Want to export all the patterns in your current snapshots set in one go? With the just-released SymmetryMill 2.1, you can. The Export dialog now has the Export Snapshots button that lets you choose a folder and then automatically save all the patterns (or tiles) in separate image files. Continue reading New in SymmetryMill 2.1: One-Click Export of Snapshots
As luck would have it, while researching materials for this post, we’ve gotten reacquainted with Jaeson Caulley, a long-time Artlandia user, who is also a designer, an expert in secure printing, and Vice President of DSS Plastics Group, a leader in manufacturing secure plastic cards.
According to Jaeson, over the past ten years, the market in building secure plastic cards has shifted from standard guilloché patterns to fine-line patterns, as the look is fresher and friendlier to photos, names, addresses, and all other kinds of variable data on the card.
For the new polycarbonate ID cards (“unbreakable glass”), which have laser-engraved variable data, fine-line patterns are also a must because the material simply won’t bond if large swaths of fill colors are used, whereas thin lines off the edge of the card allow the material to adhere to the next layer.
Today we are happy to announce the release of a major new version of Artlandia SymmetryMill, a desktop application that provides the easiest-to-use tools for creating seamless repeating patterns from any image. Rebuilt from the ground up and based on modern technology, SymmetryMill 2 brings you a range of improvements and makes your pattern design work even more productive and fun. Among the major improvements are: Continue reading Artlandia SymmetryMill 2: Pattern Design for the Rest of Us
Last updated: September 3, 2017
Patterns add flavor to your webpage, making it unique and unforgettable. As a pattern designer, you will probably want to make your patterns yourself, and all the Artlandia tools, SymmetryWorks, SymmetryShop, and SymmetryMill, will let you do that. But if you are in hurry, there’s a wealth of patterns on Pattern Central that you can deploy right away, either as is or tweaked to suit your needs.
To that end, for every shared pattern set, Pattern Central gives you a direct link to a pattern tile. The tile is exactly what you need for your page CSS (or the HTML style attribute).
For instance, to re-create the first pattern from a shared set, like “SymmetryMill Blending Modes,” get its tile image and upload it to your website or link directly to the tile. For a pattern to run through the body of a page, you can add this class to the body tag (the background-size property is optional and needed only if you want to scale the pattern):
.pattern {
background-image: url("http://artlandia.com/share/tile/17b819be244e76a");
background-repeat: repeat;
background-size: 30%;
}
Continue reading Where Do Patterns Go? Part 2: Patterns for Your Webpage
Last updated: September 3, 2017
Artlandia’s Pattern Central just made it easier to use shared patterns in your projects. You could always load a shared pattern set in SymmetryMill and export a pattern tile for the pattern that you like. Now you may be able to skip a couple of steps, because the first tile in each shared set is available directly from Pattern Central. The tile image will seamlessly repeat if stacked both vertically and horizontally in many applications.
Continue reading Pattern Tiles: New on Pattern Central
You often want to make the repeat size of your patterns exactly to spec, which is now easy, thanks to SymmetryMill 2 displaying the repeat size when you edit the control path. You can also turn on the repeat size display by simply hovering your mouse over the control path. In either case, the repeat size shows up in the top section of the Source Image window.
Continue reading Get the Repeat Right: New Repeat Size display in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
Wouldn’t you want to sit back and relax while somebody makes all kinds of patterns for you? With SymmetryMill 2, you can! Just start the Pattern Explorer and let it run. Stop any time you see something interesting. But don’t worry about missing a beat. All the intermediate steps are recorded and you can replay them, like a movie, or browse frame by frame and select the best.
Continue reading Pattern Making on Autopilot: Pattern Explorer in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
When it comes to making seamless patterns, there can’t be too many tricks up your sleeve. SymmetryMill 2 adds dozens of new blend modes to your arsenal and lets you customize boundaries between neighboring units in your patterns exactly to your liking.
You can choose among many blend modes, such as Normal, Enhanced Average, Dissolve, Darken, Multiply, Color Burn, Inverse Color Dodge, Lighten, Screen, Overlay, Soft, Hard, Vivid Light, Glow, Freeze, Heat, Difference, and Composite.
