Podcast
99% Invisible
It was discussed as a famous encyclopedia of design containing various patterns from around the world, including many examples of the quatrefoil, and influenced design in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Owen Jones was an architect who took a special interest in ornament and pattern.
— Episode: The Fancy Shape
Episode: The Fancy Shape
It was discussed as a famous encyclopedia of design containing various patterns from around the world, including many examples of the quatrefoil, and influenced design in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Owen Jones was an architect who took a special interest in ornament and pattern.
His book, the grammar of ornament, has pages and pages of pure pattern and then, you know, some text intervening. But for the most part, it's just colorful squares of pattern from buildings all over the world.
I mean, you've got India, you've got Chinese, you have Moorish, Celtic, Turkish, like an Epcot tour of wallpapers.
It was particularly Owen Jones's work, the grammar of ornament, where the quatrefoil had a very important place.
He hoped the grammar of ornament would provide context and background for these patterns and that they would be a source of inspiration which anyone and everyone could use.