On Seeing Patterns

How Design Trends Form, Spread, and Stick in Our Minds

Black and white patterns painted on the walls of a metro station in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo ©Gregory Ng

We were driving to the airport last week when the news broke: Pantone had announced their Color of the Year. Spoiler alert: it’s white. Or a form of white made more special by the pretentious name, Cloud Dancer. We laughed. We rolled our eyes. It’s ano…