Surface Design Bookshelf from Susan Niner Janes {part 1}

Hi everyone, every week this month, we are pleased to bring you some lovely book reviews from Susan Niner Janes.

Here is part 1 of a round-up of titles:

Pattern Design
By Lewis F. Day
Dover Art Instruction 2003
ISBN-13 978 0 486 40709 8
Kindle £4.20
Paperback £8.24

This gem is a blast from the past. It is quaint curiosity that packs a punch. This is a Dover edition of a book originally published in 1903, with an “update” including new material contributed by Amor Fenn in 1933. Even the Dover edition is a reprint, an indication of useful content.

There’s a wealth of information about exactly how to design patterns for commercial use. Concentrating on the geometric foundation of pattern and how to generate repeats. Historical influences. Practical advice. Lavish amount of b & w illustrations.
There’s an excellent chapter on borders, special attention paid to corner treatments. And a great section on smaller repeats.
Technology has moved on, but the nitty-gritty pattern design content of this title has not dated.

2000 Pattern Combinations: a step-by-step guide to creating pattern
By Jane Callender
Batsford 2011
ISBN 978 1 84994 007 9
Paperback £20.00

This extremely useful title is similar in content to Lewis F.Day’s book on pattern design, reviewed previously. Sort of a 21st Century version of it. It presents the geometric basis of pattern design – so that you can learn how to generate patterns and pattern permutations in their infinite, intricate variety.

The author, Jane Callender, is an award-winning shibori artist – and you can see the Japanese influence in her designs. She says, in the intro, “This pattern collection is a lexicon on which a designer, in whatever discipline, can draw for their own particular purpose and intended surface.”

Chapter headings include: Tiles, Tessellations and Grids, Moving the Square (including rotation repeats, mirrored and reflected repeats), Circles (including designs with segmented circles, Borders and Corners. Florals are super-important to textiles designers, and so an entire section is devoted to patterns derived from a leaf shape. There is an entire section on spot repeats. The author also discusses Hiding the Repeat/Disguising the motif.

What is particularly impressive about the author’s examples is that although they are based upon rigid geometric patterns, they have grace and fluidity. There are plenty of full-colour illustrations. Lush.

Note to surface design students: this lovely title is all about pattern. It is a computer-free zone, so you will have to take the things you’ve learned and give them a digital update.

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Susan Niner Janes is a craft designer, author, and blogger.