Tag Archives: surface design

New Fabric Designs for Mother’s Day

We’re launching a new range of prints at Digital Fabrics! It’s been a little while since we brought you our last set of designs and this time we took a different approach to bringing you new prints. Rather than focus on one cohesive collection, we’ve had three artists create three different prints for you just in time for Mother’s Day!

The collection of prints range from flirty to psychedelic to sophisticated, and feature both hand-painted illustration and digital manipulation. With three very different styles represented, we’re sure there’s something for everyone.

If you’re needing fresh ideas on what to spoil mum with this Mother’s Day, we’ve got you covered and have put together a few DIY ideas that we just know you’ll both love. A custom made gift speaks volumes, and is guaranteed to be a winner with mum this year!

Got accessories in mind for a mum who always looks fabulous? How about making a gorgeous and versatile scarf? For something bold or bright you might want to use either our Roxy or Dilly fabrics. If you were thinking of something a little more sheer we would recommend our super soft Chiffon.

If you think home-wares might be better suited, how about a tablecloth? Our Cotton Linen is an absolute dream for a decadent feeling table setting and our Waratah and Panama fabrics are excellent polyester options for durability. You could also make napkins to match! And we can’t forget the ever perfect gift of a stunning, custom-made cushion! It could be the perfect opportunity to try out our new Organic Cotton Canvas that we’re very excited to introduce! Of course our Cotton Linen, Waratah and Panama fabrics are also perfect for cushion covers too.

So whatever your, or your mum’s style, there’ something here to get you started on any handmade Mother’s Day gifts you might have been thinking about. Let us know how we can help you realise your next DIY textile project!

These prints are now available for purchase in our Design Library!

Textile Collection Babushka

Exciting news from us at Digital Fabrics, we have launched a new textile collection! This time we dove head first into a private collection of vintage European textiles and found just the inspiration we needed! The Boho-Chic trend is one that pops up time and time again, and it’s for good reason. We just can’t get enough of bohemian patchwork, colours and textures, and have designed a range of prints heavily inspired by collected embroidery treasures.

Whilst the boho design aesthetic is undoubtedly fabulous, the statement style can be a little overwhelming for some. We wanted to create timeless re-imaginings that pared-back the heavily embellished designs typical of bohemian textiles, resulting in versatile and accessible designs.

Elements of vintage textiles were scanned, redrawn and redesigned to create the Babushka collection. Finding the balance between streamlined design and textured details was key in maintaining the essence of folk embroidered pieces whilst still giving them a more contemporary feel, and negative space became as important a feature to focus on as the motifs and designs themselves.

The collection features both flirty, feminine motifs and minimal, geometric design elements, whilst using bold contrasting colours to maintain a crisp aesthetic throughout the range. The range revamps vintage embroidered textiles, resulting in elegant, graphic designs that can be used for so much more than the blouses and table-wear that we so often associate with the bohemian style. We cannot wait to see what you create with these prints!

The Babushka Collection is available for purchase in our Design Library!

Simple Repeat Pattern Tutorial For Beginners

It would be safe to say that most of us are creative, we might love to doodle, paint, and create collages. Whilst these are all wonderful and inventive practices, what if you wanted to start developing these crafts into textile designs but didn’t have the digital design software skills to get your file prepared for fabric printing. What we would say is “learn it’! Learn digital textile design in small bites. Start slowly, from converting your art into a digital format and getting to know basic Photoshop tools. Everything new can be overwhelming, but if you take one step at a time and slowly build your confidence, you will get the hang of it in no time. Below are some simple steps that will help you prepare your art for digital seamless repeat printing.

DIGITIZING – CONVERTING YOUR ART INTO A DIGITAL FORMAT

Start with an artwork painted onto a flat, one colour background that surrounds the artwork. For this tutorial we used a simple white plain background for the purpose of being easy, but any colour is fine.

To convert your artwork into a digital format you need to scan or photograph the artwork. Scanning at a resolution of 300 dpi is preferred. However, if you don’t have a scanner, photograph your artwork laid out flat, indoors with plenty of light (natural day light if best), holding the camera directly above the artwork, making sure there are no shadows of any kind interfering with the artwork.

CLEANING – DELETING UNWANTED ELEMENTS FROM AN ARTWORK

Open your artwork in Photoshop by selecting MAIN MENU > FILE > OPEN > CHOOSE YOUR ARTWORK FILE.

Using MARQUEE TOOL select the object or image that you want to repeat.

Now let’s bring the artwork or image that you want to repeat into a new document so you can start playing with it. While MARQUEE TOOL selection is active, (this will appear as ants running around the selected area) go to MAIN MENU > EDIT > COPY to copy selected area and FILE > NEW to open new document. NOTE: Photoshop is a very smart software. The area that you have selected will now determine the file size of the new document being opened. Click OK.

