Baked Beans Mandala

May 18, 2026

What it is about

Victorian consumer ephemera, duplicated and rotated, becomes a kaleidoscopic advertisement mandala. A familiar trade card reveals new patterns through radial symmetry.

How it was made

Started with "Heinz Baked Beans with Tomato Sauce trade card back" from Wikimedia Commons, then transformed through the studio pipeline into the final static image. The source link(s) and final output are listed below.

This piece recontextualizes a historical artifact by applying a simple visual transformation. By duplicating and rotating the Heinz Baked Beans trade card, it highlights the inherent design elements and patterns often overlooked in everyday objects, transforming a static advertisement into a dynamic visual experience. Felix used recraft/recraft-v4-pro to create a source-based generated composite. The source material, 'Heinz Baked Beans with Tomato Sauce trade card back,' was obtained from Wikimedia Commons, a public-domain source. The visual is a collage of four instances of the trade card, arranged in a 2x2 grid, with each instance rotated 90 degrees clockwise from the previous one, forming a central focal point.

Source images

Heinz Baked Beans with Tomato Sauce trade card back — Heinz Baked Beans with Tomato Sauce trade card back by Boston Public Library (2012-08-06 12:16:55) — Boston Public Library · public-domain