How to choose graphics for printing on fabrics?
The right seamless pattern design for textile and fashion stores is essential. In addition to basic factors such as fabric quality and the unique form of the product, it is the graphic design element that ultimately determines the choice of a product in your brand, not at your competition. Before you decide to buy patterns for fabrics, make sure you remember about all the important aspects affecting the final print result.
Printing techniques on fabrics and the final effect
The graphic design should not only reflect the current trends, but also must meet the technical requirements of the printing type you use in your company. Depending on the scale of your production and the type of fabric you use - you can choose different methods of applying graphics to fabrics, clothing, paper, ceramics and many other surfaces. The most popular methods of printing on fabrics are digital printing, screen printing and sublimation. If your offer includes cotton textiles that you create in small quantities, digital printing is certainly your choice, large companies most often choose flat and rotary screen printing, and for brands offering for example polyester accessories, sublimation printing will be the best solution.
Once you have found the perfect print shop for your type of business and defined all the necessary technical requirements, it's time to plan your samples creation. Many textile companies starting their business by placing their first orders rely solely on the sampler sent by the manufacturer. The most important fabric swatches, however, are those where your artwork has already been included. The composition, grammage and behavior of the fabric during washing become incomplete information if you do not include the visual factor in this analysis. The final print effect may differ significantly depending on the type of graphics applied. Patterns for fabrics can emphasize its qualities, but also improperly selected can emphasize the weak points of the product. For example, digital printing on cotton does not always retain dark pigments for a long time, which is why fabric or bedding manufacturers often give up dark backgrounds in graphics and choose light patterns that emphasize the natural beauty of cotton, leaving a lot of unprinted spaces between the elements. The weight of the fabric may also positively or negatively interact with your print, but these factors do not mean that you have to give up dark colors or a specific type of fabric, just remember to verify this factor before placing an order at the printing house. In the Mona Tomassi graphic pattern design studio, along with the exclusive order of graphics, you also get the opportunity to consult any doubts arising from the appropriate adaptation of the pattern design to printing on fabric.
Also remember that the very process of creating a clothing form or a product intended for home corresponds closely with the graphics placed on it. Take into account the color of the finish, decorative accessories, the location of the graphic pattern, as well as its scale. The colors of the accompanying fabric should be consistent with the colors of the graphics, and its style should harmonize with the aesthetics of the entire product. This means that, for example, a dress for a girl with a vintage frill will be an ideal base for placing a pattern with romantic roses on it. However, if your target group has a more modern taste, then the combination of a delicate floral pattern with a simple, expressive form will be an interesting proposition. When thinking about the needs of the final recipient, also take into account the final placement of the product, will your graphics match the delicate children's beauty, will it be easy to combine a patterned dress from your collection with other items of clothing, will the selected design match the current trends of children's rooms? Often one product cannot answer all these needs, but it is worth having them in mind when choosing your graphic design.
A brief comparison of textile prints
It is not immediately easy to make such precise graphic decisions, certainly the more products you create and learn about customer feedback, the faster the decision-making process will run. Before you can be sure that the chosen direction is perfect for your target group, let's take a closer look at the distinguishing features of patterns for fabrics.
As part of the express classification, graphic prints can be divided into bitmap and vector prints. Both types of graphics can be created directly in a graphics program or previously painted by hand and then transferred to a computer program. However, if you want the unique effect of your hand-painted designs, you will definitely need bitmap graphics. Therefore, look for a seamless pattern built of illustrated elements and arranged, for example, in Adobe Photoshop. The files that you need to prepare for printing should have the TIFF extension, they are the most frequently required type of file from the textile printing house and at the same time the most universal, i.e. where there is the possibility of printing in other formats, TIFF will also be one of them. If you are interested in making some changes to the pattern, such as rearranging the composition or the colors of the elements - write to me to create your personalized version of the pattern.
Color adjustment for printing on fabric
From the perspective of a seller of textile products, the most important differences between bitmap and vector graphics are: aesthetic issues, speed of execution and ease of applying the design to a given type of printout. Computer embroidery, laser engraving or embossing will always require the use of vector graphics, created in Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw. Conversely, if you use digital printing, you can include any pattern design method in your action plan. In this case, the decisive factors will be: current textile trends and the taste of your customers. In the case of traditional printing techniques, on the other hand, I am often convinced that we have no choice but to use vector graphics. Flat or rotary screen printing requires precise separation of all colors in the seamless pattern in order to then be able to properly apply them to the fabric through the printing screen. However, this is not complete information. In fact, it is possible to adapt hand-painted illustrations to the screen printing, but the separation of colors in this case requires the specialized knowledge of the designer of prints on fabrics. Hand painting patterns in such a situation will also require the appropriate use of manual technique. So if you need to adapt such a pattern to screen printing, please mark it at the beginning of our cooperation so that I can properly implement your idea.
Fabric design always combines the aspects of graphic design with technical printing challenges, so it is worth remembering about this relationship when choosing prints for clothing or fabric patterns for your brand. The most important thing, however, is to find your dream project that will distinguish your product and strengthen sales in your store. Technical data is not everything, of course, your taste and intuition play an equally important role in this process of searching for beautiful and subtle designs that will charm your customers and bring a harmonious aura to the area of everyday objects.