This year is the first time that I have used one of my own designs for the Christmas card that my girlfriend and me send out to our family and friends. The design is based on triangle shapes, that are colored in alternating stripes of the Christmas colors red, green, and white. Randomization of the corner locations of the triangles and of the color shades results in a 3D-looking pattern that appears both random and structured at the same time.
Adding more shapes and colors
So far, all patterns I have created are based on diamond shapes. I have now started adding more possible shapes to build patterns from: triangles (half of a diamond), hexagons (three diamonds combined), and circles. In addition, I started experimenting with adding more base colors to the designs. Instead of using a single color that randomizes towards black and white, I created designs that use several base colors that can randomize towards any other color.
Randomness transitions
To depict the contrast between randomness and structure more explicitly, I started making designs that include spatial transitions from a well-structured pattern into a randomized one. As the pattern starts to become slightly randomized, it gets more interesting and different shapes seem to appear. But as randomness progresses, the pattern becomes more and more chaotic and the original structure is hardly recognizable any more.
Randomizing patterns
Irritated by the many pseudo-random patterns that I encounter on a daily basis, and intrigued by the possible surprises that might appear, I started creating 'real random' patterns. No more random-looking patterns that are repeating after all when you look closer, but patterns where all parts are really different! Also, every pattern is truly unique. Because of all the random effects, it is practically impossible to make exactly the same pattern again. At first I started randomizing the locations of the shape corners, but random changes in the (shade of) the colors followed soon!