How to Take a Creative Approach to Patterns : An Introduction to Surface Pattern Design

1. Introduction: Surface pattern design is one of the most popular creative career options today. With the help of design programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate and more. You can create repeating patterns at home and license them to companies around the world. You can even earn commissions by selling them on print on demand sites like Spoonflower. Hi everyone. I'm Geetanjali, an artist, illustrator and surface pattern designer. and Thangka painter based in goa the beautiful southwestern coast of India. As a self-taught surface pattern designer, I tend to experiment a lot with my technical skills to get the best results in the smartest way possible. Even though I'm a tech geek, I love traditional mediums equally. And that is why you will see a wide range of style in my artwork. I started my surface pattern journey in 2016, when I found Spoonflower, a print-on-demand company that sells fabric, wallpaper, and home decor. Today, I have over 1,400 designs in my shop. And I have also licensed my prints to companies. This course is going to be a series of classes, starting with the basics of surface pattern design and slowly moving on to creating simple to complex patterns. And finally, how to customize your own workflow. This class is suitable for all skill levels. However, some basic knowledge of surface pattern design is helpful. I'm really excited to work on this project with you. So let's get started. 2. My Journey & Class Overview: Hi everyone. I'm Geetanjali And I welcome you to my class a little bit about me before we move into the course, in 2011 I completed my graduation in fashion design and started working at a retail company. But I guess I was always drawn towards the art and painting career. So I quit my job and I started freelancing through websites like people per hour and upwork. As a fashion illustrator, I designed technical drawings, line sheets, illustrations, and sometimes wall art and graphics. These projects really helped me hone my Illustrator and Photoshop skills. I also got the opportunity to work on a lot of coloring pages. And in 2020, I got my own book, mindful and meditative coloring published. It was a dream come true. As I always wanted to do painting, I started learning, buddhist thangka painting in 2015, last but not the least, in 2016, I got to know about Spoonflower while watching an online video and started participating in the challenges. And that's how my surface pattern journey started. Today, I have over 1,400 designs in my shop, licensed some of my prints to customers. And I've also been featured a few times on their blog. I'm a tech geek and during all these years, I have developed a unique workflow for my surface design process. I decided to create this class so I could share my knowledge and tips with you all. Before we begin, I would like to talk a little about what you can expect from this class. As I mentioned earlier, that this is the first class in the series. And it's all about the basics of surface pattern design. We will learn what is surface pattern design? The different file formats, size, resolution, and color modes. Then we learn different types of layouts and the ten most commonly used repeats. Next, we will see what is a building block and a pattern swatch. Then we'll move on to understanding the pattern options tool in Illustrator. The final two lessons are about the different repeat options and the uploading process in Spoonflower. By the end of this class, you will have a better understanding of patterns. You will be able to create repeats in multiple ways. Whether simple or complex. You will also be able to set up your own Spoonflower shop and start your print on demand journey. If you're as excited as I am, grab your favorite cup of tea or coffee, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 3. Class Project : Do you ever feel intimidated by looking at other designers work and wonder, how do you even start creating something like this? Well, there is always a start. And to reach that level, you need to have a very strong foundation. And this class is all about understanding the basics of surface pattern design. For this project, you will need the illustrator software. If you don't have it. The link to free trial is included in your project and resources section. We will create a simple motif in illustrator. And then create multiple repeat and layout options using that one motive and the pattern options tool in Illustrator. Once you have completed creating the patterns, you can upload them to the project gallery using the templates provided. If you have any questions or doubts, please feel free to drop them in the discussion box and I'll be more than happy to help. I can't wait to see you get started on your creative journey. 4. What is SPD or Surface Pattern Design?: Surface pattern design is an artwork created either by hand or digitally or a combination of both to be used on the surface of an object or product to enhance its visual appearance. This could be fabric, wallpaper, home furnishing, stationary gift wrap, and a lot of other things we see around us. Surface pattern designs can be both stand alone or repeating patterns depending on what the final goal is. In this class, we'll be focusing on the repeat patterns, where we use a single motif or a set of motifs and create seamless repeat patterns. Today there are multiple career opportunities for surface pattern designers. You can sell your patterns online, license them to companies. You can do freelance projects and commission work, print them on products for your own business. You can sell digital design assets, or you can even sell them on print-on-demand sites and earn commissions. There are a lot of terms that you will come across while learning to design patterns. And here are a few to consider. Motifs are the individual elements in a design. And all patterns are made by combining either a single motif or a set of motifs. Depending on the motifs you chose to draw, the patents can be classified into different themes. Geometric designs are made using basic geometric shapes in a grid like format. Floral design is made using flowers, nature, and other botanical elements. Ditsy design is a small-scale non-directional pattern made by using very tiny motifs. Conversational designs are made using recognisable motifs that are fun and usually tell a story. They can feature anything like animals, rockets, to chairs, novelty and children print are a part of this category. Animal print includes animal as the main motor. Nature prints, has motifs that are inspired by nature and its beauty. Historical patterns include motifs inspired by history an event or a period. Folk art patterns have motifs featuring popular folk art culture and stories. Abstract patterns are made using shapes and marks. Whereas, seasonal patterns have motifs featuring a certain occasion or event. Apart from these, there are various other themes, such as contemporary, which represents the current trend. Toile de Jouy, which is a type of conversational patterns that depicts everyday life, usually illustrating a colonial or country scene doodles are patterns including hand-drawn or scribbled motifs that are fun to create. Also, we have textures that can be used as a background for another motif, like a floral, or they can be used on their own. Similar