Urgh. I find design patterns the worst approach. It's just copy-paste at a slightly higher level. If you really understand a pattern, you should be able to express it formally - i.e. as code.
Richard P. Gabriel's book Patterns of Software has a chapter about that. (It's free and out of print.)
Bluntly, it's kind of like: if you really understand a style of house building, you should be able to deliver it as a prefab. Maybe true in some way, but also neglects the drawbacks of standardized components.
