Patterns in Culture

We will look at a range of patterns for this task from historical to cultural. For example, William Morris’ wall paper designs and Islamic ceramic tiles. Pattern has a large part to play in architecture, decorative culture, creating texture and making different associations and mood. This task aims to broaden your cultural awareness, learn basic steps on illustrator and test your ability to analyse details in order to reference other designers work in your own.

Examples of Pattern

Islamic Tiles

Moroccan Tiles

Willow Patterns

William Morris

Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha uses light and cast shadow to transform Rice Gallery into a sacred space of her own making that is open to all. “Intersections” is inspired by Agha’s seminal experience of exclusion as a woman from Mosques, a space of community and creativity, while growing up in Pakistan. The wooden frieze emulates a pattern from the Alhambra, a palace where Islamic and Western discourses met and co-existed in harmony, and serves as a metaphor of union.
AnilaAgha.com.

Your Task:

Compulsory criteria:

Research paper outlining historical facts, dates, as well as analysis of chosen art movement or cultural patterns. Min. 300 words or 2 min oral presentation.
Evidence of experimentation with shapes and shape combinations
Final pattern printed on A3 paper
Evaluation Min. 100 words.

Process:

Choose a culture or art movement to research. Include an introduction, body and conclusion. Min. 300 words.

Introduction:
What is your chosen culture or art movement?
What drew you to this topic?

Body:
What have you discovered about your chosen culture or art movement?
eg. historical facts, dates, key artists, religious beliefs etc.

Conclusion:
What are the stylistic features? What considerations will you make when designing your own pattern?
You might mention colour schemes, types of shapes or the mood you wish to create. Use the art and design analysis sheet to help you.

* Include images and reference these in text to emphasise your findings.
* Include a bibliography showing the sources you have used, at least 3.
Brainstorm different types of shapes and experiment making new ones. These should refer to your chosen culture or art movement. For example, does your culture use bold geometric shapes or organic curved ones?
In Illustrator make these shapes and experiment them (you can scan in drawn images). Use black and white to begin, you can rotate, layer, combine, change the scale etc. At this point experiment and problem solve.
Now start to experiment with the colour of your different shapes that should be overlapping each other in areas. Reference the colours of your chosen culture or art movement.

Steps for making a complex shape:

Step 1.

Step 4.

Step 7.

Step 2.

Step 5.

Step 8.

Step 3.

Step 6.

Step 9.

Step 10.

5. Once you are happy with your shape combination, copy and paste, aligning the shapes next to each other to form a pattern. Consider the negative space between your chosen shape, can this add to your pattern?

6. Write an evaluation outlining how successful you were in referencing your chosen culture or art movement. Min. 100 words.

Structure for Evaluation

Title: Your chosen culture or art movement?

Does the design you have made reflect your intentions mentioned in the research paper? Did you deviate from these initial thoughts?
Do you think your design is successful in reflecting your chosen culture? Why?
How could you improve your design or the design process used? (Remembering there is always room for improvement even when we are happy with what we've made.)