to themes are styles. There are many different styles of pattern which represent a specific time period or artistic expression. Some examples include art and craft movement, Art Nouveau, art deco, Bauhaus, mid-century modern art, pop art And various ethnic cultures like Islamic, Indian, Asian, African, Japanese and more. Composition is putting together and arranging all the motifs to create a cohesive pattern. It is also the layout of a pattern with a good balance of positive and negative space. As you can see in this pattern, the motifs are placed really close to each other, which results in showing very little background. Hence, this design has very less negative space. Whereas the next pattern shows a lot of negative space as the motifs are placed at a good distance from each other, showing a lot of background. The next pattern shows alternate packed and spaced areas as the motifs are arranged in such a way that it shows similar positive and negative space. While designing a collection, it is recommended to have a good balance of these three compositions. So it gives an overall balanced look. Color palette is a group of colors used together in a design. Choosing the right colors is very important, as it will give your design a certain feeling or mood. Understanding the color wheel is one of the basic steps that will help you choose an effective color palette. The color wheel shows the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. The basic color wheel has 12 colors, including primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Color harmony is the basic color theory technique for combining colors. It is the art of combining colors in an aesthetically pleasing way. Another thing we need to consider this hue, tone and shade. As you can see in this color wheel, this outer circle includes the hue, which is pure color. The second layer is the tint, which is achieved by mixing white to the hue. Then the next layer is tone, which is color mixed with grey. And finally, to get the shade of a color black is added. When you are picking your palate, it's safest to start with a set of colors which live in the same neighborhood. On the tints, tones, and shades scale. There are multiple models for choosing an effective color palette. Here are a few to consider. Monochromatic model uses a single color with varying shades and tints to produce a consistent look and feel. Here is an example of how it can be used. Next we have is the analogous color scheme, which is formed by pairing one main color with the two colors directly next to it on the color wheel. Complementary color scheme is based on the use of two colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel. Pattern collection is a group of patterns that are used together, including a main pattern, which is also called Hero pattern, or the star of the show. And coordinating patterns that can stand on their own or be used together with other patterns called blenders in the collection. Here is one of my pattern collections called beetle garden, using a warm and retro inspired color palette. This is the hero pattern, which has the most complex composition and uses all the colors from the palette. Next, we have two coordinates that are little less complex than the hero and uses some of the elements from the Hero pattern. Finally, we have this simple patterns called blenders, which hold everything together and provides a good balance to the overall collection. So to create a good pattern, start with choosing a theme or style. Then create a good set of motifs that represent the style. Spend some time on the competition so that the pattern looks cohesive. Then choose a harmonious color palette. Make sure your pattern is technically correct. And finally, create a beautiful collection around your pattern. A quick recap of what we have learned in this class. What is surface pattern design? How you can make a living as a surface pattern designer? What our motives, pattern themes, style, composition, color palette, color harmony, and pattern collection. I hope you found this information helpful. In the next lesson, we will discuss about the different file formats, document size and color modes. 5. File Formats, Document size, Resolution and Color modes: Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of artwork in the digital world, raster and vector. Raster artwork means that an image is made with individual pixels, e.g. this pattern, when we start zooming in, eventually we can see these pixels and after a point, we start losing the details. so The biggest disadvantage of a raster image is that you cannot scale it up after a certain point, or it will start looking pixelated. Photographs, scanned artwork are all raster images. Whereas a vector artwork is a mathematical representation of shapes. So when you zoom in, the image still retains its quality. And you can always change the size regardless of the original artwork. Vector files need to be created using shapes and anchor points, so which is the best file format for surface pattern design. Well both have their own properties and are designed to serve different purposes. What is important is that both are acceptable in the industry. So choose the program depending on your style. Just make sure the final print ready file should be high-res, as it will always be exported as a raster file. If you'd like to draw freehand style, use a lot of textures or hand paint your motifs. Raster based programs are ideal. If you like flat illustrations, graphic art illustrations with sharp edges and even rendering. Vector-based programs are best. Application on iPad or tab with pencils gives the digital experience that feels like you're drawing on paper. But they have their certain limitations, such as restricted number of layers or file size due to the limited storage as compared to the computer software. If you prefer raster format. Adobe Photoshop is the most commonly used computer-based program, and procreate is the common choice on iPad. These are also the ones that I use for my pattern design process. Few other alternates are GIMP and Coral painter. If you prefer Vector Format, adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, and Corel draw are the most commonly used programs on computer. And affinity designer and Adobe fresco are the preferred ones on iPads. I have been using Adobe Illustrator for every single pattern that I make. Because of the pattern options tool Scale is an important aspect of creating and presenting your surface pattern designs. Some pattern elements might look good as a small-scale or extra small scale. Whereas some elements will look good on large scales like bedding and wallpaper. Now talking about the document size and resolution, there is no such ideal size, but I would like to add that it depends on the program that you are using to create the pattern. If it is a vector file, you can always scale it up or down so you don't need to worry about it. But if it is a raster file, you can scale it up to only a certain size. After that, you will start losing the quality. Resolution is the number of pixels in dimensions of height and width. Resolution of 300 pixels per inch is the industry standard for high-quality prints. Whether you design, the artwork in Illustrator, photoshop, or any other software. You have to export it as a high res file in JPEG or PNG or other file format for printing, uploading it on print on