How we've helped Elements of Pattern

Cornish artist Robert Jones has used Growth Hub’s help to develop a creative digital app.

Elements of Pattern allows users to form an infinite number of designs and shapes at the touch of button.

The app has many therapeutic properties and has already been tried and tested by schoolchildren, as well as youngsters and adults with learning difficulties.

The hope is that that the Elements of Pattern – already available on the App Store - will become a much-used tool to help people of all ages and abilities create their own artistic designs.

“I think that I have brought something to the world which is beneficial to people and I would like to see it used and enjoyed,” said Robert. “It’s got great potential.”

Artist and writer Robert has had a long and successful career, painting the Cornish landscape where he has lived and worked all of his life.

The former fisherman has had his work displayed at galleries across the region, including Tate St Ives.

Robert, who also spent several years as a teacher and tutor at Falmouth College of Art, admits he’s not business-minded and needed some support to get his latest creative project off the ground.

“You go into this and you don’t know what’s available,” said Robert, describing the help he received to develop Elements of Pattern. “The support we had from Growth Hub was particularly valuable because it put us in touch with other organisations.”

Robert praised the encouragement he received from Growth Hub’s experts for an idea that began with a wooden games compendium he made back in the 1960s.

Over the years, Robert worked with software developers to make the interchangeable designs into a digital format.

“There are people who look at this and say, what’s all this about then? But I think that the people at Growth Hub grasped the fundamentals and led us in positive directions,” said Robert, adding that’s it’s not always been straightforward. “There are times when you think: why am I doing this, pushing a boulder up a hill…!” he said. “The fact there was someone at Growth Hub I was able to go back to and say: what do you think and test out ideas.

“The help we’ve had from Growth Hub has been very positive. And it’s ongoing. Not only is it the advice they’ve given us in trying to develop our business but it’s also the contacts they’ve put us in touch with.”

Robert says developing Elements of Pattern has been ‘a voyage of discovery’ that recently led to the app being made available to buy.

Children at schools across Cornwall have already been using the programme. It could now be rolled out as a therapeutic learning tool, as well as for use in care homes for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

 “It’s early days and we’ll see how we get on. At its least, it’s an intriguing pastime. At its best, it is a form of self-expression, a creative act,” he said, adding. “We’re grateful to have had the help we’ve had so far.”

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub from May 2016 -  June 2023 was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.  The project received £2,848,591.49 of funding from the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020.