Repeated Patterns from Photos

This design assembled from fossils is so plain and simple that it was almost overlooked by me. But actually, it’s a strong classic rendering in the best tradition of repeated pattern designs. Your discrete collage has a ready use on non-committal surfaces such as backs of playing cards, inside expensive book covers as well as on anything needing a touch of neutrality. It could lend itself for clothing such as men’s neckties or women's headscarfs. The objectivity of your timeless, coloured pattern just goes to prove that subtlety can also win the day.

The appetising view of bright red cherries dangling from white stalks against a black background is what drew me to your tricolour design. They’re tantalisingly laid out in regimented rows, ripe and ready for picking. You had a similar design entered to this challenge but this one pipped it because the larger fruit made a much bolder statement. This fruity, polka dot wallpaper design is good enough to savour in any room of the house.

It’s no wonder that some of the most successful entries in this challenge were composed from flowers and leaves. Wallpaper patterns have a long tradition of using nature’s innate beauty to help decorate our home interiors. I can give you no higher praise then to compare your pattern-delineated, pink flowers and green leaves, to the Victorian floral designs of William Morris. Textile and print manufacturers would do well to take a leaf out of your inspired illustrated entry. Better still, they should approach you directly for permission to use your award-winning design.

This patchwork of colour and mono images interposed with one another is a roaring success. You say it’s the eye of a tiger but I can see the eyes of a wise old owl with tufts of ear feathers sticking out from its head. Perfect for lining the walls of a cosy bedroom especially if it’s accompanied by the romantic sound of a tawny owl too-wit-too-woong outside in the night.

This is a calm, soothing, pastel design making clever use of drinking straws. I can see it decorating the walls of a milk bar or an ice cream parlour. The starkness of the triangular lines is offset by the softness of the wings coming out of the linear shapes. Your entry stood out because its a subdued and tranquil composition compared to the very many bold and busy patterns entered to this challenge.

Here’s honesty for you - a photographer who hates his own wallpaper design! If truth be told, a lot of photographers wouldn’t be able to live with their patterned entries plastered over their walls. What makes your photo stand out is the addition of the door - the only entry to give their composition a sense of scale. Your tiny, reconstructed model shops surrounded by black canal water make a strong, aerial architectural view. It looks as if the design was specifically selected by an interior decorator to match the colours of the white frame and orange oak door.

This big, bright and bold design would make a strong impact lining one wall in any modern kitchen or dining room. I say ‘one wall’ because it would be much too much to pepper every wall with a powerful pattern such as this. The contrasting colours of red peppers against green stalks and blue plates are so in-your-face that it would take a brave person to display your wallpaper in their home. Someone like Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen could probably pull if off in one of his outlandish ‘ Changing Rooms’ TV programme makeovers.

One could have lots of fun looking at your autumnal smorgasbord trying to identify each individual item. Your rich forest pickings make a wonderful wallpaper design which would brighten up any room no matter whatever season. The potpourri pattern of earthy-coloured acorns, conkers and nuts would work equally well as a fabric design on everything from clothes to curtains and would easily become a success if it was released commercially.

At first glance this is a relaxing, textured wallpaper with specially selected colours to create a peaceful ambience. On closer inspection it shows a cacophony of battery chickens looking as if they’re taken from one of Jackson Pollock’s abstract paintings. It’s the flipped, juxtaposition between complete serenity and utter mayhem that gives your unique repetitive pattern its double entendre.