demand site. Another thing that I keep in mind while deciding the size, is the wallpaper size setting on Spoonflower. Spoonflower prints wallpaper rolls that are 24 inch wide at 150 dpi. If I want to offer my pattern as a large scale repeat for wallpaper, my basic repeat swatch needs to be 24 inch wide at 150 DPA or 12 " wide at 300 DPI. I prefer to keep my document size at least 12 inch wide at 300 DPI and 24 inch wide at 300 DPI. when I'm working on Photoshop, I would say anything above 10 " at 300 DPI is a decent size to start with. Unless it is a ditsy or something specific that only works at a small-scale. Next thing we need to consider is the color mode. The two most common color modes that are used in pattern design, are RGB and CMYK. Rgb stands for red, green, and blue. And this profile uses an additive process to produce colors by blending light. It is the color scheme for digital images and is used if the project is to be displayed on any screen, such as LCD camera scanner, etc. Rgb color scheme offers the widest range of colors and hence preferred in many computer softwares. Cmyk stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key, which is also black. The CMYK model is a subtractive type that combines the colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and black in different extents to get different colors. It is the color model used for projects including printed materials like business cards, posters, flyers, etc. Cmyk has lesser range of colors than RGB. Now Which one is best for surface pattern design? Well, the answer is both. Many artists prefer using CMYK color mode and exporting the final file as RGB. For web or digital portfolio purposes. If you're designing for a particular company or client, make sure to check for the final deliverable files and their requirements. It also depends on the type of printing method and machine that is going to be used. Today, we have high-quality inkjet printer that can print really bright and vibrant colors. So some print on demand sites will ask for the RGB color profile. You can change the color mode of a file even after you have created the pattern. So you can start with whichever color mode you are comfortable with and change it later if required. To change the color mode of a file in Illustrator, go to File Document Color Mode and choose the required mode. If you wish to convert an RGB document to CMYK in Photoshop, you get a more accurate conversion from the edit convert to profile command. Now what happens when you convert a bright colored pattern designed in RGB color mode to CMYK and then convert it back to RGB. Well, the vibrant color you lost is lost. The color number changes slightly as you convert back and forth, but the color never comes back to original. So keep this in mind. I like to design my artworks in RGB as I sometimes use all the three programs, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Procreate for one file. And it is better to keep it same everywhere. There is one more option that is Pantone. The Pantone color system is a standardized formatting system which is widely used around the world by standardizing the colors. That is done by allotting them a name and number. Different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the pantheon system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. You can convert your CMYK or RGB values to the nearest Pantone code by using the Adobe Illustrator re-color tool or convert on Pantone website using the current RGB or CMYK value. Now a quick recap of what all we have learned in this lesson. Different file formats, raster and vector, document size, scale and resolution. Document color mode, RGB and CMYK and Pantone. I hope you found this information helpful. In the next lesson, we'll discuss the different surface pattern design layouts. 6. Surface Pattern Layouts: A pattern layout is simply the way in which motifs are arranged within the pattern. It can affect the overall look and feel of the final pattern. There are many different layout ideas, but here are some of the most common ones. All over pattern repeats are designs where the motifs are placed within a repeat unit, and then repeated seamlessly. That means that they repeat without showing a join. They can consist of multiple motifs that are sparsely placed or closely packed on a single continuous motifs that flows around. One way or directional pattern repeat, use elements or motives that indicate a strong horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction. These designs can be more limited in their use as they are intended to be used in only one direction. These are most commonly found in curtains and wallpapers. A two directional surface pattern design uses elements or motives that have either a strong horizontal or vertical direction. A two-way design has a consistent design. But the design in this case, can be flipped upside down or sideways and still looks the same. It minimizes waste. When cutting the pattern out. Multi-directional repeats can be viewed from any direction. By placing the elements or motifs in different directions. The pattern does not appear to have a top, bottom, left, or right. Multi-directional designs are great for fabric rolls as they can be cut and used from any point. Therefore, avoiding fabric wastage. An Engineered, or placement print allows you to control the dimensions of the artwork and where it is placed on the product. T-shirts, greeting cards, tea towels are a great example of where engineered prints are commonly used. To summarise, these are the most common surface pattern layouts. In the next lesson, we will discuss about the various surface design repeats. 7. Surface Pattern Repeats: A pattern repeat is simply the amount of space from where the pattern begins and then repeats itself, both horizontally and vertically. There are multiple ways in which a pattern tile can be repeated. And here are the ten most common ways to consider. Basic, grid or full drop is the most common and simplest of all the repeat systems. Well, the pattern swatch is created by arranging repeat block in a grid format. It is also called tossed surface pattern repeat. As the elements of the designs are scattered within the repeat unit, then that unit is arranged like a grid. The unstructured nature of a tossed repeat results in a very organic and cohesive design. Another very commonly used surface design repeat is the half drop, which consists of the tile being stacked vertically in a column format, then drops exactly half of the vertical repeat along the horizontal line. Next common repeat option is the brick repeat, which is very similar to the half-drop pattern repeat, except instead of the repeat unit being stacked vertically in a column format, it is stacked horizontally. The repeat unit is then offset by half in the next horizontal row, resembling a brick wall. Next we have is a diamond repeat pattern, which is created by repeating diamond-shaped unit. This therefore results in the elements being arranged in diagonal rows. Hexagon by row is a pattern repeat offered in the Illustrator Pattern option tool. And it's best to use when the tiles are hexagonal in shape and arranged in rows. Here, centres of tiles in the rows are horizontally aligned, whereas centers of tiles in alternate rows are vertically aligned. Similarly, we have hexagon by column, and this is also offered in Illustrator Pattern option