A Crash Course in Textile Design
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olors, patterns, and structure make consumer goods made from fabric unique from one another. Without variation, the colors of your clothes, blankets, or pillow cover would look plain and repetitive. Making a fabric attractive is no easy task. Nevertheless, it’s possible thanks to the creativity of textile designers. Textile designers are artists. They breathe life into a fabric by infusing it with their creativity. What Is Textile Design? Textile design is the process of producing graphics on fabrics. Textile design can be applied to all types of fabric. Still, the difficulty of producing and the quality of the graphics might differ depending on the type of fabric used. Aside from embedding graphics such as patterns, characters, and colors, the textile design also determines the structure of a fabric-based product. Textile design can be done using modern and traditional methods. As an age-old process, cultures all over the globe have different ways of the design process. Traditional
methods in the textile design are batik (see article on Watercolor Batik on page 40), mudcloth, Otomi, shisha, Toile de Jouy, block print, suzani, kente cloth, shibori, farazada, ikat, and Kuba. Modern methods, on the other hand, utilize computer-aided software and printers. Basic Skills Textile design is closely related to art. Therefore, it will be an advantage if you have prior experience in the fields of painting, sketching, mosaic, and other creative art forms. You don’t need to have an artistic background to be a successful textile designer. Nevertheless, it will be easier for you to understand the techniques and principles if you’re fond of art. One fundamental skill that you need to develop as a textile designer is a keen attention to detail. You should be able to recognize potential mistakes and, if possible, the unnecessary elements that don’t contribute to the beauty of the textile print patterns. You should also have a knack for visualizing the unseen. Profession-
