PHILOSOPHY

PATTERNIBOOK CLUB

A Look Into Our PATTERNITY Studio Bookshelf

Everything we do here at PATTERNITY is grounded and informed by our in-depth pattern research across the worlds of science, spirituality, sustainability and creativity.  Here our co-founders Anna + Grace select five books which have helped shape PATTERNITY into what it is now, covering key themes such as how humans impact on the world, honouring menstrual cycles and reminders to simply see the beauty in everything

Fritjof Capra | Web of Life: A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter

It was a real turning point when we discovered that physicist and pioneer of deep ecology Fritjof Capra had articulated scientifically and philosophically so much of what we had felt intuitively since we met and started Patternity. Throughout The Web of life, Fritjof outlines the value of adopting a more holistic way of seeing – where we are all parts of a wider natural system, and how feeling integrated within an increasingly fragile web of life, has the power to transform the way we see and care for the world we all share. A message around sustainability and systems thinking that we have explored through so many of our pattern focussed projects and events – most notably our first book Patternity: A new way of seeing.  We were honoured to be able to personally give a copy to Fritjof on a recent trip to Berkeley, California, where he is based.

"So many problems of our times are because we fail to see the beautiful interconnectivity of all living things."
Anna Murray

Bhante Wimala | The Way of the Lotus

This tiny book playfully summarises the key Buddhist principles (which are refreshingly simple) – and provides guidance towards a more compassionate and contented life.

Written by “travelling monk” Bhante Wimala, Way of the lotus is an uplifting and gentle journey exploring the patterns of thinking and doing that shape our lives and perspectives. Fundamentally it encourages us to become more aware, appreciative and alive to the wonder of everyday life.

This reminder to see beauty everyday and in everything – from the mundane to the magnificent – has been a core part of our guiding philosophy and built our resilience both as individuals and as a wider organisation since we started out as a visual archive back in 2009.

"In a world that can often feel individualistic and complex it can be powerful to discover the simple and practical messages of ancient wisdom that still resonate today."
Anna Muray

Yval Noah Harari | Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

The environmental and social repercussions of an age that has placed perpetual economic global growth above the sustainability of its people and planet are fast becoming clear.

In a world that often sees time as only a very thin and isolated line, Sapiens is a refreshing and cautionary tale inviting us all to take a step back and take a wider look at the repeating patterns, rhythms and cycles of behaviour that have shaped history as we know it.

It is frightening but essential to realise that we are at a tipping point in time. Yval Noah Harari outlines how our collective and unconscious patterns of thinking and doing may well push our own species to extinction. However, it feels like there is hope. With the realisation that material wealth and more 'stuff' does not lead to increased wellbeing, we are seeing a growing interest in exploring alternative behaviours that encourage creativity and happiness.   With this comes an increased desire to dig deeper and understand our inner patterns of being. Since launching in 2009, researching and empowering positive living have been core to our mission, and will continue to be so, as we embrace the next phase of PATTERNITY and live through the changing patterns of our times.

"As we finally realise that material wealth and more “stuff” does not lead to increased wellbeing we are seeing a huge increase in the interest in exploring happiness, creativity, and an increased desire to dig deeper and understand our inner patterns of being."
Anna Murray

Alisa Vitti | The Woman Code

Nearly 80% of UK business start-ups in the last year were initiated by women. We feel very fortunate to be women in business today – we have such gratitude to those who have paved the way for equality, to feel heard, acknowledged and respected. 

The Woman Code is a simple and concise introduction to the menstrual cycle for women and men. It provides a greater awareness and deeper understanding of these natural patterns through biological, nutritional and practical information.

As an in-house team of women, we take responsibility and pleasure in understanding our personal cycles. Recognising and working with these phases – when we are feeling at our brightest (and exploding with creativity or confidently giving a talk to 300 people) and when we are feeling at our darkest (working from home, organising a filing system or researching something that feels nourishing) – we believe unlocks our individual purpose.  Understanding our physical and emotional patterns as a team and showing support to one another,  then increases our collective sense of purpose as a business.

"We’re at a time of global reawakening – re-establishing the divine feminine, and reconnecting with our natural selves as we once did in ancient cultures many moons ago."
Grace Winteringham

Lance Hosey | The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology and Design

Patternity’s mission is to better understand life,  and inspire positive living through pattern research, design and experience. We began as a visual venture – our image archive was and still is, a space for creative contemplation, inviting the viewer to browse beautiful imagery that speaks a language of harmony across disparate disciplines. We are continuing to explore this harmony across the full spectrum of our senses, through our projects and partnerships we seek to balance ethics and aesthetics to create simple, useful and beautiful outcomes.

The Shape of Green has been a fundamental guide to our design thinking and approach. It’s an exploration into the designed world through one simple lens: beauty. What it is, why it is important and how working with it enables us to become better designers. It is often said that nature is the ultimate designer (and ultimate beauty!) We have a fascination with the patterns we seeing recurring in both the inner and outer, for instance the fractals of our lungs, mirror the fractals of a tree, which mirror the fractal density of a Jackson Pollock painting. 

"It’s an unspoken symmetry that is embedded in the universe. The Shape of Green scratches at the surface of this intriguing way of experiencing the world and helping us to understand our place within it."
Grace Winteringham