tool. In this case, centers of tiles in the column are vertically aligned.and Centers of tiles in alternate column are horizontally aligned. Another interesting repeat is the OGEE pattern repeat, where the title is similar to the diamond shape, except it has rounded. edges at the sides and pointed at the top and bottom. Arc repeat is another variation of diamond repeat. And it's best to use when the tile is an arc shape. It is also called scale as it resembles the fish scales. Next we have is the stripes repeat. This layout has a very strong vertical or horizontal format. Stripes could be made up of color block, floral motifs, shapes, and more. Finally, we have diagonal stripes repeat, I have put it separate from stripes as the process of creating a diagonal repeat is quite different from the straight one. This layout has a strong diagonal format, and these could be made up of color blocks, floral motifs, shapes, and more. Let's have a quick recap of all the repeat options we learned. These are basic half-drop brick, diamond, hexagon by row, hexagon by column, ogee, arc repeat, straight and diagonal stripes. In the next lesson, we will discuss what are pattern tile and patterns swatch. 8. Pattern Tile and Pattern Swatch: Every pattern is made of a tile or building block, which includes either a single motif or a set of motifs. When we place these blocks together using a set of parameters, we get the pattern swatch in a square or rectangular shape, which repeats seamlessly over and over again in a grid format. In some cases, the Tile and swatch would be same dimension. E.g. the single flower can be arranged in multiple repeat layout to create different patterns. Similarly, this set of motifs is the building block for this pattern. Let's see how we can create different repeats with the same tile. Here the tile results in this pattern using the basic repeat layout. The same tile when used as a half-drop repeat results in this pattern. Another option is the tile combined with brick repeat, resulting in this pattern. We can also use the same tile and rotate it to get the diamond repeat. As we can see, our building block is same for all these patterns, but the spacing and layout are different for each, which results in different end patterns. Now let's understand what a pattern swatch is and how it is different from the pattern tile. A pattern Swatch is the tileable, rectangular unit of a repeat pattern. To understand this better, let's check all the pattern that we made earlier. For this basic pattern repeat. This is our pattern swatch, which is also the pattern tile for the half drop repeat pattern. Here is our pattern swatch, which if repeated as a grid or basic repeat, will result in the same pattern. Now for the brick repeat, the swatch is here, and this again will work as a basic grid for this pattern. Lastly, for the diamond repeat, here is the pattern swatch that repeats in a grid like format. For any pattern, the final deliverable file is always the pattern swatch. Now let's have a quick comparison between a pattern tile and pattern swatch. The pattern tile is the smallest repeating unit in a pattern. It is generally in grid format, but not necessarily. Only for the basic repeat it the same as the swatch. The building block or pattern tile, when combined with a repeat, gives the pattern swatch. One tile, can create multiple patterns. Whereas, The pattern swatch is the final repeating unit in a pattern. It is always in rectangular or square shape. Only for the basic repeat. It the same as the building block or tile. One pattern has only one swatch. If you have any questions or doubts, please feel free to drop them in the discussion tab. And I'll be more than happy to help. In the next lesson, we'll create patterns with different layouts and repeat as our class project. It is going to be a lot of fun. And I'll see you in the next lesson. 9. Understanding the Pattern Option Tool: Hi everyone. I hope you're finding these classes helpful. Today. I'm here to help you with the class project. I know how difficult it is to start something new on your own. So to make it easy for you to complete the class project, I'll guide you along the process. If you want, you can join me and complete the first 14 patterns in just next few minutes. It's going to be a lot of fun. Let's get started. All you need for this project is your computer or laptop and a subscription to Adobe Illustrator. If you don't have the subscription, you can get the link to free trial in the project and resources section. We will start with opening Illustrator. I have uploaded to Illustrator files called Class Projects and worksheets. In the project and resources section. You can download the files and then open it in Illustrator. The class project file includes the surface pattern layouts, repeats, and the worksheet templates. So you can fill them and upload to the gallery. Now open the worksheet file and create a new layer in the layers panel. If you don't see it, click on the layers from window. First step is to create a simple asymmetric motif so that it is easy to show the directional patterns. You can use simple shapes or any drawing tool in Illustrator to create this port. I'm creating a simple leaf as my motif. Before we start, I would like to check the size of my motif in the Properties panel. I will set it at 1 " height. You can keep yours close to nearest round number, so it is easy to remember. Now we will be using this one motif to understand the pattern option tool features. To create the pattern, select the motif and go to Object, Pattern and Make or go to Window pattern options. A new window will pop up with a message saying the new pattern has been added to the swatch panel and any changes made will be applied to the swatch upon exit. Click, Okay, now we will go through each feature. You can choose to give your pattern a name or update an existing name. Next is the tile type. There are multiple tile types or repeats that we have discussed in previous classes. Namely grid or basic repeat. Brick by Row, Brick by Column, which is commonly called half-drop. Hexagon by column and hexagon by row. You can use these options and create the other repeats like diamond ogee, scale and stripes. The little thumbnail here, gives a preview of the pattern swatch that is going to be saved. Break-offset is applicable only when we choose the brick by row or column option. Width and height are the dimensions of the pattern tile or building block. We can click here to change the width and height in proportion. Select the Size Tile to Art option. When you want the title to be exactly same size as your artwork. Select this move tile with art to ensure that moving the artwork causes the tile to move as well. I'll try to explain it with an example. You can choose any width or height for your tile. It can be bigger than the motif or artwork, or even smaller. And in that case, the motifs will overlap. To increase or decrease the space between the tiles. You can select this value and then click on the up or down arrow on your keyboard to increase or decrease by one unit, which is 1 ", in this case, hold shift. And then down or up arrow. When you click on the Size Tile to Art, it will bring the tile size back to the original motif for artwork size. In this case, to make the motifs overlap or distant, you have to use the horizontal or vertical spacing the same way as we did for height and