Some of this spring's hottest fabrics will take your head for one. Textile manufacturers, graphic artists and packaging designers are riding the vibrating shockwave of Op art. The catchy phrase was coined in a 1964 Time magazine article to describe a style of abstract painting that creates perceptual illusions, particularly the appearance of movement. The vertiginous patterns were created by designers Alexander Girard and Verner Panton, masters of creating movement from form. Op art creates movement.
Patterns are more disturbing when there are rigid geometric lines than when circles are in it.
Op art is most effective in black and white, because the high contrast exerts the maximum strain on the receptors in your brain. This psychophysiological response makes Op art a democratic trend. Because it engages the anatomy more than the mind, it provokes a fairly universal response in viewers. People can disagree about the merit of an abstract expressionist painting, but there's no disputing the way the squares of Girard's Checker fabric appear to warp if you stare at them. Santilli says his customers tend to use Op art fabrics on pillows or tabletops, or even vests, rather than for entire pieces of furniture.