Generative design

Member lesson

Pattern, tiling and repeat

Lesson 5 of 10 in Generative design.

What are...the seventeen wallpaper groups? · VisualMath
Lesson

Pattern is a solved generative problem with a long history and a small amount of mathematics behind it. There are exactly seventeen ways a pattern can repeat across a plane, a fact proved in the nineteenth century and visible in the tilework of the Alhambra centuries earlier.

straight repeat · the gridshowshalf-drop · the gridhides
A motif repeated in a straight repeat and in a half-drop.
A decorator smooths a new length of leaf-patterned wallpaper onto a wall. At the join the leaves don't line up, leaving a visible seam, and across the whole wall a faint diagonal band of darker leaves appears.
Check the join, then the whole wall. The seam and stray diagonal only show at full size.
Member

The rest of this is for members.

You have read the opening of this lesson. The rest of it comes with a membership.

One membership covers all four courses and Brands.

  • All lessons in the four Learn courses
  • All brand breakdowns in the Brands section
  • All quizzes, flashcards and crosswords
  • An AI teacher on every lesson, for up to 60 questions a day
  • All course material published during the membership

Price

Membership is from $12 a month on the Yearly plan, which is charged at $144 once a year. Lifetime access is $59, paid once.Membership is from ₹200 a month on the Yearly plan, which is charged at ₹2,400 + GST once a year. Lifetime access is ₹3,999 + GST, paid once.

Check what stuck

Members only

You can't take this check yet.

Members answer these 3 questions and keep the ticket for this lesson. Every lesson has one.

  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “How a pattern joins itself. Block, half-drop, brick. The oldest generative rule there is.”

    • Plotter
    • Edition
    • Repeat
    • Proof
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “An image whose edges match, so it can be laid out endlessly.”

    • Generative design
    • Tileable
    • Parameter
    • Instance
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The seventeen mathematically possible ways a plane pattern can repeat.”

    • Sketch
    • Plotter
    • Wallpaper group
    • Edition

Elsewhere in the library

Hear about new courses.

Leave an email and we will tell you when something new lands. We do not write often.