Pattern & Surface

Camo Mania explores the how artists and designers redefine and reify the impacts of camouflage. Through experimentation with visual contrasts, imagery, composition, colour and shape, the once limited function of these patterns become artistic tools. Originally discovered in the fabric of wartime uniforms and intended to abstract...

A timely and expansive survey of a groundbreaking American art movement that overturned aesthetic hierarchies in a riot of color and ornamentationThe Pattern and Decoration movement emerged in the 1970s as an embrace of long-dismissed art forms associated with the decorative. Pioneering artists such...

This luxurious book explores contemporary wallpaper through three approaches to design - Architectural Illusions, Fabulous Florals and Pasted Pictures. Each section starts with 21st century examples, then traces the history back through the key moments, developments, designers and manufacturers to the origins of the style....

Includes a 100+ page appendix featuring translations of the book's essays and chronology in French, Spanish, Finnish, Thai and Mandarin Formica Forever, published to celebrate Formica’s centenary, takes us on a lively, informative walk through the life of this much-loved material: from its beginnings as...

This beautifully illustrated book offers a survey of William Morris' life and work alongside some of his finest decorative work. Morris possessed a multi-faceted genius that allowed him not only to master every craft to which he turned his hand, but also to write critically...

Tartan is so much more than just a cloth. From its clan origins in the Scottish Highlands to the catwalks of Milan, London and New York, from its regimental history to its anti-establishment status, tartan has not only shaped a nation but has become...

German company Resopal have been pioneers in the manufacture and design of plastic laminates since their invention in the early twentieth century. Like Formica in the U.S., the brand name Resopal is practically synonymous with the entire field of laminates in Germany.  This study...

Beauty Reigns focuses on exoticism, exuberance and optimism in contemporary painting through the work of 13 emerging and mid-career abstract painters. Common  characteristics include high-key colour, obsessive layering of surface imagery, repeated patterns, stylised motifs and a tension between melancholy and the sublime. Featured artists: Jose...

Digital Pioneers showcases the work of post-war designers and artists using new technology to create images of unexpected purity in their natural patterning, symmetry and order. Artists featured include Ben Laposky, Herbert Franke, Charles Csuri and Paul Brown. The V&A Pattern series reveals the museum's...

From typographic illustrator Marian Bantjes, I Wonder offers new ways of thinking about art, design, beauty, and popular culture through elaborately crafted word pictures. Whether intricately hand-drawn or using computer illustration software, Bantjes's work crosses the boundaries of time, style, and technology. There is,...

Christopher Dresser (1834–1904) is one of the most influential British designers of all time and he is widely regarded as Britain’s first independent industrial designer. His works still look remarkably modern more than a century later. Like his contemporary William Morris, Dresser advocated for...

This book presents a comprehensive view of the work of American painter Philip Taaffe (b.1955), who has expanded the parameters of painting through his use of silkscreen, linocuts, collage, stencils, gouache, chine-collé, marbling, acrylic, enamel, watercolour and gold leaf. Possessing many technical skills, Taaffe...

10 sheets | 12 tags  Sheets unfold to 68 x 48 cm Ten sheets of wrapping paper bound as a book and perforated for easy removal. The patterns are inspired by the inner workings of bicycles and have been produced by Here Design.

Nicholas Krushenick (b.1929) is a key figure in the history of late 20th-century American art. Juxtaposing broad black lines with bold, flat colours, Krushenick created hard-edged abstractions that fill his canvases from corner to corner. His energetic forms used experiments in cut paper collage...

Mind-bending posters inspired by the iconic 1960s counterculture movement with 14 large-scale psychedelic black-light posters. Printed with fluorescent inks which glow when exposed to ultraviolet light emitted from black lights.  Printed on high-quality, durable cardstock, the posters are glued in for easy individual removal.