Textile design is the process of creating designs to be printed, woven or knitted onto fabrics. Most textile designers focus on the print designs to be printed on the surface of a material rather than on knitwear or woven designs as more specialist knowledge is required for this. In this article we will focus on the print pattern design portion of textile design.
When you first think of textile design, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? I bet the first thing was fabric for clothing, although there are a variety of uses for textile designs.
There are two major areas of textile design:
- Interiors – upholstery, soft furnishings and carpets
- Fashion – fabrics for clothing, footwear and accessories
The person who is responsible for these creations is most commonly known as a Textile Designer (a.k.a. a surface pattern designer, print designer, textile graphic designer, print repeat designer).
What is the difference between a Surface Designer and a Textile Designer?
A surface designer creates print designs suitable for a range of products – not just to be printed on fabrics. For example, a surface designer can design wallpapers, stationary, packaging, phone cases etc. Basically any surface is fair game for a surface designer! So in actual fact, textile designers are a form of surface designer!
Surface designer, print designer, textile graphic designer, pattern designer, print repeat designer - the many different names for a Textile Designer – the list could go on.
What does a textile designer really do?
A textile designer’s job is multifaceted. You not only create the artwork for the design, either by hand or digitally, but you also need to be able to marry the creative vision of what the finished design will look like with a good understanding of fabrics, fibers and dyes and the technical considerations and aspects of the fabric print production process.
The key to successful print design
Like all businesses you need to have a thorough understanding of the customer for whom the product is intended or your target market. This is so important, and I can’t stress it enough. Without knowing who the end customer will be for your design, it will be hard to get the design right to achieve sales.
As well as knowing who your customer is you also need to consider the end use of the design and if the print will suit not only the final product but also appeal to your target market. For example, if your target market is toddlers than the products would need to appeal to the parents and be toddler appropriate. The style of artworks you design for toddlers would be very different then for a mature lady.
Another point I’d like to mention is scale. The scale of the elements in your design need to be considered for its intended purpose. If you are designing a print for a bikini the print scale might be smaller than the scale of the design if it was to be used for a maxi dress.
The key to creating successful textile designs is to understand the end customer you are designing for, just like you would understand the target market for any other business.
Tracy Saywell
How to develop a winning print design…
A winning print design can be developed by hand using your favourite art mediums or created digitally using graphic software, but ultimately your designs will need to be finished on the computer to prepare it for print production.
I am more of a traditionalist when it comes to art and my own prints are artworks created by hand using many different art mediums and then scanned into the computer and prepared for printing.
Digitally designed prints can be created using almost any graphic design software (Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator being the most popular choices) and exported ready for print.
Original artworks such as hand drawn illustrations or photos can also be scanned and digitally manipulated to make a repeating print which can also create really amazing fabrics.
Check out our Essential Guide to Creating Winning Print Designs blog post for more tips in designing fabric prints that stand out from the crowd and get sales.
Knowledge of graphic software for textile designers is a bonus but it's not necessary!
If you have knowledge of graphic design software that’s a bonus. However, if you don’t, it’s not the end of your dream! I don’t personally have many skills when it comes to graphic design software but that hasn’t stopped me creating my beautiful fabric prints and building an extensive library of textile designs.
I am always learning but have been fortunate enough over my career to have been able to hire graphic designers who have the knowledge to be able to create a textile repeat from my artwork. You will find that not all graphic designers will have an understanding of how to create textile repeats so be aware of this when hiring someone.
Not all graphic designers have an understanding of how to create textile design repeats.
A graphic designer that specialises in creating textile repeats will not only know how to turn your artwork into a repeating print, but will also have knowledge of how the repeat will end up working out once it is repeated over the width and length of the fabric and will be able to tell you if you will need to tweak your design slightly to create the perfect repeat. They should also know how to correctly prepare the artwork file for sending to the textile printers.
Below are some of my hand painted artworks, which have been scanned and turned into repeat prints for fabric using Adobe Photoshop.
My red hot tip for textile designers…
The best tip I can give you as an emerging textile designer is that you don’t need to know everything in order to have your artwork turned into a fabric. The most important thing is to work out what skills you do have and outsource the rest (where your budget allows).
Focus your time and energy on creating the best artwork designs you can rather than on trying to learn graphic design if you’re not already computer savvy. You can work with a graphic designer to turn your artwork into a repeat if you don’t have the graphic skills to do it yourself.
- Tracy Saywell
You can start building and selling your fabric and surface design collection now with the skills you already have, and continue to build and grow your collections as you develop as an artist and improve your design skills. As you create prints and start to sell your work, you will learn what sells best and what your target customer wants and likes, allowing you to hone in your designs to suit them more with each new design.
How to get started as a Textile Designer
The first thing you need to do is build up a portfolio of work. You cannot sell designs you haven’t created yet and you cannot get a job as a designer without a portfolio to show a prospective employer!
Many textile designers are self-employed, running their own business from home. You can sell your work in a variety of ways including:
- Licencing prints to fashion designers/fabric wholesalers or for other purposes such as for product developers and designers to use for their companies;
- Selling print on demand products through websites like society6, redbubble or printful;
- Selling graphic assets online for use by other designers;
- Working freelance for companies to design for their requirements;
- Developing your own products with your own prints!
In this case, as you will be running your own business, you will need to think about all the aspects of building a business – and in particular marketing – as if you have no customers, you have no business!
Alternatively, you can get work as part of a design team within a company – this could be a fashion, textiles or home wares brand or it could be a gift company for example.
The first step in either case is to start creating a collection of print designs!
How would you like to work?
Tracy xx
Take Your Surface Designs to the next level
If you would like to learn how you can improve your art skills so you can create textile and surface designs that stand out, Tracy's online program Paint Art That Sells is for you!
The course takes you through a wide range of art mediums and techniques, starting from very simple techniques to get quick results right through to advanced artworks.
Along the way she shares inspiration, business and marketing tips and ideas, contacts for manufacturers, patterns and templates for products and much more so you have everything you need to take your print design business to the next level.
