Posts Tagged ‘Patterns’
“There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns.”*…
… and so many more in a beautiful 1878 book of brick patterns, published in France by architect J Lacroux: “Brick Tease,” from @presentcorrect.
* Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor
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As we muse on masonry, we might send carefully-designed birthday greetings to John W. “Jack” Ryan; he was born on this date in 1926. A Yale-trained engineer, Ryan left Raytheon (where he worked on the Navy’s Sparrow III and Hawk guided missiles) to join Mattel. He oversaw the conversion of the Mattel-licensed “Bild Lili” doll into Barbie (contributing, among other things, the joints that allowed “her” to bend at the waist and the knee) and created the Hot Wheels line. But he is perhaps best remembered as the inventor of the pull-string, talking voice box that gave Chatty Cathy her voice.
“Good design doesn’t date. Bad design does.”*…
Where do patterns come from? While some might be computer-generated using the latest in image scanning and digital printing technologies, many more can be sourced to the Design Library—the world’s largest collection of patterns.
Located about 75 minutes from Manhattan in the Hudson Valley village of Wappingers Falls, the Design Library holds more than 7 million different documentary fabrics, original paintings, wallpapers, embroideries, and yarn dyes inside a huge, 12,000-square foot converted fabric mill. Designers hailing from couture fashion brands, as well as those from national chains and big-box stores, all travel to the library to find historical material to use, adapt, and remix in service of their own creative vision.
“The idea here is to get [the patterns] back out into the world and let the world see them recreated, even duplicated,” says Peter Koepke, the owner of the Design Library…
Browse further at “Inside The World’s Largest Pattern Library.”
* Paul Rand
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As we agree with Charles Eames that “the details aren’t the details, they make the design,” we might recall that it was on this date in 1906 that Karl Ludwig Nessler (who changed his name for commercial purposes to “Nestle”), demonstrated the first “permanent wave” for hair in his beauty salon in Oxford Street, London, to an invited audience of hair stylists. The hair was soaked with an alkaline solution and rolled on metal rods which were then heated strongly.
This initial method had the disadvantages of being expensive, very lengthy (about 5 hours) and required a cumbersome machine beneath which the client was obliged to wear a dozen brass curlers, each weighing 1-3/4 lb.
But Nessler/Nestle continuously improved his process. With the outbreak of WW I, he moved to the United States and opened salons in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Palm Beach and Philadelphia, ultimately employing 500.
World Records for the rest of us!…
Recordsetter is, its cofounder suggests, “kind of the Wikipedia to Guinness’ Encyclopedia Britannica.”
We believe everyone can be the world’s best at something. Our mission is to raise the bar of human achievement through world records.
- So wait, can anyone set a world record? Heck yes. All you need is a unique skill, a video camera and a bit of imagination. Beyond that, the rules are simple: records you submit must be quantifiable, breakable and include sufficient media evidence. Creativity is highly encouraged.
- What categories are acceptable? We make it our policy to never subjectively judge submissions, as long as our basic guidelines are followed. We strongly encourage feats that push human achievement in a positive direction. See our RecordSetter Principles below.
- How are submissions moderated? We rely on record setters to provide honest, accurate information about the records they’re submitting. Our approval process includes both community moderation and a round of input from our internal RecordSetter Council. We’re currently developing tools that will allow users greater control in editing submissions.
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As we reach for the stars… or the Starburst, we might spare a fanciful thought for Rodman Edward “Rod” Serling; he died on this date in 1975. An award-winning screenwriter (e.g. the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning Requiem for a Heavyweight) and radio-television producer, he is surely best-remembered for his ground-breaking series The Twilight Zone.
Serling had run afoul of network pressure, even censorship, in his experience with Kraft Television Theater and Playhouse 90; he turned to the speculative fiction format believing that he could more easy fly under the network’s repressive radar– a strategy that allowed him to explore anti-war and anti-racist themes in episodes that won Emmy, Christopher, WGA, Hugo, and Golden Globe awards.
Ironically, it was the extraordinary quality of Serling’s writing that led to the phenomenon of re-runs on television: His Patterns (for Kraft Television Theater) aired at a time when sponsors believed that creating new shows every week would yield the largest possible audience. But response– from both viewers and critics– to Serling’s piece was so strong (it inspired New York Times critic Jack Gould to write an essay urging the use of re-plays within the tele-play format) that it was re-produced– the first time a show was recreated exactly, with the same cast and crew, as it had been originally aired. The re-broadcast was a hit… and the re-run was born.
“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination—next stop, the Twilight Zone!”
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