Stars Pattern Design by Colin Walton at WaltonCreative

Stars Pattern Design

Flattened Stellated Pyramids, sides are coloured yellow

Splash showing star shape (orange) and flaps (blue)

Origins Of Stars Pattern

The Stars pattern is a development of my design called Splash. This time I have coloured the central element differently to emphasise the star shape in the middle. This has created a much more delicate pattern, oddly reminiscent of gingham checked fabric – especially the red version.

From Splash to Stripy Stars…

Design A – Splash – had gigantic shapes, far too large to use.
Design B – Splash – is the simplest version with all the shapes white with a 50% opacity shadow. All the colouring is achieved by altering the colour of the background
Design C – Splash – explores altering the colour of the splash element, using a solid white drop shadow.
Design D – Stars – takes the splash shape apart. The flaps that would have been glued to the pyramid’s sides are all white. The central pentagon is darkened to 35% white and the sides of the pyramid sides are a lighter 50% white. Again all the colouring is achieved by altering the colour of the background.
Design E – Stars – simplifies the design, making the elements look more as if they have been folded back, by darkening the flaps – giving a more 3D effect.
Design F – Stripy Stars – The stripes are vertical.
Design G – Stripy Stars – The stripes are horizontal

Colour Combinations

There are now 40 colours in my swatch library. For designs D and E all the colour comes from the background. Varying the opacity percentage of the star shape and the flaps has created the variations shown here.

Coding Design Variations

To be able to go back to Illustrator and recreate all the images it is important to code them in a way that can be reproduced. Here my designs are from designs B to E. The first number relates to the colour of the splash itself, then the second number is the colour code of the background. So for instance D 31 means Design D, with the splash is bright cyan. Rolling your mouse over the image should display its code. Pages are designed to display less variations on smaller screens.

Placing The Pattern In A Location

To give context I combined a selection of finished designs with a straight-on shot of the chair used in my design for mid century modern chairs. Adding a fake carpet and simple skirting board. For every image I altered the colour of the real chair to complement the surface patterns. For each design I also created a simple version that was just the pattern, to show how the design could be used for fabric, lampshades, and other surfaces.

Creating This Page

With so many colour combinations it would be impractical to show all of them. Here I have chosen a selection of combinations that I feel are interesting. Smaller screen sizes are designed to display less colour examples.

Design Variations

See other variations in this family of patterns: Splash, Stars, Stripy Stars.

The Future

The pattern would be great for wallpaper but also fun for gift-wrapping and fabric too. I would love this design to have another life taken up by a manufacturer. Please contact me if you would like a high resolution file or to talk about how we could work together.