The Pattern Library: Free Seamless Patterns for Your Designs

The Pattern Library is a fresh new project by New Yorker Tim Holman and Claudio Guglieri from San Francisco. The two, who both don’t stem from where they are currently located, established a repository of seamless website backgrounds called “The Pattern Library”. The concept of the site matches the content - it’s extraordinary…

The Pattern Library: Established with a Growth mindset ;-)

When you first visit The Pattern Library (TPL), you’ll feel like you are visiting a different planet. TPL is fully responsive, yet, besides that, doesn’t stick to any of the commonly established design principles. TPL is a wild collection of patterns and proud of it.

Currently there are 43 patterns to explore. You’ll not find two that resemble. All the featured patterns are at least interesting with quite a few gems here and there. To choose a pattern, click the tile from the homepage and see it fill the screen:

In that mode a small toolbar appears to the upper right side of the browser window to help you navigate the collection:

The Up arrow takes you to the predecessor in the gallery, the Down arrow shows the next pattern. The circle brings up a pattern at random and the - let’s call it - key panel returns you to the homepage. The download button can be found at the upper left side of the screen. That’s it. No search, no categories. As long as the collection stays that small, this information architecture is sufficient. We will see what happens with growth.

The patterns come in JPG and PNG formats. Their creators have chosen wisely. Photorealistic patterns are jpegged, flat designs with shapes and forms come in PNG format. Running the JPG through a minifier such as JPEGmini is advisable, as I was able to squeeze another 20 to 30 percent out of the files, while the PNG wouldn’t get much smaller.

All the patterns are contributed by different designers and can be used freely in private and commercial projects alike. A dedicated license is not given. If you want to contribute your own patterns, Tim and Claudio are happy to accept and add them. Simply send them your file, site URL and Twitter name and you might be on board.

The Pattern Library is the next addition to your Designer’s Toolbox. Make sure to follow Tim and Claudio on Twitter to stay up to date on new additions…

Related Links

• The Pattern Library | Free Tileable Patterns for Designers
• Tim Holman | Twitter
• Claudio Guglieri | Twitter