- Publisher
- Thames & Hudson
- Published
- 2008
- Shelf
- culture: Islamic world
- ISBN
- 9780500287217
Islamic world
Islamic Geometric Patterns
Eric Broug
How the patterns are actually built, with compass and straightedge, from monuments you can go and stand in front of.
Why read it
Broug's argument is that these are not decoration applied to a surface but geometry unfolded from a single starting circle, and he proves it by making you draw them. The step-by-step constructions from the Alhambra and Cairo are the whole education.
Why own it
It comes with exercises, and the exercises only work on paper with a compass. Doing three of them teaches more about grid, symmetry and modular systems than a month of reading about any of them.
Who it is for
Pattern and identity designers, and anyone who wants a system they can derive rather than copy.
Opens a search on AbeBooks, a network of independent and antiquarian sellers, which is where a good part of this shelf has to be found, because it is out of print.
Read next
Chosen because they argue with this one, not because a machine noticed they share a category.
