PATTERN IS L*FE: Documentation

Is inspiration research? Do we sacrifice process for progress? Where style is king, can designers also tap into the past to make new?

Inspiration

For this research project, I was inspired primarily by Leland Maschmeyer’s 2020 Insights Design lecture at the Walker Art Center, just before COVID-19 really hit the States.

I really appreciated the meta-conceptual approach on patterns in terms of culture and behavior as well as a personal absorption and adaptation of history, as these are themes that have intersections in what I’m interested in with design: language, storytelling, and community-building. It was doubly-added value since I’m super enamored with the Chobani rebrand case study, and I was always curious how they were successful with connecting with their audience.

One pattern I’ve noticed in my own design practice I have no problem with considering big-picture items, but I struggle with the act of making and where to start.

I’m really glad that I have started to see how I can propel myself to make by organizing content and making it easier on myself to gather my thoughts. I’ve been particularly drawn to Are.na as a medium for simultaneous inspiration and sequencing for how I might present my ideas.

Process

With reference to my own Are.na channel for the project, I sectioned off my video into three parts as questions that I have with regards with tackling patterns at different scales. My three questions for exploration were:

1. What are the structures of patterns?
2. Can the tension between pattern and progress result in the compromise of both?
3. Where can pattern represent life?

I was also inspired by the other artists/designers/community makers that I was posting about week to week, and realized I could reference this culmination of work and pull threads at what I was inspired by. A strong example of pattern as life was Wing On Wo Co., a pottery shop in NYC Chinatown, and their inter-generational source of vitality and resiliency. In a lot of ways, their own dilemmas were on how to break away from stale and negative structures to inspire everyone.

Mei Lum & the generations before that propped up this shop

To me, the video was also an exercise for pulling this expansive catalog of influences that Leland was bringing up, and using a combination of his examples and mine to hone into a vignette.

“Artists return to pattern, and return pattern” — Leland Maschmeyer

From left to right: Wojciech Fangor, M80. 1969; Sho Shibuya sunset mapping on the New York Times; Wilson Leung’s Jyut Sans

Final Product