From the author and designer of "ROY G. BIV," a delightful, fully illustrated new volume on patterns, from polka dots to plaid: their histories, cultural resonances, and hidden meanings.

You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

Whether you want to fill your home with a riot of different patterns, or are looking for a single motif for a feature wall, there’s an amazing array to choose from, and Love Pattern and Colour is the perfect place to start. Bursting with beautiful images of pattern designs from all over the world, this book shows how clever use of pattern can change a room: it can create a bold and striking space filled with drama, a cosy, comforting corner, or a cheery, colourful place that lifts the spirits. Being creative with pattern doesn’t just mean choosing it for your walls: there’s a feast of styles displayed here for furniture, lampshades, floors, tableware, curtains and cushions. Looking at eight popular themes and how they can be used in a huge variety of ways, Love Pattern and Colour shows you designs and styles that can transform your home. Chapters and motifs featured include: Abstracts – brush strokes, marbling, random swirls Botanicals – trees, leaves, grasses, seedheads Scenes and Stories – Chinoiserie, toile du jouy Florals – spectacular blooms, country garden Cultural Travellers - paisley, Ikat, Islamic arabesques Geometrics – stripes, spots, squares Animal Kingdom – animal motifs and prints Textures – visual and tactile Charlotte Abrahams loves pattern and wants you to love it too. With her expert advice on how to choose and use pattern, and how to make it work in different spaces, you can find your personal style and decorate your home with flair.

Why is the sky blue? Why is pink for girls and blue for boys? Why do prisoners wear orange? And why can one colour have so many opposite meanings? If lobsters are a red emblem of privilege how is it that a red flag can also be the banner of Communism? Jude Stewart, a design expert and writer, digs into this rich subject with gusto, telling her favourite stories about colour as she discovers what it can really mean. Each chapter is devoted to a colour, opening with an infographic map that links such unlikely pairings as fox-hunting and flamingos. From there on in, you're plunged into a kaleidoscopic tour of the universe that encompasses everything from wildflowers to Japanese warriors. The links between them reveal hidden realities that you never would have suspected. Roy G. Biv is a reference and inspiration for everyone, with sidebars and graphics galore. The aim is simple: to tantalise and inform, and to make you think about colour in a completely new way.

An extraordinary, strange, and startlingly beautiful exploration of smell, the least understood of our five senses The nose on your face is the Buckingham Palace Guard of your body, the maitre d' of all taste, as well as the seducer of your imagination, and memory—and Jude Stewart has charmed them all into a wicked, poetic and illuminating tour of their mysterious domains. —Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs Overlapping with taste yet larger in scope, smell is the sense that comes closest to pure perception. Smell can collapse space and time, unlocking memories and transporting us to worlds both new and familiar. Yet as clearly as each of us can recognize different smells--the bright tang of citrus, freshly sharpened pencils, parched earth after rain--few of us understand how and why we smell. In Revelations in Air, Jude Stewart takes us on a fascinating journey into the weird and wonderful world of smell. Beginning with lessons on the incredible biology and history of how our noses work, Stewart teaches us how to use our noses like experts. Once we're properly equipped and ready to sniff, Stewart explores a range of smells—from lavender, cut grass and hot chocolate to cannabis and old books—using smell as a lens into art, history, science, and more. With an engaging colorful design and exercises for readers to refine their own skills, Revelations in Air goes beyond science or history or chemistry--it's a doorway into the surprising, pleasurable, and unfamiliar landscape of smell.

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In this essential introduction to contemporary printed textile design, designer and educator Alex Russell explores creative and commercial studio practice, including: - developing sophisticated skills with image and colour - how to make effective use of context in your work - strategies for a career in design You'll learn how history and technology shape print design, plus how to balance innovation with industry requirements, including fashion, home interiors, giftware and stationery. There's practical advice on developing a professional portfolio, and how good communication skills can get your work noticed. This updated edition includes expanded sections on digital design and social media, and their impact on portfolio development, manufacturing, and promotion, as well as advice on establishing an ethical, sustainable practice for the future.

Digital Textile Design covers everything students and practitioners of textile design will need to learn about designing and printing digitally. Textile designers are beginning to realize the creative potential of digital textile design and are fast catching up with graphic designers who have taken to working digitally. New digital textile-printing technology is enabling designers to work with an almost unlimited palette of colors to produce work of staggering detail in relatively short timescales. Written specifically for textile designers, Digital Textile Design provides the know-how for students andprofessionals who wish to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator as design tools. A series of inspirational tutorials, presented in step-by-step format, guide the reader through the process of creating designs that will be suited to both the traditional textile production process, and to the new industry of digital printing onto fabric. Against the backdrop of the development of digital print, the book discusses how designers can access this new technique, looks at the work of those currently exploring its possibilities, and also features the craft of embellishment that is being used to offset the apparent flatness of print.

To stripe a surface serves to distinguish it, to point it out, to oppose it or associate it with another surface, and thus to classify it, to keep an eye on it, to verify it, even to censor it. Throughout the ages, the stripe has made its mark in mysterious ways. From prisoners' uniforms to tailored suits, a street sign to a set of sheets, Pablo Picasso to Saint Joseph, stripes have always made a bold statement. But the boundary that separates the good stripe from the bad is often blurred. Why, for instance, were stripes associated with the devil during the Middle Ages? How did stripes come to symbolize freedom and unity after the American and French revolutions? When did the stripe become a standard in men's fashion? "In the stripe," writes author Michel Pastoureau, "there is something that resists enclosure within systems." So before putting on that necktie or waving your country's flag, look to The Devil's Cloth for a colorful history of the stripe in all its variety, controversy, and connotation.

An insider's guide to the world's largest archive of patterns and textiles, the source of inspiration for the globe's top designers Every season, designers from fashion, home furnishings, textiles, graphic arts, and paper-product industries seek inspiration from patterns to bring their collections to life. Many of these designers - including Beacon Hill, Boden, Calvin Klein, Clinique, Colefax & Fowler, Lululemon, Nike, Oscar de la Renta, Pottery Barn, and Target - look to the Design Library, the world's largest archive of surface design. This one-of-a-kind book, drawn from the Design Library’s archive, is an exclusive and ultimate sourcebook of pattern and ornament.