My sister and I took a little impromptu trip to the art museum today. We were out doing one of my favorite activities, thrift store shopping, when I asked her if we could stop by the museum for just a quick walkthrough since I hadn’t been in awhile. Well, little did I know I’d come up with this idea to take some snapshots (on my cellphone, of all things) of various patterns in a lot of the ancient artwork and some of the decorative arts stuff. I’ve said, again and again, how much I enjoy patterns and decorative elements but unfortunately for my sister (who was kind of in a hurry…) I got a bit carried away with the idea. I’ll have to come back with a real camera and do this again with a little more time, but here’s a little collage of some decoration that inspired me today:

If I do this again, I should keep better track of where and what period in history these are from. I remember most of them, but not all. Next time!

Anyway, I think pattern can be a really important aspect of design. It’s not appropriate in every situation, but whenever I can find a good use for a pattern, I try to incorporate it. It can take certain designs to that next level of either sophistication or fun. (Or maybe I’m just weird.)