Husband and wife team Suzanne and Chris Carpenter, living in Cardiff, previously worked in graphic design, branding and illustration for their own branding agency. They sold the agency four years ago to pursue a dream: Patternistas, a creative studio where they create unique patterns for different projects with manufacturers, architects, interior designers and other companies. Their work is perfect for an instalment of the BUILDHOLLYWOOD family’s latest Your Space Or Mine series, in which artists are taking over billboard and poster sites to spread their messages in cities all over the UK.

For a takeover in their city of Cardiff, Patternistas created an eye-catching, bold design that wouldn’t look out of place on a one-of-a-kind rug. With beaming sunshine faces, threads of colour and words reading, “kindness is catching, pass it on”, the work is bound to bring smiles to passing commuters and people on their errands. “We wanted to inject a sense of fun and spread some happy, shiny, sunny positivity at a time when so many people are feeling insecure and isolated,” says Suzanne of their intent.

The message, Suzanne feels, is the perfect antidote to “the general anxiety about catching or spreading the virus.” Plus, as many people are leaning on each other and their communities for help and support, we’re feeling the support of our local areas more than ever, and giving it back in equal servings. “It’s true that you can’t give kindness away – it will always come back to you in one form or another and the more kindness we experience the sunnier we feel,” says Suzanne, adding that they hope the image will “make people smile both on the streets and from behind their screens.”

Patternistas’ attraction to bold colours like those in the patterns of Singapore and Zambia shines through in this piece. The pair see patterns in everything, from puddles to trees to leaves. Suzanne adds that even we are patterns if you look closely enough, and “recognising that helps deepen our connection to one another and planet”. She says, too, that, “It’s always helpful to remember that we all have more in common than that which sets us apart but in the face of a global pandemic hopefully it’s at the forefront of all of our minds.”

Forever optimistic, Suzanne sees the positive in the pandemic: “most people are appreciating cleaner air and green spaces so we’re keeping hopeful that there will be lasting positives from these darker times.”

www.patternistas.co.uk