Printed fabrics!

I just uploaded some pictures of three printed fabrics on my Spoonflower account, I’d love it if you could check them out and tell me what you think.

Spring Leaves

Spring Leaves Pattern

Cute Cupcakes

Cute Cupcakes Pattern

Spirals

Spirals Pattern

=)

Tangled Butterflies Collection

I’m so excited! I just finished my first collection and uploaded it to Spoonflower! I’m going to make two more color schemes for this collection, but I wanted to show you guys the first one today!

I drew every butterfly by hand, then scanned them, and traced them on the computer. I then positioned them in the repeat I wanted, and with the help of my tablet, started erasing bits and pieces of each butterfly, so that they would create the illusion of being intertwined. It took quite a long time, specially the main pattern, but I think it was worth it! I’m happy with the end result of the tangled effect.

I wanted to make sure every pattern worked alone and with each other (that is, after all, what a collection is all about), and hope to have done a good job, considering it’s the first collection I make. As soon as I update the other color schemes to Spoonflower I’ll order swatches and put them up for sale.

Tangled Butterflies Collection

I hope you all have a great weekend. Mine promises to be great, with family coming to visit, irish dance rehearsals and a vegan pizza that’s waiting for me right now! =D

Introduction to surface design in the textile industry

First of all, I’d like to excuse myself for the long period of absence in this blog. I had some health issues I had to deal with – and am still dealing with – but now I feel confident that I can come back to blogging in a constant rythm.

So, surface design and textile design are linked together, you really can’t separate both. I plan on focusing on the furnishing, interior and household textiles on this post. To talk about Apparel textiles would be a whole new world (a new fantastic point of view), I really don’t feel confortable going there, I have no fashion background and you can find information about fashion design and clothing in general in other blogs.

Furnishing fabrics can be found in your home (domestic) and in public buildings such as schools or offices (contract). This category includes carpets, curtains, wall coverings, etc. Household textiles are, for example, sheets, pillowcases, towels, blankets, quilts, amongst others. When household textiles are used in contract spaces (like a hotel os a hospital) they are called “institutional fabrics”.

Furnishing fabrics example.

Household textiles example.

I would differentiate furnishing fabrics and household textiles by considering that furnishing fabrics tend to stay longer periods of time in their “positions” and are harder to replace, and also more expensive in general. How often do you change your living room’s curtains? What about your room’s carpet? Now compare that to how often you change your towels, or your sheets. Yes, I am aware that Prada sheets cost more than IKEA curtains, but let’s be reasonable, you get the main idea.

Yarns.

In the textile industry there are many different occupations for a designer. In her book “Handbook of textile design – Principles, processes and practice” Jacquie Wilson includes the following positions:

• Colourists predicting and forecasting future colour ranges;
• Yarn designers;
• Knitted fabric designers;
• Woven fabric designers;
• Carpet designers;
• Print designers;
• Embroidery designers;
• Knitwear designers;
• Garment designers;
• Accessory designers;
• Print producers;
• Stylists;
• Colourists developing colourways;
• Repeat artists.

I really recommend Wilson’s book. It gives a very good understanding on the textile industry as a whole, and also points out what can a designer do in the textile and clothing market. In the book you can also find interesting appendix with Gantt chart examples for textile projects and how to calculate an hourly rate. It’s a technical book, so if you are starting to work in the textile industry or studying it, it can be very useful.

Personally, I’m more drawn towards repeats and colourways. Learning to do a repeat pattern is absolutely necessary to work in the textile industry and in the surface design market in general.

So, as you can see, there’s a large number of roles a designer can have in the textile industry, each position will demand a certain amount of specific technical knowledge, but as long as you love what you do, learning is nothing but pleasurable.

Photo references and important links:

• Wilson’s Book.
• Yarns photo by Muffet on Flickr.
• Furnishing fabrics photo by …Rachel J… on Flickr.
• Household textiles photo by Peppysis on Flickr.

