Dots and Circles

When I was in Design School in Vienna, Austria, we were given the challenge to create surface designs for an entire week using only dots and circles. One day they could only be drawn or painted in black and white while the other days we could include colors.

Sounds boring?  Not really.  That seemingly tight direction was actually so open it was difficult to decide where to begin. Thinking about only polka dots, which are defined as rounds of solid color, the unlimited possibilities are like stars in the Milky Way.

Thinking about circles, defined as outlines of dots or dots with motifs inside them, it is even more infinite than the Milky Way.

A student in a design class asked me recently why people like dots and circles so much.

That led us to brainstorm all of the elements in the natural world that are circles or dots.  The students included cell structures, pupils in the eye, the earth, the moon, the sun, a wedding ring, a ball of ice cream in a cone, and my favorite from one second grader, a hug.

Polka dots are happy things, having been named after a Bohemian Folk Dance in Prague in 1837-1840.  Have you danced a Polka lately? Of course Polka Dots are happy!

Polka dots are understood to range in size from pin points to the size of coins thus the terms “pin dots” and “coin dots”. I like giant dots, too.

Dots and circles are always useful- any time of the year – in nearly any product design from indigo shirts to kid’s products to wallpapers and ceramics. I have yet to see a Fiat 500 covered in giant dots but it is a good idea, don’t you think?