I’ve written some in the past about my experimentation with Creative Fabrica’s AI program called “Spark,” which has a group of online tools based on artificial intelligence. They just let me know they have a new one called “CF Spark Patterns,” which allows one to create repeatable patterns (which can be expanded to any size based on the seamless edges). I used to occasionally use seamless patterns in web design for funky effects years ago, but their site mentions some possible new uses: “print your patterns to make beautiful greeting cards, to decorate your scrapbook or get your designs printed on your POD products,” with another suggestion elsewhere to “get them printed on textiles for home decor or clothing,” or your own wrapping paper. Hmm, let’s see what I can come up playing with this new program (see it for yourself here).
My first input, off the top of my head, was “paisley.” I like a couple of the images their AI created for me:
Then I tried to think of some sort of pattern that would be more-obscure, or unexpected, and the idea of a giraffe’s fur popped into my head … here’s what CF Spark Patterns did with that: both a literal detail featuring the giraffe pattern (below left), but then a pattern featuring giraffes (below right). On a side note here, did you ever see my blog post about a giraffe-patterned house?
Now that I’ve experimented with traditional patterns (paisley), patterns found in nature (giraffe), how else could I test out this AI software? I typed in “NYC skyscrapers” and got the following result, which I like, quite a bit. CF Spark has a “slider tool” with the Pattern results that allows one to see the pattern up close, as you can see with my NYC skyscrapers below left, and then one can slide out to see a larger, seamless border view, which you can see below right. I like these two examples from an artistic standpoint, because the detail would make a nice realistic painting, while the wider view has a density where it becomes almost a little abstract. Since the seamless borders make the expansion of this image basically limitless, it would be interesting to see this at a really large scale.
These AI programs tend to feel like opening up a box and seeing what’s inside – there’s always surprises to be found, and one can keep trying a multitude of different ideas and pushing where one can go with it. I had a link to the general intro page above, here’s a link to the actual CF Spark Patterns generator tool. You’ll need to create a profile in order to sign-in first, but one can try it out for free before looking into any paid plans.
