Behavioral Patterns

Sometimes when I walk into a Barnes & Noble, I find a really beautifully put-together art magazine that I decide needs to come home with me. It inevitably winds up costing $15-$30 for a slim volume of work, but I am a good consumer, and I can't help myself. These "boutique" art magazines are created specifically for people like me (and many of you): design magpies.

This week, I flew off with a copy of IdN (an International Designers Network publication). The magazine, though thin, is perfect bound with a nice heavyweight, satin-finish coated card stock cover and an iridescent foil stamp (oooh shiney) with the title: The Shapes-In-Pattern Issue. More than a dozen artists and studios are featured whose work reflects the concept of pattern in a wide variety off mediums--the issue even includes a 90 minute DVD of motion collages.

I looooove well-conceived patterns and was already super excited about this find, but once I realized the work of American artist Andy Gilmore was featured in the issue I almost lost my mind. One of my favorite electronic artists, the London-based Gold Panda, has used Gilmore's work on the covers of several of his 12" and 7" singles (Gilmore is essentially a resident visual artist at the record label, Ghostly International). In IdN, he says that "A good pattern is about harmony in all of its elements--form, color, composition, etc." It sounds simple enough, but his work is so complex, so vibrant, and so beautiful, it makes me cry prismatic rainbow tears. If you're anything like me, please grab a hankie before you scroll down this post to see what I mean.