The design creates a subtle ripple on the eating surface of the dinner plate. There is a shallow sunken spiral that liquids will ‘pool’ in. But the actual designs are impressed into the underside of the piece. The Spiral dinner plates are quite nice to eat off of. Some of my designs (Whirlwind, Baroque, Lotus) raise the surface a bit more, for a dramatic effect, but these are only sold in larger sizes as serving platters.