7 Look for inspiration

Now that you know the kinds of tiles and patterns you can design, it’s time to look for some inspiration from other historical tile and pattern designs.

A good place to look is the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), which has an online catalogue. You can search their catalogue for tiles [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] or for fabrics. The V&A also has a good guide on creating Islamic tile patterns.

Figure 31  A nineteenth-century design for roofing tiles by designer Matthew Digby Wyatt, created by cutting coloured paper

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The image shows a pattern made up of horizontal lines of geometric shapes in muted red and ochre colours.

Figure 31  A nineteenth-century design for roofing tiles by designer Matthew Digby Wyatt, created by cutting coloured paper

When seeking inspiration like this, the goal is to pinpoint discrete elements that can be incorporated into your own wallpaper designs. You might come across intriguing shapes or a colour scheme suitable for your own pattern. Make some notes and sketch some tile and pattern ideas based on these inspirations.

You can install a colour picker extension for your browser that can show you the RGB values of anything on your screen. This free extension for the Chrome browser is one example of this.

In Figure 32 I used the colours of a fabric from the V&A collection, made in 1872 in Kanpur, India, by an unidentified artisan, to set the RGB values for two colours in my own tile design.

Figure 32  RGB values taken from an Indian fabric

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The image is split into two halves. The left half shows a piece of mustard yellow fabric with a floral pattern and a red-orange stripe. The right half shows the p5.js canvas with different colour segments that match the colours of the fabric.

Figure 32  RGB values taken from an Indian fabric

Take a moment to reflect that these designs are not just aesthetic objects but originate from specific historical and cultural contexts. Following the completion of this project, you can delve deeper into researching the context of the designs that have inspired your wallpaper pattern. Carrying out this kind of deeper research will strengthen your wallpaper design.