What is repetition, pattern, and rhythm? How do they relate to each other? Repetition refers to one object or shape repeated; pattern is a combination of.
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- Principle of Repetition & Pattern | Visual Communication Design
- Using Repetition and Patterns in Photography
Many polyhedra are very symmetrical, but symmetry is not necessary. Volutes are a fancy name for flat spirals - what you doodle on your class notes, a slice of nautilus shell, wind-up springs, fiddlehead ferns, our galaxy, etc. Olafur Eliasson - Umschreibung, , steel, 9m high. Photo by Philipp Klinger. Meanders are the sinuous bends that streams and rivers sometimes make, which lend the name to anything with a snaking, winding, convoluted path.
Meanders can be thought of as irregular waveforms, as opposed to regular sine waves. If you've lived your artistic life happily with bilateral and radial symmetry and symmetric, asymmetric and radial balance, you may wish to skip to the pretty pretty fractals below and live happily ever after. If you find patterns and Escher's work fascinating and want to investigate more, read on. I am going to run screaming through symmetry and tiling, and point you to some more info, or I will be working on this for the rest of my life.
Tessellation and Tiling - Tessellation and tiling are created when motifs - units of pattern contained within the boundary of some shape - repeat on a plane without any gaps between the motifs tiles , and also without overlapping. Common ceramic tiles are a perfect example.
Symmetries of Planar Patterns - Imagine standing in front of a wall covered with patterned wallpaper, and you have an extra sample of the wallpaper in your hand. You can place your sample against the wall and line it up so it perfectly fits in with the rest of the pattern. Once you have done that, there are four possible ways you can again move transform the sample to get it to fit in with the rest of the pattern. These ways depend upon what type of symmetry the pattern has. The four types of planar symmetries, or isometries transformations that preserve distance are translation, reflection, rotation, and glide reflection symmetry.
In other words, depending upon the pattern's isometry, you might be only able to slide translate the wallpaper sample over in a couple directions to get it to fit in again. Perhaps rotating the sample would also cause it to line up with the rest of the wall. If the pattern were printed on both sides of the sample and you could flip it over in some direction like a mirror's reflection and get it to fit, the pattern would have reflective isometry.
Glide reflection isometry involves flipping the sample along an axis and then sliding it along the axis into place.
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It turns out that if you classify planar patterns by all their isometries, you come up with 17 different plane pattern symmetry groups. And if you really like to break things down, you can further subdivide these into 51 periodic patterns. Escher - Bird Fish, This pattern has only translational symmetry. It can be slid along two axis, which is the minimum for the pattern to fill a plane.
If the pattern only slid in one direction, it would form a strip. This pattern has both reflective and rotational symmetry. Escher - Horseman, This pattern demonstrates glide reflection. There is no pure reflectional symmetry or rotational symmetry. Fractals are shapes or forms that divide into smaller-scale copies of the themselves, so that they appear similar at any level of magnification.
Snow flakes, river systems, and cauliflower are some things that approximate fractals in nature. Skip to main content.
Repetition, Rhythm and Pattern. Rhythms can be random, regular, alternating, flowing, and progressive. Classes of pattern include mosaics, lattices, spirals, meanders, waves, symmetry and fractals, among others. Motifs Motifs can be thought of as units of pattern. Repetition Repeated use of a shape, color, or other art element or design in a work can help unify different parts into a whole.
Rhythm When motifs or elements are repeated, alternated, or otherwise arranged, the intervals between them or how they overlap can create rhythm and a sense of movement. Escher - Lizard, Flowing Rhythm - Flowing rhythm is created by undulating elements and intervals, bending and curving motifs and spaces. Mosaics or Nests Mosaics create patterns from tesserae, small pebbles or cut pieces of stone or glass traditionally in different colors.
Vitale, dedicated in A. Zac Freeman - Garrett, , Assemblage on board, Lattices Lattices have various definitions in math, science and art. Siddi Sayyed Jali Jali, Humayun's Tomb, Delhi Polyhedra Polyhedra are three-dimensional objects whose surfaces are defined by polygonal faces or facets, whose edges are in turn defined by straight line segments. Repetition focuses on the same object being repeated; patterns are made up from different components which are then repeated in the same way throughout the design.
A seamless pattern is one that flows throughout without flaw in the beginning or end: This approach to design becomes especially important when thinking about designs which incorporate significant amounts of color, texture or depth. Using a pattern can be complex. As with the photography example above, however, patterns can be used to put the user at ease and to allow them navigation tools throughout the design.
In architecture, patterns in the forms of motifs have been used to improve the aesthetic quality of the structure, to stamp design authority, and to provide necessary user guidance.
Principle of Repetition & Pattern | Visual Communication Design
The use of such patterns can enhance the user experience, as well as the design and look of the final product, but must be used wisely so as to avoid a complicated layout or unattractive design. Unlike repetition and pattern above, rhythm has slightly more complexity to it. Where repetition and pattern require the same design element to be repeated throughout the design in the same way, rhythm requires the repetition of a variety of design elements in a specific order. As a result, individual design elements may not repeat or be the same at all points; rather, their repetition is adaptive and changes throughout the design.
This approach to design can be viewed as the musical approach to design: Alternatively, a set of waves crashing against the shore might be said to follow a design rhythm. While each, individual wave is unique, the overall process has a design rhythm. Owing to its complexity, rhythm has a number of sub-divisions in how it can be conceived or implemented.
Regular rhythm is similar to the idea of a pattern: Lastly, progressive rhythm allows for the greatest amount of diversity.
Using Repetition and Patterns in Photography
Elements are repeated, but there is variation in any of the elements throughout. As noted above, the use of repetition, pattern and rhythm are one of the key elements in enhancing and improving the experience for users. Whether it be in architecture or web design, the use of recognisable, repeating imagery or patterns allows users to identify their place within a wider structure.