Design, Pattern and Applied Art
What this domain tests
Design questions ask for a made thing: a repeating pattern, a border, a poster, a book cover or a card. Marks go to a clear scheme, controlled repetition, a limited palette and neat, even craft.
Core rules
- One motif, well drawn. Simplify a flower, leaf, bird or geometric unit until it reads at small size, then repeat it. A fussy motif becomes noise.
- Use a repeat system. Block repeat (grid), half-drop (each row shifted half a unit down), brick, or mirror repeat. Half-drop and brick avoid the striped look of a plain grid.
- Keep rhythm and balance. Equal spacing creates calm; progressive size or rotation creates movement. Symmetrical balance is safe; asymmetrical needs careful weight.
- Limit the palette to three or four colours plus white, and repeat each colour at least three times so the eye can travel.
- Mind figure and ground. The background shape must be as deliberate as the motif; never let motifs randomly touch the edge.
Worked example
A 15 cm square with a stylized lotus unit. Draw the unit in a quarter of the square, trace it, and rotate it into the four quadrants for radial symmetry. Add a corner motif and a double-line border. Use two greens, one terracotta and white only - no outline heavier than the motif itself - and measure spacing with a divider so every repeat is identical.
Traps that cost marks
Too many colours; motifs of different sizes in the same row; freehand spacing that drifts; decoration crammed into the centre with dead corners; lettering on a poster that is squeezed, uneven or unreadable at a distance; and a border that is thicker on one side than the other.