width. Another thing to consider is that if your motif has a stroke, and you'll want two motifs to overlap just as much as the stroke width is. You can put the width or height to your artwork in the width and height, whichever you want to overlap. And it will result that way. It's good for geometric patterns. But in case you choose Size Tile to Art, it includes the stroke within the tile edge. And hence the pattern looks different. And it will be confusing to use the horizontal and vertical spacing. As I motifs are in inches and the stroke value will be in points. Horizontal and Vertical spacing are enabled when you select the Size Tile to Art option. As the artwork or tile become one unit. We can only adjust the space or overlapping between the two tiles. Next we have overlap. When two adjacent tiles overlap, you choose which tile to appear in front, both horizontally and vertically. Copies lets you determine how many columns of tiles are visible while modifying the pattern. With dim copies, you can adjust the opacity of the copies of the artwork tile previewed while modifying the pattern. The show tile edge option displays the building block or tile of the pattern that is repeated. Whereas the swatch bound will display a unit portion of the pattern that is repeated to create the pattern. It is also the swatch that will be saved in the swatch library. Once you're done, click here to save a copy when you have a pattern already saved in that name. Click Done to save, and click Cancel to discard. I will cancel it for now. And in the next lesson, we will start with our first set of patterns with different layouts. I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Creating Multiple Pattern Layouts: Now that we have understood all the features of pattern options tool, Let's create our first real pattern for All over layout. To create this pattern we will make four copies of our motifs and place them randomly, like motifs in a tossed pattern. We don't need to worry about the dimensional spacing for now. Select all motifs and now click on Object Pattern and Make click OK. Start by naming the pattern. We will save it as All over. Keep the tile type as grid. Width we will make it 2 " and height also 2 ". This is our tile size Uncheck the Tile to Art. Now you can zoom in and rotate and resize the motifs to make a balanced pattern. You can add more copies of motifs if you want, but make sure to stay within the tile edge. You can enable or disable it here. Get a better preview of the final pattern. You can adjust the Dim Copies opacity to 100% and change the copies two more rows and columns. So the entire screen is filled. Adjust the direction or spacing between the motifs. Once you are happy, click done to save the changes. If the window closes by mistake don't worry, you can open this window again by double-clicking on the Swatch named all over from the swatches library. And we have our first pattern ready. To check, make a rectangle bigger than the repeat size, which was 2 by 2 " in this case. Fill it With the new repeat. Now, we'll create our second layout using the same four motifs. This is a one-way or directional pattern. So make sure all your motifs are facing the same direction. Now select everything and go to object, pattern, make, and click OK. This time name it as one way. And keep the tile type as grid. Will keep the sizes 2 by 2 ". Make sure to uncheck the Size Tile to Art option. Now, move the motifs around to adjust the spacing. Check for any uneven or unwanted line by increasing the opacity of the other copies. Once you are happy, click Done. And we have our second pattern ready. We will repeat these same steps for the two directional and multi-directional layout now. Using the same four motifs go to Object Pattern, Make. Name this file as two-way size for two-by-two inches. Now turn half of the motifs upside down. so we have a reversible pattern. Adjust the spacing and layout and click Done. For the multi-directional. We will create two options. Repeat the same steps. Name it as multi-directional one. Size 2 by 2 ". Not turn the four motifs in four directions adjust the overall spacing and layout. And click done. For the last option. Select all motifs. In the pattern options dialog box. give it a name multi direction, and size it to two-by-two inches for now. Turn the motifs in all four directions, but this time rotate them by 45 degree. Now, if you want, you can adjust the width and height to reduce the gap between the motifs. Select Size Tile to Art. And this will bring the tile next to each other. And this completes your five layout options. You can arrange this motif like a standalone design for the placement print. Let's fill our templates with these patterns. Select the rectangle and fill it with the Swatch named All over. Similarly, fill the rest of the rectangles with their respective patterns. If you want to adjust the scale of a pattern, select the rectangle and go to Object, Transform Scale. Select the uniform option, and enter a value less than hundred to scale down. And make sure to de-select the transform objects as we only want to scale the pattern. Check the preview and click Okay. Repeat the same for the rest of the patterns. We will continue working on the project in the next lesson as well, where we will create patterns using the ten most commonly used repeat options. 11. Creating Multiple Pattern Repeats: I hope you enjoyed creating patterns with different layouts. In this class, we'll be creating patterns with different repeats. Will start with basic repeat. You can choose the same motif or create a new one if you want. I'll make a small floral motif this time. I'll put a tile shape behind it. In the properties panel, I'll check my motif size and keep it 1 by 1" and change the stroke to dotted lines to see the Repeats better. For the first basic repeat option. Select the motif and go to Object, Pattern and Make click Okay. Name the file as basic repeat. And select the tile type as grid. Since we are using a tiled motif here, we can keep the tile size same here. That is 1 by 1 ". If you want, you can add space between the tiles. We could also choose Size Tile to Art. In this case, since I have put a stroke on my tile, I'll be avoiding that. If you want, you can create your patterns without these strokes. It's the most simple repeat. So click Done and it saved. We will continue with the Brick by Row or brick. Repeat, select the artwork and go to Object, Pattern Make. Name it as brick repeat. This time, select the tile type as Brick by Row. And as you can see, the brick offset is enabled now. So right now the value is set at half, which means the tiles are shifted horizontally by half as we move upwards. You can change this value to one-third or one-fourth and so on. But keep in mind when you change this value, this little thumbnail that shows the Swatch Preview also updates. The more complex value you choose. Thumbnail becomes smaller in scale, which means the pattern swatch becomes complex and the elements in the pattern also becomes smaller. I would recommend keeping this value simple. Unless you are creating a very small-scale or ditsy pattern. For now, I'll set it at half and I'll set my tile size at 1 by 1" Click done to Save. Next we'll repeat the same for half-drop or Brick by Column repeat. Select the artwork and in the pattern option, name it as half-drop. Now select title type as brick by column. You can