Revisit The Cryptology Collection

At NeoCon 2021, Design Pool unveiled The Cryptology Collection. Even though it was our first time exhibiting at NeoCon, this collection made an impression. Two groups in the collection were named Interior Design Magazine HiP Award honorees and our Knowledge is Power group was a HiP Award winner. Metropolis Magazine named the Radio Waves group as one of their #MetropolisLikes products. Ahead of NeoCon 2022, we think it’s a good time to revisit The Cryptology Collection

Let’s revisit The Cryptology Collection.

The inspiration for this collection was a book about codebreaking pioneer Elizebeth Smith Friedman. While reading this book, Kristen learned that at its most basic, codebreaking is about looking for patterns. As someone who works with patterns all day, Kristen felt an instant kinship with Elizebeth. She immediately started thinking about embedding her designs with hidden coded messages. Like many collections in our library, the design technique is as much of a story as the patterns themselves. First, Kristen created a code. Next, she used that code to design a pattern. The final product looks like a floral, or a geometric, but there is another layer of meaning to that pattern.

The collection consists of twenty-four patterns each with its own coded message. More broadly, it also pays homage to the women who did this hard work for the United States and shines a spotlight on the women who never got credit (or in many cases money) for their work during their lifetimes. The large collection is broken into four different groups, each with a slightly different focus.

• Knowledge is Power focuses on upholstery.
• Radio Waves focuses on acoustic panels.
• Classified focuses on wallcovering.
• Top Secret focuses on vinyl flooring.

The Cryptology Collection is still available.

The Design Pool licensable library functions as a non-inventory system. Therefore, our patterns are rarely (if ever) discontinued. That’s part of the magic of digital, on-demand printing. All of our printing partners have access to all of our patterns at any time. Printing on-demand means there is less waste in manufacturing and less ends up in landfills.