Designing Culturally Relevant Patterns
#VisualDesign #StrategicDesign #surfacepattern
Overview
A short walk through my process of designing surface patterns relevant to the people of South India. I was the only in-house designer in a ceramics wall tiles manufacturing company which was in it's initial phase. I was responsible for the entire project myself.
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About the company
Modulo Ceramics Private Limited (referred to as Modulo or MCPL) is now one of the leading ceramics wall tile manufacturer in India. They produce and sell mostly in the Southern region of India. I was a part of the executive team very early on and shouldered all responsibilities related to design.
Primary Audience
Early adopters and prime influencers : Architects, Interior designers.
Potential buyers : People of South India ; mostly house-wives in their late 30s or 40s from middle and upper middle class families
Design brief
To design novel surface patterns for wall tiles which are relevant to the culture of the people of South India and also blend with modern contemporary styles.
After exploring local contemporary trends in surface pattern industries other than wall tiles like textiles and wall papers, I went to the ceramics hub of India, Morbi a small town in Gujarat where I engaged with multiple tile manufacturers and designers to understand the existing ecosystem in the tiles' industry.
I travelled across South India for more than a month, made sketches and notes, lived with the locals to understand what is ‘culturally relevant’ to the people of South India.
Following are a few selected surface patterns made as a result of this understanding.
THANJAVUR DREAMS
Vivid | Festive | Royal
This pattern is inspired from the floral embellishments seen in the ancient temples and the grandeur of royal palaces. The motif of floral embellishments symbolise abundance and prosperity during the time when the temples were built. The colour scheme is inspired from the vivid aesthetics of Tamil festivities.
SCULPTED SPLENDOR
Festive | Auspicious | Celebration
Most of the temples in South India were built by kings to celebrate their victories in war. Valour, pride and celebration also still happen to be recurrent themes in South Indian pop-culture. These surface patterns are inspired from the sculptures in temples of South India.
BLESSED BY KOLAMS
Traditional | Auspicious | Intricate
Every morning, South Indian women draw intricate geometric drawings (locally known as 'kolam') at the threshold of the house as an offering to the universe and an invitation for goodness inside the household. This ritual is a inseparable part of the South Indian culture.
These surface patterns are inspired from the daily ritual of making ‘kolams’ to invite the goddess of wealth and abundance (Mahalakshmi) in the household and keep away the goddess of adversity (Moodevi).
SACRED PROPORTIONS
Auspicious | Discipline | Ordered
Roughly, around 10-12% of people in South India follow Islam and Christianity. Islam prohibits idol worship or having images of any living beings in the place of residence. However, certain proportions and geometry are revered as sacred. The following surface patterns are inspired from the Islamic art of creating geometric patterns.
Islamic geometry seen at Mosques
SOUTHERNSCAPES
Familiar | Relatable | Space
Local geography hugely influences a community’s cultural identity. Following surface patterns are inspired from the unique places and characteristic geographical elements of South India. In the examples below are the Temple of Rameshvaram and the Palmyra trees which are very typical of South India.
This particular concept allows a degree of personalisation of layout. The tile with the temple is the main subject and can be placed anywhere on the 'horizon', all the other tiles are identical and tesselate seamlessly with each other.
Palmyra trees are almost everywhere in South India! So much so that when you see Palmyra trees from the train window, you know you've entered Tamil Nadu.
Other than the visuals being geo-culturally relatable, I tried to create a complete composition which creates an illusion of an open space, instead of conventional patterns which block the view. These tiles are meant specifically for places like living rooms or open settings where it is desirable to open up the space as against closing the view for a feeling of privacy for places like bathrooms and bedrooms.
Above tiles are only representative of the categories I explored.
I created multiple tiles for each category, some of which can be seen in the below video.
