Karolful Karolful

Golden Scarabaeus

This surface pattern set is a response to an “Opulent Creepy Crawlies” trend, which explores the theme of insects and studies their ornate detailing. This often results in crafting these bugs into mirror imagery and kaleidoscopic arrangements. 

This sur­face pat­tern is an inde­pen­dent ‘Karolful.Designs’ design and is avail­able for pur­chase and/or licence through Adobe Stock. Please fol­low this LINK to view the entire “Ento­mol­o­gy” collection.

Alter­na­tive­ly, please get in touch to dis­cuss cus­tom arrange­ments that suit your project’s needs.

Collection Overview

The set of sur­face pat­terns show­cased here are part of a wider series called “Ento­mol­o­gy” that encom­pass­es a wider range of designs that depict six dif­fer­ent species of beetle.

Over­all, this series is uni­fied by its colour palette, and the usage of the same tech­niques. Pat­terns with­in a giv­en set depict a spe­cif­ic insect, explor­ing var­i­ous colour-ways and arrange­ments. Each set also includes a stand­alone illus­tra­tion of that species of beetle.

Colour Palette

The PANTONE TCX colours cho­sen here are inspired by palettes from Kidspat­tern. The two main base colours for this set of pat­terns are both  shades of yel­low: a radi­ant ‘Aspen Gold’ and a warm ‘Gold­en Rod’. These are meant to evoke the opu­lence of gold­en scarabs from ancient Egypt.

To pro­vide a con­trast­ing coun­ter­weight a ‘Jet Set’ black was aded. Last­ly, to round out the palette a sage green shade was picked, ‘Chi­nois Green’. This last addi­tion offers a flavour­ful mod­ern twist.

Inspiration

Insects have wide range of impacts on the plan­et’s ecosys­tem. Due to this impor­tant role in our lives, iconog­ra­phy that depicts them has become thor­ough­ly embed­ded in human cul­ture, ­from arts and crafts to mythol­o­gy and religion.

The bee­tle rep­re­sents hard work, devo­tion, per­sis­tence, as well as coop­er­a­tion and solidarity.

Many insects are val­ued sim­ply for their beau­ty. Insect imagery is com­mon­ly cel­e­brat­ed in jew­ellery, tex­tiles, and ceramics.

Element Development

The depic­tion of the insects was stylised to high­light their dec­o­ra­tive aspects. The orig­i­nal ele­ments were ful­ly vec­torised and use a total of 4 colours. How­ev­er, they can also be eas­i­ly sim­pli­fied into 2 colour ver­sions. In this set you can select a ver­sion that best suits your project.

A full illus­tra­tions set is avail­able to licence HERE.

Development of the Set

I select­ed each colour from the palette as a back­ground and then devel­oped a cor­re­spond­ing arrange­ment. Togeth­er, these pat­terns cre­ate a match­ing set that can be used across a pletho­ra of poten­tial prod­ucts whilst retain­ing a con­sis­tent look. This bee­tle col­lec­tion is ready to go and easy to use.

In this ver­sion the scarabs are posi­tioned in between a white criss-cross sur­face. The ele­ments are kept in a mono­chro­mat­ic palette in tune with a light yel­low back­ground, mak­ing this is a great sup­port­ing print. 

Click HERE to licence this design.

Here the bee­tles are spaced fur­ther apart and posi­tioned on a lin­ear back­ground. They are kept in a mono­chro­mat­ic tint­ed gold palette, mak­ing this anoth­er great option for a sup­port­ing design.

Click HERE to licence this design.

Golden Scarabs

This sur­face pat­tern has the bee­tles arranged close togeth­er in a ver­ti­cal, reg­u­lar repeat. It uses a total of 3 pan­tones in a mono­chrome palette. Plac­ing it atop a white back­ground offers a fresh and bright design in which the scarabs resem­ble a row of gold­en buttons.

This rich and full pat­tern evokes the recur­ring motif of the sacred bee­tle incor­po­rat­ed into Egypt­ian art, decor and religion.

Click HERE to licence this design.

Here the gold­en scarabs are arranged in a ver­ti­cal man­ner along stripes with a sin­gu­lar dashed line that echos the details of their cara­pace. A con­trast­ing green back­ground makes them stand out and offers a rich­er palette with a more opu­lent mood.

Click HERE to licence this design.

In this con­trast­ing ver­sion the sim­pli­fied scarabs are posi­tioned at an angle at the inter­sec­tions of a sim­ple yel­low check pat­tern. They’re placed atop a black back­ground com­plet­ing the set by offer­ing a strik­ing, bold colour-way. 

Click HERE to licence this design.

Gold and Black

In this last sur­face pat­tern, the gold­en scarabs are arranged in a hor­i­zon­tal man­ner fac­ing each oth­er. They are placed atop a match­ing deep gold back­ground and repeat­ed in a brick manner.

Their black legs form a dec­o­ra­tive lat­tice resem­bling of damask arrange­ments, mak­ing this a rich and full sur­face print.

Click HERE to licence this design.

Last­ly, this set round­ed out with a selec­tion of basic, sim­pli­fied pat­terns that use only the sil­hou­ettes of the scarab bee­tle. These are easy to recolour and great for using in small­er sizes. For exam­ple, as a sup­port­ing or back­ground print.

Click HERE to licence this set of pat­tern designs.

“In ancient Egypt, peo­ple saw how the scarab bee­tle (Scarabaeus sac­er) rolled a ball of manure along the ground and con­clud­ed that a giant celes­tial dung bee­tle must roll the sun across the sky each day.

Thus, the bee­tle became revered as a sym­bol of rebirth and immor­tal­i­ty — its dai­ly jour­ney across the sky became an alle­go­ry of human life.”