But, what is a pattern?
A pattern is something that happens regularly in the universe, in design made by humans, or about abstract ideas. The structural elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable way. A geometric pattern is a type of pattern composed by the same shapes and can be repeated in a wallpaper design.
Patterns can be observed by our senses. Abstract patterns can be figured out by analysis like in science, maths or language. Visual patterns are everywhere in nature and art.
Nature patterns don't repeat exactly the same way, they seem chaotic. They often involve fractals, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tilings, cracks and symmetries such as in rotation and reflection.
A mathematical structure is always present when we talk about patterns. In a way, we can say that maths and sciences predict regularities in the universe.
In visual art, motifs or decorations may combine to create patterns, a whole design intended to get a chosen effect in the final viewer.
In fashion, patterns are used as templates to create a number of similar pieces of clothing.
How did we start creating patterns?
Some years ago, we started to experiment with some of our characters in Photoshop. We simply took a lot of them to fill a module in.
We put one here and another there, to create the best possible combinations in shape and color.
When the first characters were partially covered by the boundaries of the image, we duplicated the character and put it in the opposite side taking care of covering what was uncovered in the first image, with the precision of the size of a pixel.
Our first first repeatable illustration was born. We were ready to fill any space in, to decorate any surface, any object, any piece of clothing. We had a pattern design that could be printed on any stuff, independently of its size!
If we remember well, we started to experiment with illustrator to be able to have different resolutions for the repeating module with no loss of quality. The process was similar to that used with Photoshop, It was necessary to shift the image taking into account the total width (or height) of the big image.
Our first pattern designs where composed of different elements positioned at the right place to create the repeatable module.
The next step in creating our own pattern designs
The real fun started when we mixed our pattern techniques with Doodle art concepts, no thinking so much, just drawing in an almost automatic process, trying to fill the whole given space in. The goal was also to imbricate the images, to make them work according to the shape of the neighbor images, this gave room to the unexpected.
We have lots of posts featuring our pattern designs and Doodle art in Instagram
This process was the origin of the most whimsical creatures, whole images where we were not able to say how many creatures there were. You were not even able to say where a creature began or where it ended up.
In most of our images, you don't know if an eye or an arm belong to the creature at the left or to the following one. The results began to be amazing, unexpected, twisted, mischievous and totally whimsical. The best part was that they looked stunning printed on all over print objects or clothing.
We began to not take care of duplicating images and placing them at the right place for pattern purposes. We simply drew them as half images (at the boundaries) and flipped the final image when duplicating (horizontally or vertically according to the position). This gave a new much simpler approach to our patterns mixed with a nice dose of symmetry and surprise.
Our bold critters as pattern designs printed on cool products
Bucketfeet shoes
It was real exciting to find products as Bucketfeet shoes by Threadless providing canvases for artists! They were perfect for our designs!
Printful products
But, the best part was to create our new version of the website to promote our designs printed on a wide range of all-over print products by Printful.
Our great collection of pattern designs printed on cool products
Here some of our featured pattern designs, just enjoy, get inspired!
Browse our amazing patterns printed on cool clothing and accessories
These days, we are experimenting with the awesome Procreate, to add new techniques and a new cool touch to our gallery of images. Take a look at our Procreate profile.
Thanks for following, see you soon, we really wish you tons of inspiration!
