Patterns and Forms: The Hidden Language Around Us
Originally published on Novisali Blog, September 2025
We live surrounded by design: spirals in shells, repeating footsteps, the geometry in architecture and art. This article invites us to see these everyday patterns and forms not as mere aesthetics—but as a “hidden language” of nature, culture, and our inner life.
Key reflections from the full article include:
• Everywhere the pattern — The piece shows how recurring structures like spirals, tessellations and geometric forms manifest in nature, human movement and built environments. They are the silent rhythms behind what we see.
• Forms that speak — Shapes such as triangles, circles and squares are more than visual; they are metaphors. A triangle may point to aspiration, a circle to wholeness and flow, a square to grounding and structure.
• From seeing to interpreting — The article encourages us to shift from noticing shapes to asking: What is this form doing here? What does it signal about our values, our memory, our connection to place?
• Weaving meaning into sight — By treating patterns and forms as a language, we become active interpreters rather than passive spectators. We can connect what we see in a building, a forest, or a photo to how we live and think.
The invitation is clear:
Open your eyes to the language of form. Let the patterns around you speak—and listen.
Read the full article: Patterns and Forms: The Hidden Language Around Us
About Liselotte Engstam, Digoshen & Novisali
Liselotte Engstam is an explorer of perspectives, an adventurer of ideas, a pathfinder of meaning, and a guide of timeless transitions. She bridges the worlds of board leadership and art, helping organizations and individuals navigate disruption while nurturing creativity and reflection.
As founder of Digoshen, she works with boards and leaders to expand future insights and reduce digital and sustainability blindspots. Through research, networks, and executive programs, Digoshen supports responsible value creation in the digital and sustainable age, contributing thought leadership via books, articles, events, Digoshen Exploring Leaders podcast, and blogs.
She also serves as Chair of the Boards Impact Forum in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and the Climate Governance. The Forum convenes board members, thought leaders, and experts in dialogues, webinars, and collaborative events, accelerating action on climate, AI, and sustainability.
Through her artistic practice as Novisali, Liselotte explores creativity and meaning. Her watercolors, digitally reimagined, invite reflection and renewal, offering perspectives that connect head, heart, and hand, and complementing her work with leaders and boards.
→ Discover more at www.Digoshen.com
→ Learn more at www.BoardsImpactForum.com
→ Find more about Liselotte at www.liselotteengstam.com and her Google Scholar page
→ Explore Liselotte’s art and reflections at www.novisali.com and follow on Instagram @novisali_arts