“My interest in computer graphics was roused when I contemplated richly decorated church windows, like the ones that can be found in many cathedrals all over the world. They challenged me to contribute my own variations to this theme. Normally, I use rotation systems, on the basis of a circle divided into 17 sectors. … to emphasise the division of the figure into 17 parts, I often use a seventeen-part hypocycloid as a framework.”
(Quoted from Franke 1984, p. 81 f.)
5

Guest shows a preference for the number 17, because it refers to the discovery of the construction of a 17-sided figure by Carl Friedrich GauB.