author
Owen Jones
1809–1874
A bold Victorian designer and writer, he helped change how people think about color, pattern, and ornament. Best known for The Grammar of Ornament, he drew inspiration from travels in Spain, the Middle East, and beyond to create a visual language that still feels modern.
2 Audiobooks
One Thousand and One Initial Letters
by Owen Jones
About the author
Born in London in 1809, Owen Jones was an architect, designer, and author whose ideas had a lasting impact on nineteenth-century art and decoration. He is especially remembered for The Grammar of Ornament (1856), an ambitious and beautifully illustrated study of design traditions from many cultures, created to show underlying principles of pattern and color.
Travel shaped much of his work. Early journeys through places including Spain, Greece, Egypt, and Turkey gave him a deep interest in historic ornament, especially the decoration of the Alhambra, which he studied closely and later published in lavish detail. Those studies helped make him one of the most influential interpreters of Islamic and historic design for Victorian Britain.
Jones also worked on major public projects, including the decoration connected with the Great Exhibition of 1851 and later the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. He died in 1874, but his books and design theories continued to inspire artists, decorators, architects, and anyone drawn to the power of pattern.