Many of the challenges of finding the shapes of elastic surfaces have first cousins in the world of pattern formation. I will try to sketch out the connections and explain where there are similarities and where there are profound differences even though the equations and the free energies look much the same. If time permits, and with the indulgence of the audience, I shall also tell you how a three dimensional version of the ideas give rise to objects, "quarks and leptons," with spin and charge symmetries which arise because of symmetry breaking and which do not require to be put in by hand.