Patterns around the world

After the prehistory of the last chapter (

The dawn of patterns), we now to our own millenium. Pattern trends and techniques start traveling across the globe and branch into distinct styles and ever richer designs.

Like languages, pattern styles rarely develop in isolation. As cultures spread and met, these visual languages inspired each other, evolving over time and across regions.

African wax prints are a great example of such cultural evolution. Those vibrant wax print patterns began with Indonesian batik, were processed through European industrial methods, then transformed by African designers into something entirely their own.

In Medieval Europe, a famous symbol emerged: the Celtic Knot. These intricate interwoven patterns seem to have no beginning or end. They are a popular tattoo motif today, for Celts and non-Celts alike.

In churches, Gothic rose windows transformed geometric principles into stone and colored glass, creating beauty that was both stunning and mathematically precise. Magnificent, larger-than-life, and yet made by hand, these sometimes took generations to make.

Asian traditions took different approaches. Chinese artists often built lattice patterns in wood. These designs balance form and backdrop, a bit like yin and yang, and they are a great example of working with negative space. Both these and the Gothic rose windows are great examples working with negative space.

Another classic example is the Seigaiha (blue ocean waves), possibly the most well-known pattern from Japanese origin. It’s a simple pattern of overlapping semicircles that roll across the surface like a sea. With just one repeating shape, it manages to capture both the calm rhythm of water and the feeling of endlessness.

From the early days of Islam, artists pushed pattern-making to extraordinary heights. Because of religious laws and customs, artists avoided realistic depictions and poured their creativity into abstract geometry instead.

The results were geometric masterpieces that still captivate us today; they sure mesmerized me when I visited Iran in 2018! Below are some of the many incredible pattern artworks we came across.

These patterns in churches and mosques are best understood as philosophy in visual form, expressing infinity and the divine order through mathematical precision. Take the Alhambra in Spain: one of humanity's greatest achievements in mathematical art, of which you see a small piece of relief below.

These historic patterns use the same mathematical principles that software like Repper uses today to create highly complex designs. Medieval artists were essentially creating what we'd now call algorithms, yet creating them entirely by hand.

The Industrial Revolution changed pattern-making forever. Previously, patterned fabrics required painstaking hand creation—thread by thread, block print by block print. This made them time-consuming and expensive to produce, even with tools like a loom.

The Jacquard loom, introduced in 1804, was essentially the world's first programmable machine. It used punched cards to automatically weave complex patterns—a direct ancestor of computer programming. This innovation made patterned textiles affordable for ordinary people for the first time.

Printed patterns became more accessible as printing techniques improved, leading to the famous rich wallpapers of the late 19th century. These wall designs combined figurative elements like plants and animals with geometric repetition.

Pattern books became bestsellers, spreading designs across continents faster than ever before. But human nature kicked in: as machine-made patterns became common, people began craving handmade alternatives. This sparked movements like Arts and Crafts, which emphasized returning to human craftsmanship.