Neisha Crosland: Life of a Pattern

Neisha Crosland sees pattern everywhere. Her extraordinary eye seeks out symmetry, order and structure wherever she goes: in artefacts, buildings, paintings and, above all, in nature. This book is a tribute to that talent: a visual feast of pattern, color, unexpected information and surprising personal stories. It is also an exploration of why pattern matters to every single one of us.
Artists are often asked the origin of their ideas. This remarkably beautiful book is Neisha's answer to that question. She takes the reader from first spark of an idea to the finished product: exploring a myriad of cultural pathways and making unusual connections along the way. For in art, Neisha believes nothing is ever truly original.
This book is a personal and revealing account of Neisha's own story as a designer, but it also draws on conversations about pattern she has had with musicians, mathematicians, psychotherapists as well as other designers. Beginning as an art student standing in the Basilica di San Marco in Venice, it travels through many continents and eras: from Mughal India to Moorish Spain, and from pilgrims on the route to Santiago de Compostela to Jacobean England. there are tales of mankind's earliest rituals, alongside explorations of 16th-century court dresses, Baroque wood carving, 17th-century shell-collecting and Russian Constructivist paintings. It ends in Japan over a delicious meal.
There is fascinating technical detail, too, including wonderful examples of Neisha's early work using weaving and printing methods that have now vanished because of contemporary commercial pressures on mills and manufacturers. She also explores the ways a technique or color can completely reinvent a design, and how that design can alter its mood when placed in a different interior or when applied to a different medium or product.
Working sketches illuminate her argument as well as visuals of her key sources of inspiration. Abundant photographs, too - showing Neisha's work in the interiors of fashionable restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and homes around the world - strikingly illustrate the text. The patterns themselves are stunningly animated by Anikst Design's specially commissioned photography: magazine files become skyscrapers, fine china glides across mirrors, rugs take to the air and fabrics appear like wild seas and rivers. The result is a kind of visual onomatopoeia as well as a thrillingly surreal visual experience for the reader.
This book is a loving tribute to the power of pattern that will appeal to anyone who appreciates beauty and has ever wondered why their eye is so delighted.