change the brick offset if you want. I'll choose one-third this time. And keep my tile size at one-by-one. And click Done to save. Next we have is the diamond repeat. For this, I'll make a copy of the tile and rotate the tile shape behind by 45-degree to make a diamond shape. Remember the size will change after rotation. So check the new size and change it to a round number. So it is easy to remember. Now in the pattern option window, name it as diamond repeat. As you can see when the tile type is grid, the alternate titles are empty. So we will change the tile type to brick by row or column. Depending on the tile type you choose, you will have to change the height or width value by half respectively. The offset can only be half for diamond repeat. Since our tile size is one-by-one inch and I have selected brick by row as my tile type. Width will still be one, and the height will be reduced to half. And you have the perfect repeat. In case you're using tile without stroke, you can also select Size Tile to Art and then reduce vertical spacing by 0.5. Click done to save. Next repeat type is hexagon by column. For this will make a hexagon shaped tile and place it behind our motif. Keep the width of the artwork one-inch or a round number. In the pattern options tool, name it as hex by column and choose the tile type. Now, lock the proportions and put 1 " as width. In case your title doesn't have a stroke. just click, select Tile to Art. Now click done to save. For the hexagon by row repeat, select the tile and rotate it by 90 degrees so the edges are aligned vertically. In this case the height becomes 1 ". In the Pattern Options window, give it a name, select the file type. Keep the proportions locked and change the height to 1 ". Now click Done to save. Next we have is 0gee Repeat, I will share a simple way to create this tile shape in just few clicks. Draw a circle with one-inch diameter. Now cut path using top, right and bottom anchor points. As you can see, there are three shapes now. Select the bottom right shape and move it to the top to match the left half. And move the top to the bottom. Use Transform tool to keep the changes exact. Now, join the three shapes. Select and make a copy and reflect it. Join both the shapes. and resize it to 1 by 1 ". Place it behind your motif and align it in the center. Open the pattern option tool name the pattern as ogee And as I said earlier, this is very similar to the diamond repeat. So select the tile type as brick by row or column, and adjust the height or width to half respectively. And click done to save. For the scale repeat. Start by drawing a circle that is 1 " in diameter. Now cut the path using left, bottom and right anchor points. Turn the bottom two shapes inward. Select the three shapes and click Join. Place it behind your motif. Now, open pattern option tool. name it as scale repeat, and repeat the same steps as for the diamond. Keeping the title type as brick by row or column, adjust the width or height to half respectively. And you have the scale pattern ready. The last two repeats are straight and diagonal stripes. For the straight, stripes it is quite simple. Just select the motifs in the pattern tool window. Keep the tile type as grid. Now adjust the width to adjust stripe width and height to keep the motif close or distant. Click done to save. For the diagonal stripe, make a few copies of the motif to form a line. You can do that in the preview mode as well. Now select all the motifs and rotate them by any angle you want. If it is 45-degree, it will be easier to adjust the size and distance. But if it is a random rotation, you might have to scale and adjust the width and height till you find the perfect repeat. Once you get it, click done to Save. Now it's time to upload our repeat patterns to the worksheet. To do that, click on the previous layer, select each rectangle and fill it with your respective swatch. If you think the scale is too big or small, you can adjust it by clicking on the Rectangle and go to Object, Transform and Scale. Once completed, export these files as JPEG and click on the Upload File in skill share and share one or more of the pages you wish to share. In the next lesson, we will learn how to save, resize and export a pattern swatch. 12. How to Save, Resize and Export a Pattern Swatch: In this lesson, we will learn how to save, resize and export a pattern swatch. Let's see the pattern swatch from a bird's eye point of view. Every pattern swatch has three layers. A top layer where all the motifs are placed, then we have a background layer. The bottom most layer has the bounding box with no stroke and no fill. This is the rectangle that defines the swatch dimensions or boundary. Everything that is inside a bounding box will be included in the pattern. This is the usual way of creating patterns and saving them in the swatch library. Another way to save and export a swatch is by using clipping mask method. In case of a clipping mask, the bounding box is on top of motifs and background layer. To create a clipping mask of an artwork. Select artwork along with the top bounding box. Go to object, clipping mask and make everything that is inside the bounding box will be included in the clipping mask. But the only thing is that even though what you see is exactly same as the pattern swatch, there are hidden elements which are still outside the bounding box and can be edited anytime. You can check that by going to Object Clipping Mask Edit contents. If you just drag it as it is and save it in the swatch library. When you try and fill a shape with this pattern, it will show gaps in-between. And that is because there are still elements hidden there. Now, if you just need to export it as a JPEG or PNG, you can change the artboard size to match the bounding box. And then select Use Artboards file exporting. And this will exclude the hidden elements. To save it as a pattern swatch in the library. So you can use it as a pattern fill. You will need to crop the hidden elements. To do that, select the artwork with the mask and go to Object, edit contents, and then expand. It is very important to expand the artwork before cropping or else you might lose some elements which has special properties like stroke, brush or patterns. Once the artwork is expanded, click outside the box, it will return to the Clipping Mask Mode. Now select the artwork and go to Pathfinder. You can get it in the windows as well and select Crop. Once all the hidden elements I cropped, this can be saved as a swatch in the library. There are two ways to resize a pattern swatch. One way is to double-click on the swatch. The button option window will open. In the preview mode, you can see the measurement of the tile. If it is a simple dimension, you can calculate the size of the swatch based on the preview. For example in this case, The title size is one-by-one inch and repeat is grid. So our swatch size will also be one by one. Now when it is changed to halfdrop, The swatch bounds doubles. So our swatch size will be two-by-two inch, draw a rectangle to check. Now there is another way to do it, and this works regardless of the current tile size. Select the swatch from the pattern library and drag it to the art board. This is the layered pattern that we discussed earlier. Now we will ungroup everything. It has motifs, A background. And the bounding box at the bottom. Select the bounding box with no fill and no stroke. In the Properties panel. You can check its dimension. And you can also convert it to art board and export it as a JPEG or PNG while keeping select Artboard option. To convert the bounding box into an art board. Go to Object artboard, and convert to artboard The way I normally resize my patterns is after ungrouping the pattern swatch, I bring the bounding box to top of everything and then convert it into a clipping mask. Now, I can rescale it to any size using the art lot properties. Once final, I change my art board size to match it. Then finally export my file. with select artboard option on. I'm sharing all the possibilities so you can choose and decide what suits your workflow best. In the coming classes, they will create more complex and layered patterns. And all these information will be really useful then. Now that we know how to create an export a pattern. Let's explore the print on demand market through Spoonflower. I'll see you in the next lesson. 