Textile Design
What the exam tests
Textile Design tests your ability to create and repeat motifs for fabric, apply colour theory and understand how production limits affect a design. Expect questions on repeats, layout, colour schemes and suitability for end use.
Core rules and concepts
- Design elements include line, shape, colour, texture and space; principles include balance, rhythm, proportion, emphasis and unity.
- Repeats include straight, half-drop, brick, mirror and tossed. A repeat cell must include the motif and the spacing around it, or the layout will drift.
- Colour has hue, value and saturation. Complementary schemes use opposite hues for contrast; analogous schemes use neighbouring hues for harmony; monochromatic schemes use one hue in different values.
- Directional motifs, large repeats and border designs need special layout checks. Fabric width, selvedge and the printing method determine how many repeats fit.
Worked example
A 6 cm wide by 8 cm high motif is placed in a straight repeat with a 1 cm gap on all sides. The repeat cell is 8 cm wide by 10 cm high. On 114 cm usable fabric width, 14 motifs fit across because 114 ÷ 8 = 14 with 2 cm left over. If the design were half-drop, the second row would shift 4 cm sideways and the vertical repeat would be 20 cm, so the boundary must be checked. The reasoning is that the gap is part of the repeat, and the leftover width must be allowed for at the selvedge.
Traps that cost marks
Forgetting gaps in the repeat, confusing half-drop with brick, judging colour only on screen, and ignoring directional motifs are frequent errors.