Whilst in the newly opened document select MAIN MENU > EDIT> PASTE to bring your selected artwork into the new document. It should paste by default in the middle of the new document fitting artwork well within the new document space. Nothing should be cropped out or hidden from view.

Now to clean your artwork. If your white background is slightly messy or the texture of the paper is visible, you will need to clean this up, since whatever you see on the screen will be printed onto fabric. To quickly ‘deep-etch’ or in other words ‘clean-up’, select the layer that you just brought in. Then select the MAGIC WAND TOOL. Change the tolerance to low (we selected a tolerance measure of ‘4’ but you might need to adjust this number as it is based on your artwork). Tolerance is the rate at which the same or similar colours are selected when using the MAGIC WAND TOOL. The higher the tolerance the more of that colour will be found and therefore selected within the artwork.

Make sure the CONTIGUOUS box is ticked, this will ensure that only space around your artwork is being selected, and not that which is inside or a part of the drawn objects. Now once everything is prepared for selection click on the white background to select it. You can see on the image below that only the white background area is selected. While it is selected hit the DELETE button on your keyboard. This will remove the white selected background.

As you can see there is a little bit of another flower peaking through on the left side. Lets clean this up by using the simple ERASER TOOL. You can adjust the size of the eraser as needed at the top left of the screen. You can make the background layer invisible (this will then appear as little white and grey squares as seen below) to check that you have cleaned up all of the image. Simply zoom in to check the edges of your artwork and any potential unwanted marks left behind.

ADJUSTING COLOURS

The image is now clean, but colour wise the artwork is not strong enough. To brighten and intensify the colours of the image select MAIN MENU > IMAGE > AUTO CONTRAST.

You are almost done! To flatten your image select MAIN MENU > LAYER > FLATTEN IMAGE. All layers have now merged into one. Save the image as a JPG high quality file MAIN MENU > FILE > SAVE AS > SAVE.

Now you are done and ready to upload your file to print on to a fabric of your choice!

REPEATING A PATTERN USING OUR FABRIC UPLOADER

Open the Fabric Uploader page.

Drag & Drop your image or click on the SELECT button to upload your ready to print artwork. Once your file is uploaded, you’ll be able to see it in the fabric preview window. You can scale your artwork up or down, simply by typing in and adjusting the artwork to the size you want. Keep an eye on the DPI! This is the resolution and quality of your file. If your artwork is low resolution and is scaled up, the print result can be blurry.

Next step is to choose your Repeat type. This is the fun part! Play around with the different options and see how the variations impact your artwork in the preview window. Compare how the different options distribute your artwork across the width and the length of the fabric. Pick the one that suits your design idea best!

FULL DROP REPEAT

MIRROR REPEAT

Choose how many meters you wish to print simply by typing it into the quantity box and then select the fabric you want to print on. Remember that each fabric stock has a different width so be sure to check that the fabric you choose meets your needs.

P.S. This tutorial is designed to be very basic. If you are still struggling to prepare your artwork files, we recommend you attend one of the workshops on offer at our Digital Textile Design School to help you nail those Photoshop basics!

Textile Collection Stripped Back

Stripes are an absolutely timeless design staple! But with them always being in style it’s easy to sometimes forget just how fabulous and versatile they are. Here at Digital Fabrics we wanted to shine the spotlight on stripes again, and have created a gorgeous range of prints that re-imagines classic stripe designs – introducing our Stripped Back Collection.

Our most recently designed textile collections drew focus to luscious textures and the organic nature of hand drawn motifs. What better way to keep things interesting than to launch a series of designs that celebrates crisp lines, formal shapes and a timeless aesthetic. It was crucial to adopt interesting considerations of both colour and form since we were working in the continuous design space of ‘stripes’. Not only did the designs need to feel fresh, it was also essential to create a diverse collection to avoid designing prints that were too similar to each other.

Variation in band width was key in generating a distinct range of textiles. This allowed us to develop wide, colour-blocked styles as well as contemporary revivals of the pinstripe. Colour was also a major element when it came to designing striking stripe prints. The collection re-imagines neutrals, using soft blush pinks in the same way that you would typically use brown and cream colours. The range pairs these neutrals with dreamy sorbet inspired hues, bold mustards and deep navy accents.

The collection features prints which are both minimal and edgy, with some designs undeniably inspired by the rich history of stripe patterns in print design. These designs would be fabulous in both the home and the wardrobe, and we can’t wait to see what you do with them!

The Stripped Back Collection is available for purchase in our Design Library!

