Streamers Pattern Design
Streamers Pattern Design
This design is a development of my sketches for plants found on another planet – more coming soon!
Twisting Shapes
What I had originally intended as revolving plant stems has evolved into twisting streamers. My work often seems to be this way, the original sketch morphs into a new idea for a pattern.
Building the Pattern
Starting with one vertical stripe I twisted it into three distinct rotations. This became the pattern repeat for the first streamer. Building on the idea I created three different shapes and sizes to make the complete pattern repeat.
Adding Pattern Fills
Each of the Streamers has a different pattern fill. which gives texture to the design. I created each of the pattern fills from simple shapes: a row of blobs, rough zig zags and scribbles. Once I have the right scale for each one their colours can be altered using Illustrator’s Recolour Artwork feature.
Flipping Streamers
I wanted to avoid an obvious pattern repeat so each of the four streamers is either flipped left to right, or flipped top to bottom, or both, or not flipped at all.
Avoiding Rivers
Although I could control how each of the streamers were repeated, it was far more difficult to work through each ones’ positioning to avoid rivers (similar shapes or colours appearing in a line).
Creating Variations
I found that there were two streamers that led the direction in the colour of each variation. One was the main colour focus, the other was an accent colour to give the design a zest.
Testing The Pattern Repeat
These full-screen versions use actual pattern repeats, set to repeat and scaled using my CSS style sheet. This is the ideal way to test if a pattern repeat works.
Buying My Designs
Products featuring my pattern designs are available to buy from my shops hosted by Spoonflower and Contrado. As well as fabrics by the metre, they can produce my designs in a range of home decor items including; tablecloths, bedding, cushions, wallpaper, cushions and wrapping paper / gift wrap.
