Page 46 - Designing Ways 260

PATTERNS

Patterns, Colours, Curves & Recycling.

by Stienie Greyling

pattern is a regularity in the colour. For example, ridges on the sand.
world, in human-made design, Plant material such as foliage, flowers
or
A in abstract ideas. As such the and the bark of trees, which show veins,
element of a pattern repeat in a predictable stripes, spots and variegation can also be
manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of used to form patterns by repeating them
pattern formed of geometric shapes and within the design. Patterns can be created
typically repeated like a wallpaper design. by manipulating plant material.
Any of the senses may directly observe
patterns. Techniques:
Patterns provide a sense of order in what There are many techniques which can
might otherwise appear chaotic. Pattern be used to create patterns. These can
in design is the repeated combination of be pinning, folding, knotting, layering, Using curves in Architecture
the elements, the building blocks of line, piling, plaiting, stacking, threading and
form, texture and colour. weaving.
Repetition is the key. The design purple. Yellow is the least favourite colour,
elements and principles need each other Structures: preferred by only five percent of people.
for creating the art objectives of beauty, Many similar objects can be used to Another interesting survey finding: Both
expression and harmony. make a structure with a pattern. Grids are men and women increasingly dislike
Spiral, meander, explosion, packing a good example. orange as they age.
and branching are the “Five Patterns in In mathematics a pattern is a repeated The primary colours of television
Nature”. Patterns are found in plants, arrangement of numbers, shapes, colour screens and computer monitors are red,
foliage and animals. All living things and so on. The pattern can be related green and blue. Printers and paints
create patterns. to any type of event or object. If the set use magenta, yellow and cyan as their
Nature’s elements of earth, rain, wind numbers are related to each other in a primary.
and fire create patterns which are visible specific rule, then the rule or manner is
repetitions of line, form, texture and called a pattern. Sometimes patterns are Curves
also known as a sequence. A curve is a continuous and smooth
Colour is the aspect of any object flowing line without any sharp turns. One
Spiral pattern in nature that may be described in terms of hue, way to recognise a curve is that it bends
lightness and saturation. In physics and changes its direction at least once.
colour is: The different types of curves are: Simple
The visible spectrum, the measurement curve, closed curve, simple closed curve,
of colour and physical and chemical algebraic and transcendental curve.
causes.
It was Isaac Newton who first fully What are curves used for?
Snail shell developed a theory of colour based on The curves tool is similar to levels, but
a colour wheel. Newton had split white it gives a person more power to control
light into a spectrum by means of a prism shadows, highlights and mid tones
and then wrapped the resulting spectrum separately. Because it is a more advanced
around it itself to create the colour wheel. tool, one need to be careful when using it
There are three different types of to adjust images.
colour: primary, secondary and tertiary Looking back at the ancient times,
colours. The primary colours are red, the use of curves has always been
Staircase yellow and blue. The secondary colours persistent. They were visualised as art
are green, orange and purple. And the and decorations; however, their exact
tertiary colours are yellow-orange, red- geometric definition was decoded later.
orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue- Mathematics from the past used to stay
green and yellow-green. very curious related to curved lines. In
The most popular colour in the world is present day mathematics, the curved lines
blue. The second favourite colours are red are utilised for graphical representation of
and green, followed by orange, brown and functions.
Hurricane

46 Issue 260 • dw