Textile designers usually create patterns for fabric or other soft woven surfaces. People often mistake fashion designers who design clothing or apparel with those interior designers who design rooms and spaces by styling products, picking paint colours and bringing life within a room.
Some designers specialise in an end product when they design fabric or textiles. Hence, you could choose to create designs for kids’ or women’s fashion. If you are into textile designing, getting Adobe Photoshop training, The Print School would be a huge advantage. You could find various courses related to Photoshop and textile designing from The Print School. Click here to see more about the courses offered.
Many textile designers have a degree in textile design but some others might be well-qualified in graphic design or surface designing. However, With the increase of online courses day after day, you do not necessarily need a degree of four years by opting for student loans. You could easily find many courses in textile designing and gain Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop training from The Print School. To see more, click on the link provided: https://www.theprintschool.com/
Have a look at some of the tips that can get you started if you plan to become a textile designer.
Learn the Basics of Fabric Design
Being a textile designer doesn’t mean that you create nice patterns and add them to the fabric. You should also be aware of how to create designs in the first place. It means learning to understand client briefs and working with other creatives like design teams. You would be required to have basic drawing skills and skills in using Illustrator and Photoshop. You would also be required to know textures, composition, patterns, genre and other elements of textile design like learning the characteristics of different fibres like cotton, wool, nylon and different types of polyester. Good textile designers could be excellent researchers and collect examples of interesting designs. You could compile a scrapbook with cool fabrics, unusual patterns or even eye-catching lettering which could be a great method to gain inspiration. You will also have to research trends online and also at Brick and Mortar stores.
Learn how Textiles Work
You will have to know or learn how the textiles would work. All textile designers do not have a degree in textile design. However, they have a background in something like art or surface design. This would provide a solid foundation for applying what they know about colour, composition and style to textiles. A textile designer should know how textiles should be shown so that it attracts the eyes of the customers. The weight and flammability of the textile affect the final product. You will also have to experiment to learn how fabrics hold colour after dying. This embellishment could be a great way to add an extra level to the design. Textile designers experiment with various techniques like digital printing, transfer printing, screen printing marbling, batik, weaving, block printing and so on. They would affect how a pattern would appear on the finished fabric. Knowing which technique suits and which result helps would be ideal if you are briefing a client about the work.
Knowing what you should not do is essential but it means that you could mock-up sample textiles into products to see how they work in three dimensions. Creating a client presentation is also essential so that you could communicate through illustrations, sketches or verbal means. Textile designers should also know the different characteristics of cotton, wool, nylon, polyester, viscose silk, jute, olefin, P.E.T and so on.
Create a Portfolio
Employers look for strong portfolios that could be beneficial. They look for it from the designers they plan to hire. You will have to show your competency in the industry you would be applying to work in as well as the original design ideas. Once you have a job in the industry, you will have to add designs to help win contracts. Most designers have both physical and digital portfolios. You would require at least 20 designs for a physical portfolio and 30 for a digital one. You could add notes to explain the context for each design and show your creative process. Employers would love to see how your brain works through a creative issue and arrives at a beautiful solution. You could explain the techniques you have used and why. Have different pages available wherever possible so that you could tailor the portfolio depending on who needs to see it. Develop a form of personal branding to tie up the portfolio together. This would help the viewers to see yours as separate from the others they are looking at. It could also help highlight your specific skills or background. You could use personal branding across social media, websites, business cards or other materials.