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 9

Snippets’. Chats with Creatives. Here at Digital Fabrics we love everything print, pattern and colour and we love to know what makes designers tick. This series is all about asking some fun and different questions and learning about the inspirations and ideas behind the artist and their work. We hope to inspire others by sharing snippets of these creative stories. We gave the artists and designers featured a varied list of questions to choose from so we will learn something new from everyone involved, should be fun!

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Sara Johnson, the artist behind ‘Travelling Alice’ a printmaker based in Sydney who designs and prints her own fabric before making it into unique accessories.

The Snippety Snips:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

Travelling Alice is a range of hand printed travel accessories, made in my Sydney Studio.

I studied Fine Arts just out of High School as I just wanted to Draw, while there I learnt Printing (wow ) I could turn my drawings into prints.

At nineteen I got the opportunity to volunteer in India for three months, and this is where my love of fabrics and Crafts came from and of course my travelling obsession began, seeing all these amazing artist, crafts people. Traveling Alice Started from a need to make light weight and colourful travel accessories for myself and friends. I am such an organised traveller I like to pack things so they are easy to find but of course they have to look good as well.

Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

Drawing drawing and drawing. My Mum is a sign writer so I have always been around pencils, pens and brushes my whole life so it feels as natural as eating. By the way I have the worst hand writing, so I did not get this talent.

How would you describe your work, and what influences your style?

I design fabric that I can sew into accessories. Travel definitely influences my style and my life. I became obsessed with it when I first travelled to India when I was 19. This was also where my love of Fabrics and pattern came from, you get exposed to colour and patterns, it’s a feast for the eyes.

If you could have your portrait painted by any artist dead or alive, who would you choose?

Louise Bourgeois, that would be amazing and fun, she was known for her Sculptures but I love her printmaking. Louise Bourgeois was also known for her dry humour so we could have a laugh at the same time.

Love your Locals:

City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

Sydney South

Favourite spot for a bite:

I am a Coffee lover so food is a second thought so my favourite place to get coffee is White Horse Coffee in Sutherland

Secret Inspirational spot:

To be honest I find inspiration anywhere and anytime of the day or night. I have numerous note books so I can quickly write the inspiration down.

You can follow what Sara is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook

Check your artwork repeats seamlessly with Offset Filter in Photoshop.

Open your file in Photoshop. Main menu > File > Open
Check size of your image. Main menu > Image > Image size. Take note of the pixel dimension (PX) at the full resolution size.

Change the resolution to half of its value and take note of the changed pixel dimension. Keep these numbers handy as you will need them to offset your artwork. Don’t click OK at this stage, as you don’t want to change the resolution size, you only need the pixel information.

Once you have pixel dimensions noted you can offset and check your file for seamless repeat. Go to Main menu > Filter > Other > Offset. In the open box enter that half pixel values that you have noted down. Select option Wrap Around and tick the Preview option, so you can preview what is happening to your artwork. The side edges of the artwork will now be visible in the middle and the middle will become the sides. In other words the artworks sides got folded into the middle.

If your artwork in not in seamless repeat, you will see it in the middle of your artwork, through vertically and horizontally missed joins and miss matched lines. In some artwork this will not be obvious and you will need to zoom right in to the joining pixels to spot the issue.

When your artwork repeats seamlessly, there is no miss matched lines and elements of the artwork flows seamlessly.

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If you are at the beginning of your textile and surface design journey you might want to consider our workshops and classes on offer or continue learning more online through our available tutorials.

Textile Collection Tropicana

We are right in the middle of a gorgeous Sydney Summer, and for most of us have gone back to work after a (hopefully) relaxing festive break. What better way to feel like we’re still on holidays than with the launch of a new range of summery prints- our Tropicana range. Time to take a very grown up trip to the tropics!

All of the designs began by taking inspiration from tropical flora and carefully hand painting a series of detailed Banana Palms and Monstera leaves. At Digital Fabrics we love all things textural, and by using one of our favourite mediums, watercolours, we were able to create really luscious leaf motifs to start creating textile designs from.

We wanted to rework classic tropical designs to create elegant and accessible prints. To achieve this we determined each design as a large scale print to celebrate the gorgeous watercolour aesthetic. We then primarily used a colour palette of contrasting neutrals with muted colours such as blush pink and sage to ensure the designs as timeless.

We see these designs being suitable for both interiors and fashion and just looking at these new prints has us dreaming about fabulous statement curtains or retro swimsuit designs. We’d love to hear about the kind of project you envision these designs for!

The Tropicana Collection is available for purchase in our Design Library!