Textile, Ceramic and Paper

You can find surface design in almost everything in your house, office, school…anywhere where there are people circulating that has been decorated, even if it doesn’t seem like a propper decoration, it’s impregnated with surface design. The tiles on the bathroom floor and walls, the plates you eat off, your pillows, notebooks…I could go on forever.

In our lives, surface design is mostly present in three different areas: textiles, ceramics and paper. There are a number of other materials used, such as melamine, plastic, wood, etc. But authors tend to focus on these three categories, maybe because they are more traditional and have been around for quite a long time. Hey, wood has been around for a long time too, I know, but it’s always been associated with crafts when it´s carved or decorated, so it´s hard to position it in the life of a graphic designer as well. A wooden bowl, as beautiful as it is, did not have to have its surface projected by an artist or a designer, its beauty is 100% natural.

So, going back to those three main areas, they’re pretty self-explanatory:

Textile surface design comprehends rugs, carpets, curtains, pillow cases, towels, bed quilts, bed sheets, etc.

Print on cotton. Kenya, designed by Nathalie du Pasquier for Memphis, produced by Rainbow (Photograph courtesy Furniture of the Twentieth Century, Inc., N.Y.) Scanned from Marypaul Yates's book: Textiles-A handbook for designers.

Examples of textile objects decorating a room. Photograph from Akiko Busch's book: Wallworks-Creating unique environments with surface design and decoration.

Ceramic surface design comprehends porcelain articles, dishes, trays, bathroom and kitchen tiles, mugs, etc.

Oxford's Coup Twiggy ceramic collection. http://www.oxford.ind.br/collection/pt/coup/twiggy.php

Ceramic Tiles. Photograph in Abigail Trow's book: Surface

Portobello bathroom tiles. http://www.portobello.com.br/

Paper surface design is found in stationery items such as notebooks, folders, stickers, address books, file totes, etc., and also in gift wrapping paper and wallpaper.

Hallmark gift sets. http://www.hallmark.com

Wallpapers designed by Jocelyn Warner. Photograph in Abigail Trow's book: Surface. http://www.jocelynwarner.com/

Galison Origami Lane social notes. http://www.galison.com

On my next post I’ll focus on talking a bit about textile design, there’s so much to say about it that I don’t know where to start, but I’ll give it my best.

What is Surface Design?

Hi everyone!

Now, I think we´ll never be able to answer that question in a way that everyone will agree. Even the definition for Design isn´t totally clear, let alone surface design. None the less, in this blog my intention is to focus on surface design, it´s definitions, meanings, appliances, amongst others.

Glass Tiles from Abigail Trow's book: Surface

There are a few blogs about surface design around, some of them are wonderful, such as Design*Sponge and Print & Pattern, but ever since I started studying Surface Design I´ve really missed seeing more academic references around, and I think I´m not alone.

Of course, I don´t know it all, I have so much to learn about surface design, and through this blog I intend to share my discoveries with everyone.

Now, going back to the question above, I have a few definitions by some designers that I find interesting. As I said before, none of them is the absolute truth, but it´s always enriching to find out more about the topic and to hear other people´s opinions.

Surface Design Association

Surface Design encompasses the coloring, patterning, and structuring of fiber and fabric. This involves creative exploration of processes such as dyeing, painting, printing, stitching, embellishing, quilting, weaving, knitting, felting, and papermaking.

Renata Rubim

According to Rubim, Surface Design is used to define all projects made by a designer, in respect to the graphic treatment and color used on a certain surface, industrial or not.

Evelise Rüthschilling

Surface design is a technical creative activity that aims to creat bidimentional images (visual and tactile textures), projected specifically for the constitution and/or treatment of surfaces, presenting aesthetic and functional solutions to the different materials and processes of industrial and handicraft productions.

As you can see, the SDA’s definition refers exclusively to textile surface design, but I think it´s a valid statement none the less. For those of you who read Portuguese, Rubim´s book, “Desenhando a Superfície” (Ed. Rosari, 2005), is a must-have. I´ll talk more about it an other posts.

In my next post I´ll be talking about the different areas in which surface design is most active, hope you guys enjoy it!

Kisskiss
Camila