13. Spoonflower Repeat Options: Today we will discuss the different repeats offered by Spoonflower. Spoonflower offers five repeat options for displaying and saving any designs you upload. Basic repeat. Just create styles of your designs, straight up and down to fill the available space for your order. Half-drop repeat staggers the tiles vertically. This is like the basic repeat, except the design shifts a half-step vertically, as you move to the right. Half brick repeat is also a staggered repeat. but the design shifts half-step horizontally to the right. As you move upwards like bricks. Center repeat, prints one single iteration of an image right in the middle of whatever size and length of fabric is selected. This option is available only on fabric. Mirror repeat, will mirror the design, both vertically and horizontally, like the four quadrants of a graph. The design layout window allows you to toggle back and forth between the layout options in real time. You may toggle between the layout tabs for fabric and wallpaper on the design layout page. And you may save different repeat options for these two products. There are some limitations for the layout of wallpaper designs. Designs on wallpaper must repeat once or an even number of times across the 24 inch width of the rules so that it will properly install. This means that certain repeats and blocked at certain scale sizes for wallpaper designs, e.g. half brick and mirror repeat options are not available when a design is saved to repeat once across the 24-inch width. But once the design is made smaller, such as 12 " repeats per panel, these repeats become available for the design layout. Spoonflower produces a good quality print at a minimum of 150 dpi or dots per inch. Therefore, you can create your design files at desired dimensions and save at 150 dpi. If you change the DPI on the design layout page for redesign from 150 to 300. The new physical dimensions will be halved in both width and height. In case you prefer using the metric system, save your designs at the appropriate metric dimensions with a resolution of at least 59 DP centimeter. Before uploading to the site. Sizing and saving designs for wallpaper is a bit different. Every design must repeat an even number of times across the 24 " roll width. If your original design is not occluded at 24 " with, the system will re-size it accordingly. So it prints correctly. For exp if your design is 23 inch wide and 150 dpi, it will scale down to 12 inch wide. with the new resolution value to fit two repeats across a roll. Consider the following when creating wallpaper designs. Option one, if the design should repeat once, create your design Canvas 24-inch wide or 3,600 pixels wide. Option two: make a canvas size 1,800 pixel that is 12x150 the design will repeat two times across each roll. It can be any height. Option three, create a canvas at 900 pixels wide, which is 6 x 150. To repeat four times, DPI must be always 150 or higher. The scale of the pattern is very important. For exp, large elements can look good on beddings and wallpaper, but not on a small purse. It is always better to offer multiple scale options of a design. I usually upload three to four scale options for my designs. You don't need to export each scale separately. You can upload the same file and just update it to a higher resolution to save it at a scaled down version. The file that we uploaded at 150 dpi is going to be the large scale. Now that we have all the important details about the features, Let's get started with setting up our Spoonflower shop. 14. Uploading Designs on Spoonflower: Once you're done with the basic account set up, go to this little person icon on top right corner. And in the drop-down menu, choose View my shop. You can update your shop data here. Start with choosing a profile picture. I would recommend having your own photo so people can feel more connected and familiar. Now, I like to keep my profile and interests public. You can choose a screen name here, which could be your name or your brand name. Write a small intro about yourself and take this opportunity to tell the customers if you are willing to make custom changes to designs. You can also share links to your own personal store and social media. Once you're done, click Update. There is a small banner layout which you can update with your patterns or any illustration. Now when you click back on view my shop, you can see all these updates. Let's see how you can upload your designs. You will find the uploaded Design button in multiple places. It's right on the top. You can go to this person icon and drop down to upload your design. or If you add in your design library page, click on Add design. Once you are on the upload your designs page, check all the specifications. On the right you get to know the possibilities at spoonflower. And on the left are the details of required file format. So the acceptable file formats are tiff, JPEG and PNG. And the file size must be less than 40 Mb, at least 150 dpi. It could be more than 150 dpi, but not less than that. And Spoonflower will process it at 150 dpi, regardless of the resolution value you upload. As I mentioned earlier, the preferred color mode is RGB. Now choose the file from your device and click on the copyright confirmation, and then click Upload. It will take a few minutes. Once the upload is completed, you will land on this action page where you can make or change all the important settings and actions. You can choose to keep your design as private. Make it public. But this view all products button, you can get a preview of your design on multiple products in real time. and this will help you decide the scale and size. If you find some error on the pattern and want to replace the file, you can choose Upload Revision and make sure the new file is not named same as the old file. As it might not work. Sometimes you might need the repeat tile that you had uploaded on Spoonflower maybe a year ago or something. You can download that original file from here. And lastly, you can delete design if you want to remove it from the library. At the bottom, you will see enter in design challenge option, where you can see all the upcoming challenges. And if you think your design fits the brief, you can enter a challenge from here. You can find them on the top right of the page. Make sure to read the challenge guidelines thoroughly. Now coming back to our design, here you can see the preview