This is my entry for a social design contest to create a new check patterned fabric for weavers in Bangladesh to produce and sell. The design is supposed to convey the idea of hope. Following is how it would look repeated, then the explanation for my design.
When life is joyous, we all feel hope. But when joy is gone, we can find hope in the natural order that surrounds us. A glimpse of the beauty and artistry that connects all things revives this harmony that is also here in us. We remember joy and suffering passes. This is hope itself.
I used Fibonacci proportions – a near ubiquitous ratio in nature — to convey the idea of progress. This series begins with zero. Add one to zero and get one. Add one and one together and get two, two and one together and get three, three and two together and get five, etc.
So the pattern begins each direction with two stripes of one cm: we are born in one “self,” but with a consciousness that we as humans share. This is the additional “one” that combines with our original “one” to make progress. Whether we are aware or not, it is part of the order of nature and this too is hope. We are never just one alone.
To take the meaning further, the horizontal lines represent our internal self: from the reddish brown “ground,” up to the leafy green canopy of thought, we bleed (red) and yearn (magenta) for love.
The vertical lines are our path forward, from the initial layer of golden innocence we are born with, to the vast blue sky of possibility that is always before us. The white stripe of consciousness leads to knowledge (light gold) and compassion (pale pink) which brings a depth of humility and wisdom (aqua). The overlapping of path and self results in some surprising colors – giving a unique richness and variety to our experience. At the center of it all is pure balance and clarity – the highest source of hope.
The final stripe in each direction is eight cm, symbolizing the musical octave, the full circle of the primordial sound of om. To me, the final hope of life is to gain an understanding of that from which we came and to which we return, the infinite. The ultimate evolution of self is to become this infiniteness. Yet “this” already is. The mystery that nature embodies in such an ordered and measurable way is testament, should we ever be in doubt, of the infinite reality of hope. Hope is here at this moment for everyone and we share it together.