Form Generator: Flower of Life

Description

A grid comprised of 8 overlapping circles that share a common intersection in the center of the canvas. The scale, color, and blending of the circles all respond to user interaction to create a beautifully simple and mesmerizing visual experience.

Design Process

This classic pattern has captivated me since I first saw it, and this exercise was the perfect opportunity to experiement with manipulating the proportions and ratios of the pattern in a fun and interactive way. I created my initial sketch in photoshop and opted to create a non-traditional circle grid pattern using 8 overlapping circles instead of 6 with an additional one in the center so that all of the shapes would have an element of dynamic movement on the canvas. I also chose for the shapes to only scale uniformly instead of indepently on the x and y axes because I think it is the perfect circles that give it its innate beauty and visual power, and I wanted to try a preserve that while still experimenting with individual circles relationships to each other.

This process walso involved a lot of trial and error in dialing in the scaling ratios and figuring out how to make sure the generated forms did not break the constrains of the canvas and figuring out how to make sure there weren't any "dead spots" that were less reactive to user input. At first I wanted to have each circle be a different color with a different blending mode, but in addition to needing about double or tripple the variables, I think it would have be been too visually dissonant with all random colors and blend modes.

Reflection

While drawn out, the process of creating this piece was a fun and playful process, and enand I encourage those who view this experience to do so listening to fun music and dance their cursor across the screen to the music as I did! Figure eight patterns work well for this as the path smoothly flows through each quadrant of the canvas and creates a "breathing" effect. In playing around with this pattern, I found a number of other beautiful overlapping arrangements completely by accidently which is an expereince I was really hoping to come out of this with. I think this exercise is a great way to challenge my notions about the way a form should or shouldn't look and seek out new iterations of that I might not think of otherwise.