Snippets: Chats With Creatives – Series 1, Snippet 8

Today on Snippet’s we are talking to Anna Hayman, a UK based print designer who creates fabrics, wallpaper and other homewares from original lino printing and ink drawings. Her work is influenced by the art and craft era as well as the sixties and seventies which is clear in her current work.

The Snippety Snips:

Tell us a bit about yourself and what your creative practice is, how and when you began:

I am a British print designer specialising in printed lampshades, wallpapers, fabrics and cushions. I create my designs from linoprints and ink paintings. I began trading in February 2016

Which part of the creative process is your favourite and why?

My favourite part is transforming artwork – in my case a Lino print or an ink painting – into a pattern. Pattern is my utter obsession so creating repeat designs from artwork is a really exciting point for me, often there are literally endless possibilities of how it can be repeated, mirrored or formed, and seeing that take shape is completely thrilling. That comes just before the worst part, getting the pattern to repeat, which can take forever and is truly boring! Luckily I’m a bit of a geek 🙂

How would you describe your work, and what influences your style? I would describe my work as half hippy, half traditionalist, intricate, relaxed and colourful. I’m influenced by old English styles, I visit a lot of old places, and 1920’s places, but also love Bohemian 70’s style. Creatives I’m influenced by are Celia Birtwell, Biba, The Bloomsbury Group, Olaf Hajek, Aubrey Beardsley and many more.

In another life what natural talent would you wish for?

Writing! I have been reading a lot about the lives of writers recently and I must say it does seem an appealing occupation. I’ve always told myself I am terrible at writing, especially copy, but really I just haven’t had the space to explore it. I would love to take a summer learning how to construct a book, for instance.

Which other Australian designers, artists or creative people are you enjoying at the moment?

Estelle Briedis, for her exacting palettes of colour, Nine Lives Bazaar for their beautiful brand building skills and photography, and Instagram legend @labohemehouseofthewishingtrees for her inspiring and abundant use of brights with white, and layering of textures.

If you could only use one colour in your work what would it be?

Hard question! But I’m crushing hard on jade at the moment, a sort of greenish turquoise, a colour which can be hot and cool, and quenching somehow. I’d find it hard to live without orange though, deep vibrant orange, warm and fresh at the same time.

If you could have your portrait painted by any artist dead or alive, who would you choose?

Lucian Freud, not just because I love his work (I love flat looking paintings with a lot of detail) but because I feel I have the right sort of face for his portraiture.

Which five words best describe you?

English, rebellious, clever, arty, fun.

Love your Locals:

City/Town/Village where you currently reside:

Ringmer in Sussex, England.

Favourite spot for a bite:

Any good seafood restaurant, or sushi place.

Secret Inspirational spot:

Charleston farmhouse, the Bloomsbury group country house hotspot of the 1920’s, which is 15 minutes from where I live.

You can follow what Anna is upto: Website, Instagram, Facebook

Textile Collection Memphis Summer

Here at Digital Fabrics we have a very exciting textile collection to launch just before the end of the year, with a really fun range of fabric prints to get you through Summer. The designs are inspired by dynamic and quirky Memphis design surface patterns and uses contrasting colours, shapes and textures to create playful designs that can be used together or on their own.

All of the print designs started out on paper! By using different mark making processes with a variety of materials such as markers, paints, pens and sponges, graphic shapes and surfaces began to emerge. These were then dissected and collaged together to create interesting designs with lots of energy.

Colour is such a key component of this collection and it was really important to get them right. We combined very on trend pastel shades, with timeless neutrals, and whites to contrast with bold blacks and splashes of electric warm colours.

The Memphis Summer Collection is perfect to get those creative juices flowing over the next few months! Whether it’s making something in time for an event over the festive season or it’s because you’ve finally some free time to work on a DIY project, Digital Fabrics can help out with your fabric printing needs. We see these designs working for both interiors and fashion, with statement cushions and fabulous Summer dresses being the first things that come to mind!

The Memphis Summer Collection is available for purchase in our Design Library!

Textile Collection Artful Simplicity

We’re very excited here at Digital Fabrics to be dropping another range of yummy prints! This time we’re inspired by bold earthy colours and organic forms, bringing to you a collection of hand painted, textural abstract designs.

Our Sunset Gum design is a small scale abstract print with bold contrasting colours. Who doesn’t love a splash of red?

Our Blush Pebble design is a medium scale graphic print. We just can’t get enough of pink!

Our Ochre Scatter design is a small scale print with a fabulous burnt vermilion colourway, able to liven up any space or outfit!

Our Clay design is a medium scale print with bold geometric shapes and a deep warm colour palette.

The Artful Simplicity collection is available for purchase in our Design Library. We can’t wait to see what you do with them!

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