How to create your own design pattern

One of the most important things in commercial digital textile printing is repetition; that is, how to make the pattern that is repeated throughout the entire length and width of the fabric.

Technical education and knowledge of the possibility of repetition is extremely important when we want to create our own pattern for printing. In this blog we will describe several ways of making your own repetitive pattern for digital textile printing. Additionally, we will warn you about the problems you could face during repetitive design pattern creation.

Pattern stacking ways:

Motif and element

Motif and element are starting components for making repetitive design patterns. For example, our design below was drawn in the Procreate app on an iPad pro tablet. Motif can be hand-drawn and later digitalized and processed with graphic tools. You could also draw your motif directly on a drawing tablet. Design can be made of one or several different motifs.

Multidirectional design

Motif is being duplicated and stacked in different directions (with rotation). During duplication, it is important that all the motifs on the edges are shifted by exactly the same distance to the opposite side.

Block repeat

Motifs are being repeated in a grid format with equal spacing between each element. Every experienced textile designer is familiar with this pattern repetition method.

Half-drop

Half-drop is the most popular form of pattern repetition and stacking. With the help of graphic tools, stacking can be performed at greater or lesser distance.

Brick repeat

Brick repeat literally looks like a classic stacking of bricks when building buildings.

Turnover repeat

Turnover repeat is a form of pattern repetition in which a motif or element is rotated horizontally or vertically, creating a mirroring effect in both directions.

Mirror repeat

Motifs or elements are being arranged opposite of each other in the horizontal or vertical direction, creating a mirror effect. This was one of the earliest forms of motif repetition.

There are many other ways of pattern repetition, just look around your environment, your clothes or things you can find in your home, and you’ll notice that there are various motifs and designs repeating in different directions. 🙂 So, be innovative and creative when creating a personalized design for your new project.

Problems you may encounter when creating a pattern

Stacking of partially think through repetitive design will result with repetitive errors across whole printed fabric. Some of typical errors are: visible vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines that occur when you stack the motifs in a tight line; the shift in the joints that occurs when you do not move the motif in an equal distance to the opposite side of the object in which you are creating the design; unused space occurs when motifs do not line up on the edges of a given object.

How to create repetitive design pattern – STEPS

STEP I

Put the object in the middle of „Artboard“. You can pick your own „Artboard“ dimensions. On the design below, we’ve worked in 850 x 850 px. Duplicate the object and move it to the edge of the „Artboard“.

STEP II

Duplicate the second object using „Transform move“ command and move it to the opposite edge of the „Artboard“. Enter the pre-defined value (defined during „Artboard“ creating) in a „Position“ field. You can duplicate the object horizontally or vertically. Repeat the process several times – until you fill the opposite side of the object.

STEP III

Create the object in the same dimensions as initial „Artboard“ (850 x 850 px in my case). Paint the object for easier execution of „Clipping mask“ command. Use the „Arrange“ command to move the object in front of all objects (Bring to front command). Select all created objects and group them using „Object – Group“ command. Afterwards move the coloured object on the objects you’ve duplicated, select all the objects and create a „Clipping mask“.