20th century trends

The 20th century saw an explosion of art movements, and pattern design evolved right alongside them. Let’s look at a small selection.

Art Nouveau embraced flowing and plant-like forms, soft colours and golden highlights, echoing the wallpapers from the late 19th century. The designs seem to romanticize and long for an era that was ending.

At the same time, Modernism went forward into a future unknown with geometry and sharp lines. Modernists moved away from the figurative, though were often still inspired by it. Looking at the patterns of both movements, it isn’t hard to imagine the buildings they were meant to decorate. It was a time of high contrasts.

Art Deco was a direct response to Art Nouveau. It was clearly inspired by Modernism, but with more symbolism and the merging of the figurative with the abstract (as you can see in the golden ornament with both lines and wheats).

At the Bauhaus school, some artists stripped patterns back in search of the fundamental building blocks, like the design from Gunta Stölzl below:

Post-war optimism brought a new style of patterns: playful and inspired by the atomic age and scientific progress.

The motif below by Lucienne Day brings up memories of the animated series The Jetsons and animated movie intros.

Designer Alexander Girard proved that geometric patterns didn't have to feel cold or impersonal. His Mid-Century Modern work feels warm and playful, showing that abstract design could retain human personality.

Flower power reached from the US all the way to Finland, where Marimekko created one of the most famous patterns of the century, which they still produce today. At the abstract end of the spectrum, Vasarely was exploring geometry and optical illusions, undoubtedly influenced by the mind-bending times!

The 1970s were characterized by their well-known palette of brown, orange, and yellow. While these designs often feel more dated than those from the 1960s, they are nonetheless iconic for a time and age.

These decades saw a radical shift in pattern design with bold experimentation. Memphis Design, named after the Memphis Group from Milan, rejected minimalism and went for playful chaos. You might recognize the classic confetti-and-swirls look, like in this visual for the TV-series Saved By The Bell (oh, the nostalgia!).

As we moved from the 80’s to the 90’s, it wasn’t just the color palette that changed (cyan everywhere!). As computers became more affordable and powerful, they became the tool of choice for many designers, leading to trends like clean lines, gradients, and blending effects.

The Jazz design above is one of the most famous 90’s motif designs, initially designed for a paper cup. While it may look analog with the brush strokes, it is actually a digital design (the perfect blending of the two colors is a telltale sign). Wikipedia writes about it:

Towards the end of the 20th century, computers became common in households and the internet turned from nerdy niche to mainstream. In the next chapter, we’ll look at what that did for pattern design and the creative industry at large.