Beach Block Printing: A Hidden Barcode Message That Says ‘Seas the Day’

What if a beach scene could tell you to “Seas the Day”?

Beach is my first pattern to use barcode-inspired imagery to hide a message. Instead of letters appearing in a traditional alphabet, words are disguised as the stripes, lines, and shapes of familiar beach objects.

At first glance, it is simply a cheerful beach scene.

Look closer, and the beach starts talking.

Turning Barcodes Into a Pattern

The coding system I use in this design is based on thick and thin lines, somewhat like the visual language of binary code, but expressed as bars rather than individual 0s and 1s.

I used a barcode-style alphabet as the foundation for the lettering. While the resulting pattern is inspired by barcode technology, it is not a functional barcode and cannot be scanned with a standard barcode reader. (Several people have inquired)

From the Beach to the Drawing Board

The idea for this pattern started while I was thinking about alternative designs for ocean-inspired and indigo-dyed fabrics.

I wanted to create a beach scene using traditional beach icons such as chairs, umbrellas, and balls.

Those familiar shapes gave me exactly what I needed to hide most of the message. But when I started building the design, I discovered I was one letter short.

That's when the sandcastle came in.

Rather than add another beach object just to complete the scene, I decided to make the final letter using binary code.

The sandcastle became part of the code, too.

A Beach Scene With a Secret

The beauty of this pattern is that the coding is disguised as decoration.

The first word is hidden in the umbrella. The thick and thin barcode lines become the umbrella's stripes. The second word is hidden in the beach ball, where the barcode lines become part of the ball's colorful pattern. The third word is hidden in the beach chairs, with the coded bars doubling as the chairs' stripes.

And then there is the sandcastle.

The final letter is encoded using binary, with the height of the castle towers representing the two values. Short towers and tall towers become the visual equivalent of the 0s and 1s.

Nothing looks out of place.

That's what I love about hidden language in pattern design: the code becomes the decoration.

The Pun: “Seas the Day”

The message hidden in the pattern is: SEAS THE DAY

Of course, the traditional phrase is “Seize the day,” meaning to make the most of the present moment. The expression comes from the Latin phrase carpe diem, from the Roman poet Horace. The idea is to embrace today's opportunities rather than wait for tomorrow.

I first heard the phrase in one of my favorite movies, Dead Poets Society. In the film, it becomes a memorable reminder to live deliberately and make the most of the time we have.

The message became both a reminder and a pun, a little nudge to enjoy the day, with a decidedly ocean-inspired spelling.

Decoding the Beach

Each part is tucked into a different element of the beach scene:

Umbrella: barcode-inspired coding spells the first word.
Beach ball: barcode-inspired stripes hide the second word.
Beach chairs: barcode-inspired stripes hide the third word.
Sandcastle: binary code creates the final letter using short and tall towers.

See the images below for the exact location of each hidden letter and to follow along as the message is decoded.

A Pattern Made for Indigo

I originally imagined this design as a companion to ocean blues and indigo-dyed fabrics, and the beach imagery naturally lends itself to that palette.

There is something particularly satisfying about taking a technology-inspired language such as barcodes and binary and translating it into a handmade, block-printed textile.

The contrast feels intentional:

technology becomes pattern,
pattern becomes language,
and language becomes something you can touch and live with.

And underneath it all is a simple message.

Part of a Larger Collection

Beach is one of twenty patterns in my book, Not Just A Pretty Picture: The Art, Process, and Language Behind the Prints, from the studio of Kristen Dettoni.

The collection explores the relationship between art, textile design, pattern, process, and language, hiding words and phrases within imagery through systems such as binary and barcode-inspired codes.

The goal isn't simply to make a pretty pattern.

It's to give you a reason to look twice.

Because sometimes the best messages are the ones hiding in plain sight.