Art Deco Geometrica: How I Created My First Pattern
Using drafting skills I honed from my architecture education, I've created Art Deco Geometrica. This post talks about how the first pattern was created using a notebook and some pens. From there, I encode it to create many iterations!
SPACE
Richard Lasam
7/4/20253 min read
As I discussed before about how this hobby of mine started in the blog and in Medium, a little bit of flexibility in my schedule in the year 2024 gave me the time to really organize and formulate my pattern drawing. It's like a little adventure I've embarked on: creating patterns using some of the old skills I acquired from architecture school.
These drawing exercises I started to do on my notebooks is also partially my way of encouraging my children to be interested in the beauty and fun of drawing on paper, so that they can have time away from smartphones and reduce their screentime.
So, please say hello to my first “formal” pattern (above) that I made for my hobby: Art Deco GeoMetrica – Pattern Number 001 of the Year 2024, which I call “Angular Solace.” As you can see with the actual paper drawing, I use a 5 mm x 5 mm grid notebook for this pattern and utilize a 10 x 10 square grid. For this pattern, I created a 2-cell spacing rule applied as a 4-point symmetrical sequence in the square (i.e. the pattern has the same design symmetry on all sides of the square) to iterate the pattern that I want to see.
I gave it the name Angular Solace, because while the pattern may be quite simple, it requires a singular focus while drafting (the architectural term for drawing on paper) to minimize errors while drawing. It created a highly angular and sharp pattern, with the shapes creating a slight 3-dimensional look to the pattern.
As this was my first Art Deco GeoMetrica pattern, I was still kind of figuring out how to present it on paper before I encoded into the computer. For this drawing, I was using pencils, technical pens, and a grey highlighter.
Encoded, the pattern looks like this:
This one is technically called ADG24.001.1 – Art Deco GeoMetrica, Year 2024, Pattern Tile 001, Iteration 1. This an iteration because once I encode the pattern tile into its digitized form, I can now utilize my architectural programs to extrapolate other patterns based on these Pattern Tiles. Iteration 1 is the simplest, as it is simply the tile being spread on a uniform grid.
As an example of the other iterations, this is Pattern 24.001.8, available in Adobe Stock as a stock graphic pattern for template or background uses:
I also have it available in Redbubble if one wants it to be printed as a surface design pattern. In this case a cover for a hardcover journal:
If you like this pattern, you can support me by visiting my Adobe Stock page to check out the other patterns I have made over this past year and going to my YouTube channel to see me draw these patterns!