Patterns are everywhere we look: from the seats on the train to our clothes, from posters, wallpapers and packaging to windows, floors, and dishes. It's part of our experience as humans: it represents tribes, cultures, religious beliefs, and historical periods. We associate them with materials, textures, fruits, plants or animals. They warn us of danger or make our environment lighter, they calm us down with their geometries, repetitions and logical structures, or excite us and drive us crazy with their perceived irregularities and colours.

This Expertise Module is a lab where students will learn the basics of pattern design, from the most basic, based on simple geometric shapes, to some more elaborate and complex ones, and will experiment with analogue and digital tools to create their own style and patterns, which could be applied to 2D and 3D products, or be displayed in film and animation.

Students will use a topic of their interest as a creative source for concepts that would later be translated into moodboards, elements, geometries, and patterns, and will apply them to mock-ups for their own projects and/or products.

For this, it is suggested that students experiment with analogue techniques, such as coloured pencils, markers, watercolours, etc., and also with digital tools of their preference, to develop their style.

For this course, some materials will be required for the experimentation phase:

Paper to draw and paint on (A4 size drawing blocks work better)

Some tracing paper

Graph paper (also known as grid paper or square paper) - either as sheets of paper, or as cards.

Markers, fine liners, pencils and coloured pencils.

Rulers and compass (if you have one).

Any other materials for drawing and painting are welcome, although it is not necessary to buy them! (If you have some watercolours and brushes at home, bring them! / a small, low-price set would suffice).

A computer with design software of your choice (Illustrator, Photoshop, Affinity, Procreate, InDesign, etc.)