Feb 13
Pattern inspiration
2008 at 11.06 am posted by Veerle Pieters
Sometimes it’s needed to go look in odd places to find inspiration. Take patterns for example, often used for backgrounds etc. There is a bit of a trend in interior design at the moment with the revival of the vintage wallpaper backgrounds from the sixties & seventies.
Vintage wallpaper patterns
This post can work both ways as it can be an inspiration for creating patterns in Illustrator or to re-decorate your house. Like with everything the true power lies in how you execute it. Finding the right balance is essential. With that out of the way let's dive in.
Some inspiration from wallpaper
- Johny Tapete
- http://www.vintagewallpapers.be
- 5Qm
- Second Hand Rose
- http://www.rosiesvintagewallpaper.com
There plenty to look for as there are geometrics-patterns-stripes etc.
Tiles
We stay with the interior inspiration in search of nice patterns. Tiles can be a source of inspiration as well, say Moroccan tiles for example. They have some interesting geometrics.
Other options
There are other sources too if you aren't able to draw your own or if you are in an urgent need of a seamless background. The first one that comes mind is old but still a valuable source called:
Squidfingers is just for webpage backgrounds as they aren't vector based. So what if you are looking for something that can be used as print work, gift wrap, fabric prints for fashion and household items or even real wallpaper designs for your living space? In that case you need them in a vector-based format so they can be used at any size. Let's look at a few that fullfil our requirements.
More one Flickr
Thanks to a reader called Fred in the comments two more great resources on Flickr.
- Owen Jones’ 1853 classic book
- B&W patterns
This should you get thinking about what can be done with patterns. Look at the related links below if you want to find out how you create seamless patterns in Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop. It can be fun stuff and pays to explore and test.
24served
1
All the pattern are well design and look nice. Color combinations are fantastics. Thanks.
2
I don´t know if I like those wallpapers, they seem to me very aggressive and without colour. I like more naturalistic wallpapers as leaves and flowers in one colour on one wall and other walls painted with the same colour as the colour of the leaves or flowers are. But maybe some of these wallpapers could be used this way too.
3
Cool find. They are indeed some of the best patterns and you can spawn many of such to use with your design.
Thanks for digging them up for all of us to see and be inspired.
4
These patterns are inspiring indeed. Maybe I’ll try out a few.
5
Great resources for Patterns.
here are some that are worth to be mentioned.
Pattern 4u
Din Pattern
Pixel Patterns
Noqta
Tile Machine
Everyday Icons
Citrus Moon
Shizoo
6
really nice Color combinations, this vitro style looks awesome.
7
Great patterns, thanks for links. There is much better source on Flickr, then Moroccan Tiles, check this Owen Jones’ 1853 classic book or B&W patterns .
8
This one is pretty cool too: Naked and Angry.
9
Maybe i would use it in just a small portion of a webdesign…
Anyway i really like the spirit of this designs.
10
Ace - I’ve been looking for some pattern-based inspiration. The B&W suggestions are right up my street!
11
This is for more old victorian kind of style, perhaps a bit “grandmom-like”, but hey! Its retro right? ;-)
http://theinspirationgallery.com/wallpaper/damask/wp_damask01.htm
Otherwise a great number of quality links, both in the article and the comments
thanks a bunch
12
I had been meaning to post a comment to show you how the vintage effect you wrote about can have interesting results on graphics as well as photos.
I stumbled upon that second pattern a few weeks back and used it with your vintage effect to come up with this.
WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
13
I remembered an amazing shop near to Holborn Underground station in London recently. Falkiner Fine Papers. I’ve bought a big pile of hand printed papers and scanned them in. I’m not sure how I’ll use them yet but there is something really nice about getting something from outside your computer into Photoshop.
It reminds me of an article by Jason Santa Maria a while back called Aged Aesthetic.
14
Really useful article Veerle - thanks very much. I’ve bookmarked it as I’m in the middle of a project with a ‘Missoni’ theme - MIssoni are all about patterns.
You should take a look at their stuff : http://www.missoni.com
(’‘,)
15
These are some great patterns. Chris Spooner have some awesome circle patterns on his site and blog.
16
so this is my first post, though i have been lurking around for some time: great post on patterns. personally i’ve been interested in islamic patterns and it’s underlying geomety and math. it is really fascinating what people could do about 500 years ago.
but more to the point: a great resource for patterns is actually the digital online collection from the new york public library. they have a whole section of scanned pattern and ornament books in one of their collections.
i could spend days exploring all their collections. a good start could be the sonia delaunay or the already mentioned owen jones (on flickr) book. But there are loads more.
another good source for scanned books is the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture.
and not to forget is the bibliodyssey blog, which always has some gems (not only for patterns, but also illustrations).
as a special bonus you can feed these scans to stanfords vector macic for a really superb and free online vectorization of the bitmaps so you can use them as an EPS or SVG file. ... but thinking of it you probably shouldn’t do that.
oh, and thanks for the really good tutorials on your site.
17
I often go to unusual places for inspiration, once I went here….
http://www.reprodepot.com/fabrics.html
I think that is a fab link for creative inspiration generally. Lots to see.
Amanda
18
This is really a great selection of images. It always find it interesting when something from the past is able to find its way into a more modern present.
19
2nd tile (the one after links) is so similiar for me. I see so much in real world…
I will try to create my own pattern.. I’m reading your pattern lessons atm.
20
thanks for this resource! here is another site with really beautiful patterns: http://www.missjo.com.au/
21
Thanks for the list, this will come in handy!
22
Very creative, no doubt about that, but these patterns i wouldn’t use as a wallpaper in my home nore on a website.
Not my (male) taste..
23
Unless you were designing a website for a client with a female target audience you mean ;)
It’s not about ‘your taste’ when it comes to designing for clients, it’s about the target audiences taste.
I don’t personally find any of these patterns particularly feminine though actually to be honest. Whether they look feminine or not I think depends on what you do with them and what you combine them with.
24
I am an old school guy, but don’t misunderstand me, these patterns are great art, would i voluntary use them as a full website BG ? No.
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