Chris Dickman (bio)

According to Macnab, "By appreciating natural patterns, we better understand the basic patterns we instinctively recognize, thus we better learn how to communicate. Design is the ability to communicate through an intuitive sense of pattern. It is the difference between lucid communication and meaningless noise." It seems to me that she's on the right track when she says that "Pattern awareness allows us as designers to choose the most appropriate relationships that specifically describe a client's unique attributes, while simultaneously embedding universal cultural concepts."

My own belief is that one should be wary of any illusions of "universality" in the domain of design (or anything else for that matter.) It's certainly possible to identify similar visual elements in the sacred or practical arts across cultures and millenia but on closer inspectation they often reveal meaning grounded in a particular culture at a particular time. More elusive is the achievement of what the philosopher and mystic G.I. Gurdjieff referred to as "objective art." He relates a visit to an Eastern temple, available only to initiates, which employed an internal geometry designed to produce a single, particular effect on visitors—but only those who were "prepared." In a similar way, the carvings of European Gothic churches are believed to embody Masonic and other esoteric beliefs, providing the ability to be "read" in a particular way by the initiated—while appearing merely decorative to anyone else. Closer to home, the practice of academic painters basing their canvases on tales from the Greeks and Romans made perfect sense to viewers for hundreds of years—but is impenetrable now for most of us.

However, Macnab makes a good case for close observation of such natural patterns as branching, spirals, entwining and meandering, and how they can infuse current design. Some patterns and symbols receive a fairly in-depth exploration across cultures, such as the swastika, which has a long and rich history. It's great to see images of it in use for everything from Indian temples, through Japanese manhole covers and the walls of a hotel in New Mexico. However, this is not meant to be a scholarly book, so in a case like this a quick hop over to good old Wikipedia will provide much deeper background on such symbols.

The book provides separate chapters for the numbers 0 through 9, with each including examples of how these are manifested in nature as well in the belief structures of those from other times and cultures. Attempting to bring all this home are case studies featuring contemporary work that Macnab sees as embodying in some way the often mystical properties of the numbers. If this strikes a chord there are many books to choose from that explore in a more rigorous way the history of numerological beliefs and practices.

One thing I found missing was coverage of tools for incorporating the covered concepts into design work. Just off the top of my head I would suggest the Golden Section Photoshop plugin from Power Retouche, or the staggeringly rich Illustrator and Photoshop plugins from Artlandia for creating symmetrical imagery.

But this is not to diminish Decoding Design. Macnab's central premise, that we increasingly create within a vacuum, without any real grounding, is a worthy one. While the book only scratches the surface as an introduction to the work of other cultures driven by an observation of nature or numerological beliefs, it opens these up as a path for further exploration, with the worthwhle objective of enriching our current work.

A sample chapter of the book, as well as purchasing information, is available on the DecodingDesign.com site.

Chris Dickman
Graphics.com