The Fundamentals of Pattern Structure: Part I: Woods Revisited

Abstract

This paper examines a range of geometric concepts underlying our understanding of motifs, patterns, and their geometric classification. The visionary work conducted by H. J. Woods almost seventy years ago is acknowledged, and attention is focused on developments in our understanding since that time. The fundamental geometrical aspects of motifs and patterns are identified, and a systematic means by which textile and other surface patterns may be classified with respect to the symmetry characteristics of their underlying structures is explained and illustrated.