Maryland Institute College of Art

We just started a visual exercise called “Swatch,” where students are articulating their own personal graphic language by assembling imagery and marks on a 2-d surface. The project is not about pattern design per; instead, we are using the idea of pattern to assemble imagery that may come from diverse sources yet holds together around a common vocabulary. Here are some examples of work by artists and designers that works along these lines:

Murakami painting/print

Philip Guston painting

Maira Kalman fabric

Lucienne Day fabrics

Geoff McFetridge “Farm” wallpaper

Each of these fantastic works of art and design involves distinctive personal imagery as well as an approach to making marks (painted, drawn, vector) and color (hard, soft, natural, plastic).