plate from his book, Leaves & Flowers from Nature No 8, shows “several varieties of flowers, in plan and elevation, from which it will be seen that the basis of all form is geometry … the result is symmetry and regularity”. Interestingly, Jones sees geometric forms in nature.
Another point of view comes to us from the French artist and author M.P. Verneuil. I raved about his 1903 book, Etude de la Plante : Son Application aux Industries d’Art translated to Study of the Plant: Its Application to the Art Industries in my previous blog post How Nature Inspired Art Nouveau.
Verneuil makes the case that plants offer the most variety in form and provide us the most resources for decorative purposes. It’s another fascinating approach.
Regardless of the source―classical, geometric or organic―there is much to learn about the creation of design motifs and patterns. Thankfully, talented artists and authors have been studying and writing about this subject for hundreds of years. I’m planning to spend some time delving into their ideas―I’ll let you know what I learn.
More Info
Several previous blog posts were mentioned in today’s blog post including:
. Learning from the Ancient Masters
. Talk About Tiles!
. Lines and Patterns in Wrought Iron
. My Little Stab at Sashiko
. A Denim Jacket with Sashiko Flair
. Patterns by Mother Nature
. How Nature Inspired Art Nouveau.
You can learn more about the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (Hindu temple) located in Lilburn, near Atlanta, Georgia on their website.
The following books and resources were consulted in the writing of this blog post:
. Surface Design for Fabric book by Richard Proctor and Jennifer Lew and published in 1984. It is available here on Internet Archives.
.The Grammar of Ornament book by Owen Jones published in 1856. It is available here on Internet Archives.
. Méthode de Composition Ornementale – Éléments Rectilignes, translated as Ornamental Composition Method – Rectilinear Elements by Eugéne Grasset published in 1905. It is available here in the original French on Internet Archives.
. Etude de la Plante : Son Application aux Industries d’Art translated as Study of the Plant: Its Application to the Art Industries by M.P. Verneuil published in 1903. It is available here in the original French on Internet Archives.
. various Wikipedia entries.
Today’s Takeaways
1. A design pattern is a discernible regularity where motifs or elements repeat in a predictable manner.
2. The three fundamental sources of design motifs and patterns are classical, geometric and organic.
3. Artists and authors have been studying and writing about ornamentation and surface design for hundreds of years.
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