CR Blog
The lines of beauty
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 26 October 2011, 10:58 Permalink Comments (7)

Designer Matt Booth creates hypotrochoids (the curved shapes that Spirographs generate) using self-built tools and programs. The results of his experiments have now been made into a series of prints by Print Process...

"It all starts with a rough idea of what I want to achieve," says Booth, "it's then over to Flash for some experimenting before building the full tool with controls. The beauty of programs such as Flash are the limitations – they produce the unexpected interesting results."

"The hypo tool has simple parameters, such as the radius of the circles that create the design, along with their spin speeds," says Booth. "I then hit play, watch it animate and see what results when it finishes. When I get close to something interesting adjustments are made to the values until I have it just right. When I'm happy with the design it's saved out of the tool as a vector piece of artwork."

A2 prints are £30; A1/£60; A0/£120. Available from the Print Process site, here. Booth's website is mrbooth.co.uk.

7 Comments
A bit like http://www.studiomister.com/_img/posterspin/Poster1frame.jpg
2011-10-26 11:44:55
...
http://www.blanka.co.uk/Art/Jeff_Knowles/Synthesis
2011-10-26 13:00:50
I like the way they exploit the quirks of Flash to get the unexpected. My old art teacher called these "happy accidents". I've had similar good fortune in Flash when animating geometric shapes, it's a shame I rarely use the application nowadays.
2011-10-26 14:30:40
Well done everyone for saying it looks like something else. How original.
2011-10-26 16:13:03
I think the inspiration [for this and other works of a similar nature] was probably this –
http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/Spirograph.html
2011-10-26 17:32:50
@ Simon.
Agreed. why do people always do that?
Shock, horror! A designer creates something that looks like someone's work!
Get over it. it happens.
2011-10-27 10:42:54
@Simon and @tmz, agreed. boring comments. these prints on the other hand are gorgeous. my fave is the 3rd one down. nice work mr. booth.
2011-10-28 09:42:49
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