of the pattern as fabric or wallpaper. It has a ruler setting which helps to visualize the motif sizes. You can also change the preview size from fat quarter to test swatch and yard. When you switch to wallpaper, the settings changes and instead of ruler, now you have room and design option. When you choose design, you get the ruler settings back. And as I mentioned earlier, the wallpaper roll with it set at 24 inch width and height scroll downs to 144 and more. You can choose different sizes and see a change in real-time. Let's discuss the repeats now. We will go back to the fabric option. We have discussed all the repeats in the previous lesson. The only thing you need to consider is whether you are uploading the pattern tile or pattern swatch. If you have already made the swatch in Illustrator or any other design program, you need to choose the basic repeat always. If it's a tie, then you can choose half-drop, half brick, center, or mirror depending on your design requirement. Next about the design size and resolution. As I mentioned earlier, that spoonflower processes the file at 150 dpi. So if you upload your design at a higher DPI, it will automatically change the resolution to 150 and update the size accordingly. To change the size of your design, there are two ways provided. You can either click on the smaller or bigger buttons, which will resize it. Another way that I normally use is by clicking on the change DPI button. You can write a value higher than 150 and check the new size update in the preview. Once you're satisfied, click on the Save Changes button. For the medium and small scales of my design. Sometimes I prefer to offer a scale down wallpaper size as well. Like 12 inch or 6" inch wide. Spoonflower offers peel and stick wallpaper. And I think the small-scale designs can be used as stickers for shelves and cupboards. The next option, which is about choosing a fabric or paper. It's more relevant to the buyers need. Make sure to save any changes you want to keep moving forward. In the next lesson, we will discuss about the steps in marketing and selling your designs. 15. Marketing and Selling on Spoonflower: Next step is the marketing and selling. Starting with the details. Once you have a good number of designs in your library, you can start creating collections of the designs that fall under the same theme. Or if you have designed a certain pattern collection. It's always nice to keep designs in collection. As sometimes, when a buyer is looking at one design which is a part of a collection, they can also find other designs of that collection under the main Shop page through which they can find that entire collection, which eventually will help in promoting and boosting sales for the other design as well. Next tab is for the name of design. I usually try to put maximum details in the name. Like the theme with the prominent color and scale. In this case it is Retro Floral If I have multiple color options of this print, I'll add the color name to it. If I'm offering multiple scales, I'll add slashed large scale. In the Description tab, there are limited characters, so you can either write a simple description about your design. or some people also share the link to the collection. It won't be clickable link so you can choose. In the additional details. I try to give more information of the collection, available scales along with the link to my social media and websites. Next, you can choose the thumbnail that you want for your design. On the right side you have tags. As it says, these are words or phrases that describes your design. So keep them relevant, but be creative at the same time. For updating multiple designs with descriptions and tags. There is another way In the design library, You will see these three display icons. with Show large View, Grid View, and list view. With large view, you get the actions for each design on this right with grid view and you can edit them individually. With action button on the bottom of each design. You can set the number of designs previewed here and the order in which you want them to be previewed. Next is the page out of total pages of your designs. Now with the list view, you can edit multiple designs at one time. Select the designs you want to edit, and now go to Edit Selected designs on top. And from the drop-down menu, you can choose the action. In the window. You can write one description for all the selected designs. And click update. And The page will update with new changes. Similarly, you can choose different actions like edit tags. display references, changing thumbnail, and adding to a particular collection. It is a much more efficient way of updating the actions when you have a good number of designs. To go back to the design edit page, click on the design thumbnail. And the last step is to make your design public and available for sale. To make your design available for sale, you need to buy a proof first, It could be a swatch fat quarter or any signs. But the most common and affordable way of proofing your designs is through fill a yard. You can prove 42 designs at a time. You can follow the instructions given in the fill a yard information page. We will first create a collection of the designs that we want to be proved. To create a new fill a yard. go to your design library. And on the left you can see add collection, the just under add design. Now create a private collection and you can name it as fill a yard. In the design library. You can select different designs and add them to the fill a yard collection. Once you have 42 designs ready to be proved, go back to collections. And here you can see the private collection fill a yard. You can see a small Fill a yard icon on top of that collection. When you click on that, you will see multiple options available for fill a yard. Choose the layout with the 42 designs, choose the fabric, and then design your project. As you can see on your designs are on the right and on the left there is a grid. Select each box and fill it with a pattern from the right. You can fill and arrange, this entire grid. and Once all the 42 designs are filled. You can select, Add to Cart and then you can complete your purchase. After the product has been shipped. You can make your prints available for sale. I hope you found this information helpful. Thank you for joining me. 16. Final Thoughts: Congratulations, you just created 14 different patterns. Isn't it amazing? This project is not about creating beautiful patterns, but how efficiently you can make them. So go ahead and create your student project and share your progress. I would love to see them. Thank you so much for joining me in the class. I hope you enjoyed it. And the lessons helped you get a better understanding of surface pattern design. If you have any doubts, please feel free to drop them in the discussions page and I'll be more than happy to help. Please leave a review if you liked my class and do follow me on Skillshare to get updates on my new classes. This is the first class in the series, how to take a creative approach to patterns. In the upcoming classes, we will learn the in-depth process of creating beautiful patterns in Illustrator, Photoshop and Procreate. either using one software at a time or combining them. Once again, thank you so much for joining me. You can follow me on Instagram at geetanjali.b Hope to see you in my next class as well. Till then, happy creating.