Continue reading Make That Perfect Seamless Pattern: New Blend Modes in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
You often want to tweak your patterns to make them look just so. In SymmetryMill 2, you can do that with a rich collection of image filters:
Continue reading Get More Patterns out of Your Images: New Filters in SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
When you share your patterns, SymmetryMill 2 will do a better job of promoting your brand. You don’t have to do anything differently on your end. Simply click the Share button in the SymmetryMill toolbar, fill in whatever details you wish to include in the dialog, and your patterns will be off to Pattern Central to be seen by everyone.
Continue reading Promote Your Brand: Sharing Patterns on Pattern Central with SymmetryMill 2
Last updated: June 7, 2017
SymmetryMill 2 is almost here, and it comes with a new automatic pattern generator, advanced blend modes, a bevy of new filters, numerous improvements, and, importantly, a modern technology behind the familiar user interface.
Continue reading Artlandia SymmetryMill 2 Is Coming. Are You Ready?
Last updated: September 3, 2017
Pattern applications are endless, but there are never too many ideas when it comes to brainstorming new uses for your patterns. Here, inspired in part by a wonderful collection of 1000 dresses by Fitzgerald and Taylor, we ran through a few of such ideas.
Most of the source patterns are taken straight from the Artlandia Glossary and are included in a free bonus pack (in a vector format, of course) available with a purchase of SymmetryWorks. We did make minor alterations, though. Couldn’t resist a temptation to tweak patterns on mockups when it’s so easy to do with SymmetryWorks LP. We can make the modified patterns available too. If you wish to get exactly these versions, please contact us and we’ll see what we can do.
Now, let’s get to work. An animal print goes to a fitted round-neck knee-length sleeveless formal dress which underscores femininity (even within the constraints of business settings) and altogether creates a strong impression of authority.
Continue reading Where Do Patterns Go? Part 1: Fashion Design
Last updated: June 18, 2017
Call it whatever you like, but this is a fascinating subject. The terms “positive-negative patterns,” “patterns with figure-ground reversal,” and “counterchange patterns” are often synonymous, but they can also shed light on the same pattern at different angles and go to the heart of what makes patterns with color reversals so interesting and attractive.
Before we start, let’s be clear on one thing. Traditionally, counterchange patterns are introduced with the help of black and white pictures, which is certainly proper because nothing conveys the gist of color inversion better; or the concept of yin and yang; or positive and negative. We’ll follow the tradition and give only a few examples in full color, mainly to drive home the fact that color reversals work splendidly with any number of colors so your counterchange color palette can be as elaborate as you wish.
Back to the subject, “counterchange” usually refers to color reversals in the most generic sense. For instance, we could say that the number of standard pattern types grows dramatically from 17 to 46 if one permits color reversals, alongside rotations, reflections, and other symmetry operations, when generating a pattern from a motif. In that context the neutral term “counterchange patterns” is ideal. And, yes, starting from version 6, SymmetryWorks creates both the standard 17 pattern types and the 46 counterchange pattern types at a click.
Continue reading Positive-Negative Patterns, Figure-Ground Reversal, and Counterchange
Last updated: September 3, 2017
As a pattern junkie, you may know how to capture the structure of a repeating pattern in a diagram; that is, determine to which of the seventeen symmetry types a pattern belongs. Yes, we are talking about surface patterns, or wallpaper patterns, whose type is determined by what mathematicians call the plane (2D) symmetry groups. Turns out all pattern schematics are not made equal and, surprisingly, the most simple diagram, which is also the most useful for the non-mathematically inclined, is also the least known or, we might even be tempted to say, a well-kept secret.
Traditionally, because you are dealing with symmetries, your pattern schematics would show symmetry operations, probably combined with boundaries of repeating units (“unit cells” or “fundamental domains”), and often made more intelligible by superimposing actual patterns produced by a simple asymmetric bit (a line, a comma, or a letter of an alphabet). Here are a few examples of the standard approach, which we show mostly to help you fully appreciate a simpler one that’s coming up next:
Continue reading The Simplest Diagram of the 17 Symmetry Types, Ever
Last updated: September 3, 2017
