"Instead of the goopy Baroque or Venetian-style chandeliers with 20 colors, we're now seeing one color with maybe another color added on the details, " said Mr. Fuchs, who has written and illustrated "The Pattern Book of Lighting, " a guidebook to lighting that's out this month.

WSJ: Reinventing Splendor

Book spines can also provide unexpected pattern, as can pictures and even bottles on a drinks tray.

WSJ: Beige Can Be an Oddly High-Maintenance Friend

In its 25th-anniversary commemorative book, published in 1993, Intel boasted that it had reversed the usual pattern of an American invention's being turned into a Japanese product.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Today, Apigee announced the launch Apigee Insights, a platform for capturing and operationalizing signals gathered from big data, contextual data, and interactions intermediated by APIs. (Apigee has published an e-book explaining the platform.) But the core vision of the product is based on an advanced pattern for big data value creation that will be applicable to many industries.

FORBES: Apigee Insights: An Innovative Pattern for Big Data Value Creation