As you might remember from my last blog, I’m currently travelling and hadn’t intended to post much on here along the way – but there’s just so much in the way of colourful geometric patterns here that I couldn’t resist! I’m in Cusco, typically known as the gateway to Machu Picchu – but also home itself to a lot of Incan history and temples. And their civilisation (like me!) seems to have loved geometric designs EVERYWHERE…
Category: Design
Patterns in art
Patterns are frequently used in art, since their structure is very appealing to the eye. They appear widely in nature, inspiring their use in cities and architecture, patterns in paper and others. Pattern art uses a combination of elements or shapes repeated in a recurring and regular arrangement, in an aesthetically pleasing way.
Beauty in maps
I recently found out that visualisation originated from maps – I always knew there was a reason I enjoyed Geography A-level 😉 I remember spending hours poring over maps when I was younger too. Visualisation does not just have its historical roots in maps however – given the various parallels below, the link from maps to visualisation makes a lot of sense.
Patterns in paper
Last night I went with a few colleagues to a ‘Mindful Origami’ workshop in Knightsbridge, led by Samuel Tsang (hashtag thanks to his wife: Origami + mindfulness = #MindFOLDness) A uniquely relaxing evening: pleasing symmetry and shapes + pretty colourful stationery + making things = perfect after a day on a computer!
Patterns in cities
My previous post (a while ago now sorry – Christmas got in the way!) was about patterns in nature, but if you live in a city you can see patterns all around you too. Humans have taken inspiration from nature since the beginning of time: just as there’s geometry in nature with patterns in crystals, plants and skies, humans have also used geometric patterns to style their habitats throughout the ages…leading me to discuss the application of maths in another of my favourite topics: beauty in architecture & urban environments!
aheadforfigures.co.uk 