For those of you who are unaware, I’m spending this week in Paris doing pattern and trend scouting. Home Autour du Monde is always on my itinerary as the Bensimon home collection is magical and curated to perfection. You can imagine my delight when I happened upon this window. The furniture is covered in cable knit with amazing wintery pom poms. So exciting to see the home version of this trend translated so seamlessly.
I’m delighted to announce that Pattern Pulp was recently featured in House Beautiful, a leading lifestyle magazine on decorating and design. Hitting topics from street trends to home design developments, the article highlights the importance of connecting the dots, a process Pattern Pulp is quite familiar with. Check it out here!
Most of us are too impatient to let ideas evolve overtime without overwatering them. Christie Wright of Brooklyn, NY, embraces the idea of storytelling as a strategy for designing. “Building by Leaving,” one of her latest creative endeavours, embraces the idea of growth through location and experience. Sewing rungs together from various fabric swatches, her ladder grows over time, accumulating new colors, shapes, and patterns. In an effort to understand growth, escapism and personal history, Wright’s creation is reminicient of a modern day Rapunzel.
When buying or revamping expensive furniture, it’s quite difficult to suppress your inhibitions and trust your creative gut. Back in July, The New York Times highlighted Pamela Bell, one of four original founders of the Kate Spade brand. Bell took it upon herself to reinvent the concept of doodling and let her children go wild on two pieces of antique furniture. The results, though alarming to some, were well received my most. Fast forward a few months, and it’s time to inspect how this idea of laissez faire fabric graffiti seeped into the marketplace. On display at Elizabeth Bauer, a store for modern traditionalists, sits a wonderfully adapted high-end interpretation of this style. French handwriting covers all visible fabric, representing a playful pattern on pattern effect. This chair is as flamboyant as it is elegant.
Bold & Expressive Marks
Leanne Shapton’s illustrations exemplify the perfect balance between a refined color palette and playful shapes. Much of her work can be found in bookstores and on the shelves of home libraries. Resultantly, her expressive style is often paired with highbrow literature.
Thin & Intricate Lines
When inspecting the doodle, delicate markings are just as important as sweeping gestures. The 60’s math toy, the hypotrochoid art set, marries the idea of precision and fun for anyone who can get their hands on these serrated wheels. Using a similarly detailed approach, the artist, Marian Bantjes is continually reinventing her line. Here she merges type with surrounding shapes for a colorful invitation. Dale Kaplan achieves her own interpretation of scratch, creating a high-end pillow by using nothing more than a sewing machine and thread.
Delicate sophistication is synonymous with origami. Though simplistic, there’s a beautiful complexity to every folded 3D figurine. As of late, creative pop culture has embraced this ancient art with a modern tune. Using color, form, figurative interpretation, and various materials, designers throughout the fashion, media, and home industries have embraced this budding trend, making unique, yet paralleling commercial interpretations.
See above for various examples: The Unrising Intl’s Keane poster with graphic animal forms, A futuristic dress, worn by pop vocalist Lady Gaga, homeware ceramic plates, sold at Lancelotti’s in the East Village of Manhattan and delicate metallic pendents by Origami Bijiou.
A more functional and figurative take can be found by the Italian design team at Lago Casa with these tanagram bookshelfs. Movement is balanced by stillness in this beautifully playful design. In the more abstract realm, folding vivid graphics are illustrated quite literally on this 2006 coverart for The Rapture’s album, Pieces of the People We Love.