Pattern Design

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.