Twirl Pattern Design
The Original Idea
I have been thinking of a way to create a pattern using gestural strokes. Using acrylic paint I created a series of different brush patterns. More by luck than calculation the ones I liked the most were circular where the brush had been lifted off the paper at the end to leave a trail.
Which Ones To Choose?
Needing at least six designs to repeat and create the pattern, I found only five I liked. So my favourite one is duplicated to create the six. I scanned the five designs and cleaned them up in Photoshop.
Working On The Scans in Illustrator
Using the scans I needed to convert them into individual illustrations. Auto-tracing each of them in Illustrator restricting each to five colours. I then tidied up the paths to make them cleaner and removing the smaller paths.
Converting To Colours to Opacity
Each of the five auto-traced illustrations generated slightly different colours. Meaning it was necessary to convert each of the five unrelated colours to different opacities of the same colour. I could then alter each set of images by simply changing the main colour. Meaning that all the other shades would alter too.
Combining The Twirls
Using a simple grid I tried various combinations of until the pattern worked smoothly. This turned out to be far too boring so I shifted alternate lines along to stagger the twirls. Using Illustrator I experimented with different combinations of twirl and background colours, exporting my favourites.
Creating This Web Page
The large full-screen slideshow at the top of this page appears to be one single image, but is actually only the pattern repeat. Your computer then duplicates this to fill to the screen.
The Future
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.
