Interested in being part of our pattern study?

• Currently in development is a Patterns of Place project involving the VCUarts middle Of broad interdisciplinary design studio. The intention is to have mOb studio’s interior design, graphic design, and fashion design students examine the 2nd Street corridor in Richmond, beginning at the American Civil War Museum and ending at the Gilpin Court (Shockoe Hill) Housing Community. 

• During the winter and spring of 2021, the research team will be sharing Patterns of Place progress with the university community through the VCUarts Faculty Lecture Series and with VCUarts supporters through a Pollak Society guest-lecture engagement.  This is an opportunity to share research outcomes and the varied, thoughtful processes used by the Patterns of Place research and participant teams. Through these panel discussions and lectures, we hope to generate collaborative opportunities for future pattern investigation.

• The Virginia Commonwealth University Scholar’s Compass is a publishing platform for the intellectual output of VCU's academic, research, and administrative communities. Its goal is to provide wide and stable access to the exemplary work of VCU's faculty, researchers, students, and staff. 

  For students of interior design, pattern study connects design history, studio-based skills development, graphic communication learning, knowledge of contemporary and traditional craft, materials and their limits and opportunities, communication with fabricators and researchers, and research process development.

• The undergraduate Pattern Research Project has been offered in the sophomore year of the Interior Design program at VCU. Pattern study provides insight into materiality, craft, place and time, concept, culture, and technology. The Pattern Research Project is a cross-disciplinary project that spans the Design History and Fundamentals of Interior Design courses during the sophomore year of VCU Interior Design's BFA curriculum. This project challenges students to select a contemporary pattern found in the built environment (textiles, wallcoverings, screens), identify design precedents, research and analyze both the contemporary pattern and historical precedents, and communicate these findings. Examples of past projects can be found here.

• The undergraduate Pattern Project has been included in the junior materials course. The Pattern Project explores the process of developing visual patterns, intended for the built interior environment, through both hand and digital crafts. Inspirations evolve into pattern concepts that inform message and intention. The intended message then informs motif, color, density, composition, line, repetition, hierarchy, and texture.

Drawing from history, designers assess the role of pattern within the built environment and its connection to architecture and building occupants. Traditional handcrafts have evolved and are now used in contemporary processes while new digital crafts have emerged as pattern-making tools. The patterns developed through the Pattern Project were produced to scale on paper or textile measuring approximately 24" wide x 60" long. Examples of past projects can be found here.