Fluid Leaves

I chose this Fluid Leaves project from the Processing exhibition. This project is a way for variable patterns to be continuously created and printed. These patterns were generated by simulating tea leaves floating on steeping tea. A brute force shape packing algorithm makes sure that none of the leaves overlap. The initial patterns were basic geometric functions, but they were developed to include fluid dynamics. In addition, the structure of each base leaf form can be customized with every iteration. The number of veins, distribution, rotation, length, and etc can all be changed so that the leaves can have the most organic shape.

This project started out of a tea boutique in Xian, and they use these randomly generated designs on their cups. I thought that this was a really elegant way to come up with new, unique patterns for printing.